Author Topic: Hard Drive Brand Debate (Read 5224 times)

theprophet · « **Reply #20 on:** February 25, 2010, 12:30:54 PM »

Ok I feel kinda stupid I don't understand what RAID is let alone the different levels of the raid is. Also what SMART functions are you talking about? Sorry I have fallen behind on computer technology I guess. I'm just used to throwing IDE drives in the computer and calling it a day.

lapa321 · « **Reply #21 on:** February 25, 2010, 12:35:56 PM »

I just walk around the mall, see what's available, and get the cheapest one.

Speed isn't too much of an issue since i keep the system files and the game files on different harddrives so i don't have all the programs crowding on a single drivehead.

Reliability isn't an issue either coz i keep my files on multiple harddrives and i go through almost a 50pack of DVD's a month backing up everything. It's only a precaution tho, i haven't had a harddrive crash on me so far. I change them when the prices of the larger capacity ones go down and sell the old one so i usually get rid of them before they run through their lifespan.

Size is not an issue. I'm not like those guys that has their anime permanently taking up drive space (When one drive is full, they buy a new one. WTF?!). I burn them as soon as there's enough to fill 10 DVD's and just look them up when i want to watch one. I actually made a tracking software in VB that tracks the contents of about 1,500 DVDs (The MDB is backed up too and stored on two different PC's. God help me if i lose that!).

All that said, i usually end up with a Seagate.

kureshii · « **Reply #22 on:** February 25, 2010, 01:03:16 PM »

Currently my preference is with WD, mainly for price and warranty reasons (they're cheaper and have 5 years warranty here, vs 3 years for Seagate.) Mainly amassing WD Greens for huge amounts of storage. Drive speed isn't an issue because they're all going into an NAS which feeds the home network at gigabit speed only, anyway.

After a couple of months with an SSD (Intel X25-M G2) I think I'm going to find it hard to go back to mechanical drives for the OS partition...

Ignore the specified boot time of 30:12 (bootchart oddly doesn't display it as 00:12 and I don't know why), the chart clearly shows it as 12 seconds. That's after POST, up to login screen, and without any boot optimisations (yet).

For those who aren't gamers and won't need 80GB of space on the system partition, the Intel X25-V, OCZ Vertex and Kingston SSDNow V+ series are decent buys for SSDs 64GB and below. Of course, they won't be rubbing shoulders with the better SSDs, but you will definitely feel the difference compared to a mechanical hard disk. And all 3 come with TRIM support, too.

theprophet · « **Reply #23 on:** February 25, 2010, 01:08:27 PM »

Quote from: kureshii on February 25, 2010, 01:03:16 PM

Currently my preference is with WD, mainly for price and warranty reasons (they're cheaper and have 5 years warranty here, vs 3 years for Seagate.) Mainly amassing WD Greens for huge amounts of storage. Drive speed isn't an issue because they're all going intoto an NAS which feeds the home network at gigabit speed only, anyway.

Actually the WD green drives on Newegg only come with a 3 year warranty I don't know why they would lower the warranty unless they don't think the product will last as long as the other drives?

kureshii · « **Reply #24 on:** February 25, 2010, 01:16:36 PM »

I have no idea either. I don't buy from Newegg since they don't ship outside of US or Canada, but I'd guess warranty periods probably vary from region to region for reasons I don't really know.

In any case, it's always safe to assume the drive will eventually fail. Plan for backups as necessary. A longer warranty period will ensure you get free replacement drives in case of early drive failure. As long as you don't get lemon after lemon, that's always a good thing.

lapa321 · « **Reply #25 on:** February 26, 2010, 08:07:51 AM »

Quote from: kureshii on February 25, 2010, 01:03:16 PM

After a couple of months with an SSD (Intel X25-M G2) I think I'm going to find it hard to go back to mechanical drives for the OS partition...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs

I'd want one too if they weren't so expensive!

sapsa · « **Reply #26 on:** February 26, 2010, 09:14:39 AM »

3 x Samsungs on board: 1 x F1 (2 years now ) and 2 (one is 1 year old, second is 1 month) x F3. All work great, they are fast and quiet

And Warranty depend on seller, Samsung got 3Years Warranty, but you can buy cheaper with 1-2 years warranty only.

My friend had alot of Seagate and he had like 3-4 hdd failure, and I dont know about current WB Green, but the previous had failers too cuz people use them us Main HDD and not storage Hdd.

Thats only IMO, ~ Peace

Xiong Chiamiov · « **Reply #27 on:** February 26, 2010, 11:19:23 AM »

Quote from: Lupin on February 25, 2010, 02:11:23 AM

I too used to purchase Seagate (never had a failed drive from them) but ever since they released those faulty firmwares for their 1 - 1.5 TB drives, I've become wart of buying their drives.

Ah, see, my largest drives so far are my 750 GB Greens, and my largest Seagates are 320s. I give them a few years to get their firmware figured out before buying things.

Spanks · « **Reply #28 on:** February 26, 2010, 11:48:47 AM »

Quote from: Xiong Chiamiov on February 26, 2010, 11:19:23 AM

Quote from: Lupin on February 25, 2010, 02:11:23 AM
I too used to purchase Seagate (never had a failed drive from them) but ever since they released those faulty firmwares for their 1 - 1.5 TB drives, I've become wart of buying their drives.
Ah, see, my largest drives so far are my 750 GB Greens, and my largest Seagates are 320s. I give them a few years to get their firmware figured out before buying things.

Yer never buy the largest sized HDD on the market, I know someone who lost 1.4tb of data cause they bought the 1.5tb hdd as soon as they came out.

kureshii · « **Reply #29 on:** February 26, 2010, 12:35:18 PM »

Seagate already had the firmware issue sorted, IIRC. This was more than half a year ago in any case. I lost a Barracuda 11 to it too, but it was replaced under warranty so it's not an issue. Three other identical drives have been running without issues for over a year, I'm still waiting for them to fail before the warranty runs out. RAID 5 <3

I just looked up the warranty card for my WD drives, it seems warranty for the first 3 years are covered by WD. The 2 subsequent years are covered by a third-party firm. If they don't follow a similar policy in other regions, then I guess their drives will only have 3-year warranties.

Also, using WD Greens as main OS drive... lol.

mgz · « **Reply #30 on:** February 26, 2010, 03:12:29 PM »

Ive got 2 seafate 320s in this pc 2 250s 1 in this comp one in another 2 500gb seragates in this and 2 640s and a WD raptor 74gig
everything but the 640s ive had for over 3 years of almost 24/7 powered computer.

vuzedome · « **Reply #31 on:** February 26, 2010, 03:18:31 PM »

Discs rotating at 12000 rpm.
A very scary thought.
SSD is the way to go, though my first one will definitely burn through my wallet.

fohfoh · « **Reply #32 on:** February 27, 2010, 08:45:38 AM »

Quote from: kureshii on February 26, 2010, 12:35:18 PM

Seagate already had the firmware issue sorted, IIRC. This was more than half a year ago in any case. I lost a Barracuda 11 to it too, but it was replaced under warranty so it's not an issue. Three other identical drives have been running without issues for over a year, I'm still waiting for them to fail before the warranty runs out. RAID 5 <3

I just looked up the warranty card for my WD drives, it seems warranty for the first 3 years are covered by WD. The 2 subsequent years are covered by a third-party firm. If they don't follow a similar policy in other regions, then I guess their drives will only have 3-year warranties.

Also, using WD Greens as main OS drive... lol.

IMO, using an overly big drive as the main OS drive... is lol. To much busy busy.

Sakubo · « **Reply #33 on:** February 27, 2010, 09:53:11 AM »

Ive used western digital and seagate drives. I have had several problems with western digital drives were they went bad right after buying them so I havent tried any recently. Atm I have 4 seagate drives in my pc but I dont really like them either. They store stuff, they arent really loud but I notice that sometimes when you try to access data from them the drive seems to hang up for a short period of time which is really annoying.

Takeshi · « **Reply #34 on:** February 27, 2010, 01:30:19 PM »

Quote from: theprophet on February 25, 2010, 01:32:33 AM

I am seeing a trend towards the WD here lol. I am just wondering. I have heard that WD is the fastest but how is their dependability and longevity?

I've dropped my 320GB WD Passport a few times from 1-1,5 metres height, and it's still working wonderfully. However, the casing makes some crack noises when I squeeze it. Not the hardware inside. Perfectly understandable though. And there's scratches all over the place. By the way, bought in 2008 something.

I have a 1TB WD Elements also, and it's been doing nothing but serve me well. It hasn't had any accidents, and I rarely have it on for longer than a few hours so I plan to have it available for years to come. Bought in 2009 something.

It was pure coincidence that I stumbled over WD. It was a Danish computer magazine who were reviewing a few hardware products. And they happened to give WD a pretty good score, and it looked very sleek and nice so I bought it, and why chance your manufacture if you're happy with the product you bought from them in the first place?

JoonasTo · « **Reply #35 on:** February 27, 2010, 01:38:03 PM »

Poor life FTW!
Still using WD 160gb from 2004. Only that. No spare for more. :'(

Still dreaming about that one day when I can actually afford to buy a PC.
Let's see, in about 6 years?

I could afford to now since I'm working but planning on going studying at the fall so...
...no PCs for me in a while. :

Micharus · « **Reply #36 on:** February 27, 2010, 02:29:56 PM »

Now for the best tip on this thread.... kidding.

Seriously though, if you aren't sure what to buy, go and see your local computer guy.

You know, the guy who actually works in the shop that he owns.

Ask him which hard drive HE would use in his own computer, then go for which ever one he would use.

By doing this, I reckon it would be a fairly safe bet that you would get a reliable piece of hardware.

Oddly, a brand I haven't seen for a while "Quantum", seemed to be really reliable for me, I had a small 30GB hard drive which just wouldn't die for some reason. I eventually retired it when I needed the space.

Xiong Chiamiov · « **Reply #37 on:** February 28, 2010, 03:13:15 AM »

Quote from: Micharus on February 27, 2010, 02:29:56 PM

Oddly, a brand I haven't seen for a while "Quantum", seemed to be really reliable for me, I had a small 30GB hard drive which just wouldn't die for some reason. I eventually retired it when I needed the space.

Apparently Quantum sold off their hdd division to Maxtor, which was then bought by Seagate.

theprophet · « **Reply #38 on:** February 28, 2010, 07:54:58 AM »

I could goto my local computer guy but I don't trust them they are always trying to sell me what makes them the most money. I think I am going to try the WD Green drives the 1.5 TB drives.

I have 4 externals that I will have backing up all the files I put on these drives.. SO that being said. Even if the drives die in the 3 years that I own them then I should get a replacement drive and just dump it back on the Hdds.

New question.. How is the WD customer service? Anyone dealt with them if they had a problem with their drives?

Micharus · « **Reply #39 on:** February 28, 2010, 12:18:13 PM »

Quote from: Xiong Chiamiov on February 28, 2010, 03:13:15 AM

Quote from: Micharus on February 27, 2010, 02:29:56 PM
Oddly, a brand I haven't seen for a while "Quantum", seemed to be really reliable for me, I had a small 30GB hard drive which just wouldn't die for some reason. I eventually retired it when I needed the space.
Apparently Quantum sold off their hdd division to Maxtor, which was then bought by Seagate.

Woo! I *still* have that old Quantum HD, I removed it and put it right into a anti-static bag, just like the one it came out of.

It's actually a 'Quantum Fireball Plus AS', which would make it one of the last of the series of drives they made, from the quick look at the wiki page.

Chances are that if I *really* needed a 'small' HD in a hurry, I could hook it up and have it work.... maybe.
It was making the dreaded 'noise', you know that undefinable sound that HD's make when they aren't happy anymore, which is why I replaced it.