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Seagate or Western Digital?
- Thread starter jamnau
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JJMacks
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I have had good luck with Seagate, IBM and Hitachi drives and not good luck Western Digital. None of which were 1TB. I have a 1TB external Toshiba drive I would not recommend the Toshiba dive it tens to go to sleep and has a hard time wakening up.
I get messages from windows stating delayed write failed on the drive alway seems to be a file I know nothing about like $f something. Given your choice I get the Seagate ...
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JJMack
I get messages from windows stating delayed write failed on the drive alway seems to be a file I know nothing about like $f something. Given your choice I get the Seagate ...
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JJMack
Tom C11968
Veteran Member
I guess I have been lucky because I have bought nothing but WD's for the past 15 years or so with no problems, internal and external.
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Tom
When my bones turn to dust,
and if my CD's didn't rust,
future generations will see my photos
and think that I was nuts.
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Tom
When my bones turn to dust,
and if my CD's didn't rust,
future generations will see my photos
and think that I was nuts.
F
f8BeThereToo
Guest
I have had good luck with WD while the one Seagate that I own is quite noisy.
Unfortunately, the last high-end WD that I ordered around a month ago was DOA. I returned it and bought a Samsung for around $70.
From what I gathered perusing this issue on the Web Samsung and Hitachi are ahead of Seagate and WD when it comes to reliability, but some people have reported poor warranty service from Hitachi.
Whatever brand you get be sure to have at least two copies of your data since all drives fail, sooner or later...
Unfortunately, the last high-end WD that I ordered around a month ago was DOA. I returned it and bought a Samsung for around $70.
From what I gathered perusing this issue on the Web Samsung and Hitachi are ahead of Seagate and WD when it comes to reliability, but some people have reported poor warranty service from Hitachi.
Whatever brand you get be sure to have at least two copies of your data since all drives fail, sooner or later...
M
malch
Guest
I used to be a big fan of the WD MyBook drives. A few months ago I ordered a 1TB MyBook and was shocked to discover it was a lot slower than my other MyBook drives (250 and 500GB). WD told me it was the price to be paid for their new "enhanced" firmware. They also told me it's a lottery as to whether you actually get a 5400 or 7200 rpm drive inside.
Well, that sucked, so I RMA'ed the thing and bought a LaCie d2 Quadra. Somewhat more expensive but definitely a better quality product.
As another poster mentioned make sure you have multiple copies of anything important - hard drives are mechanical devices and will eventually fail.
My personal stats from the past decade:
Seagate - 1 failure out of 10 drives (drive failed after 5 years heavy use).
Samsung - 1 failure out of 7 drives (failed after 2 months).
Western Digital - 2 failed out of 3 drives (one after 2 weeks, one a month later).
It also took me almost 4 months to get the failed WD drives replaced under warranty - their service and support is amongst the worst I have encountered in 30+ years working in IT.
Regards,
Phil.
--
http://www.pbase.com/phil_a_mitchell
My personal stats from the past decade:
Seagate - 1 failure out of 10 drives (drive failed after 5 years heavy use).
Samsung - 1 failure out of 7 drives (failed after 2 months).
Western Digital - 2 failed out of 3 drives (one after 2 weeks, one a month later).
It also took me almost 4 months to get the failed WD drives replaced under warranty - their service and support is amongst the worst I have encountered in 30+ years working in IT.
Regards,
Phil.
--
http://www.pbase.com/phil_a_mitchell
nguyen2574
New member
I bought a 1 TB Seagate only to have it failed on me after 3 months (and hours of backup ). I did a google search on 1tb seagate and unfortunately this new drive has had a SIGNIFICANT number of failures. Seagate offered me to replace it under warranty, but I forfeited it because I would rather not deal again with a drive that has a high number of failure. $100 is not that important when you deal with lots of data like photos.
Perhaps the other seagate drives are ok, but avoid the 1TB.
Perhaps the other seagate drives are ok, but avoid the 1TB.
Great information. Thanks for your replies. I have been using 2 Maxtor external drives (not portable) for a long time now and never had any trouble at all. Unfortunately, Maxtor was bought out by Seagate. I always keep 2 copies of my data files.
I am looking for a portable external drive powered by the computer so that it will automatically turn on and off with the computer. I want to move all my iTunes music onto this new drive (currently 80 GB) so that I can free up space on my C: dirive. I will continue to listen to my music on the computer in iTunes from this new drive.
Any other suggestions?
I am looking for a portable external drive powered by the computer so that it will automatically turn on and off with the computer. I want to move all my iTunes music onto this new drive (currently 80 GB) so that I can free up space on my C: dirive. I will continue to listen to my music on the computer in iTunes from this new drive.
Any other suggestions?
I've owned drives from Maxtor, Seagate, WD, Samsung, and MiniScribe. I've had failures from all but the Samsungs, and I've owned more of them than the others. None have been external. Maxtor (which was acquired by Seagate) were the least reliable.
andrewD2
Veteran Member
Consider an enterprise class drives as one of your backups and get a well ventilated enclosure to put it in.
e.g.
Seagate - Standard drive:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-SGATE-ST31000528AS-SATA
Seagate - Enterprise class:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-Seagate-ST31000340NS-Barracuda-ES2-SATA-300-7200-rpm-32MB-Cache-95-ms
Hitachi and WD also do enterprise class drives.
Andrew
e.g.
Seagate - Standard drive:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-SGATE-ST31000528AS-SATA
Seagate - Enterprise class:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-Seagate-ST31000340NS-Barracuda-ES2-SATA-300-7200-rpm-32MB-Cache-95-ms
Hitachi and WD also do enterprise class drives.
Andrew
Conrad Birdie
Veteran Member
I have three, one external desktop (Seagate) and two portable (Western Digital and one SanDisk) and none of them have created any problems. I do like the portability of the portable units though compared to the Desktop hard drives.
Conrad 'Bye Bye' Birdie
'Aspire to inspire before you expire'.
--
Conrad 'Bye Bye' Birdie
'Aspire to inspire before you expire'.
Toermalijn
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Ehmmm, every desktop hdd can be build into a mobile rack or portable unit...
Conrad Birdie
Veteran Member
sure they can, as can INTERNAL hard drives with the proper conversion kit, but I like the convenience of the smaller unit that I can carry in my laptop travel case. Kind of hard to carry my Seagate in that case.
--
Conrad 'Bye Bye' Birdie
'Aspire to inspire before you expire'.
Bimthecat
Veteran Member
Enterprise Class Hard Drives
Enterprise Class is a term coined by IBM. It refers to the best class of Hard Drives.
Enterprise Class Hard Drives typically means a 32 MEG buffer and a 5 year warrantee, hence a rating of 1.2 million hours before failure.
All servers use ONLY Enterprise Class Drives.
All manufacturers claim to make a Enterprise Class line of drives, but beware.
Hitachi owns most all the most recent HD Patents.
IBM only uses Hitachi Enterprise Class Drives in it’s products.
Seagate, State of the Art 10 years ago, has cut costs and it shows: a recent rash of failures.
With respect to multi-hard drive RAIDS...the controller circuitry fails at ten times the rate of the drive itself. But both are stunningly reliable.
(by design) The HD patter/disc is itself the flat-est thing modern man has ever manufactured (at a reasonable cost). The clearance between the read/write head and the platter is the equivalent of a Boeing 747 taxiing 1/32nd of an inch off the runway...
Yikes, it better be flat.
Macsales dot com will place Enterprise Class Hard Drives in their enclosures
at a reasonable cost.
Enterprise Class is a term coined by IBM. It refers to the best class of Hard Drives.
Enterprise Class Hard Drives typically means a 32 MEG buffer and a 5 year warrantee, hence a rating of 1.2 million hours before failure.
All servers use ONLY Enterprise Class Drives.
All manufacturers claim to make a Enterprise Class line of drives, but beware.
Hitachi owns most all the most recent HD Patents.
IBM only uses Hitachi Enterprise Class Drives in it’s products.
Seagate, State of the Art 10 years ago, has cut costs and it shows: a recent rash of failures.
With respect to multi-hard drive RAIDS...the controller circuitry fails at ten times the rate of the drive itself. But both are stunningly reliable.
(by design) The HD patter/disc is itself the flat-est thing modern man has ever manufactured (at a reasonable cost). The clearance between the read/write head and the platter is the equivalent of a Boeing 747 taxiing 1/32nd of an inch off the runway...
Yikes, it better be flat.
Macsales dot com will place Enterprise Class Hard Drives in their enclosures
at a reasonable cost.
Deleted1929
Forum Pro
No.
So called Enterprise class drives are more expensive, and one philosophy on servers is to build them with cheaper components in redundant arrays that allow hot-swapping and fail safe use.
Using some types of RAID configurations you can increase performance and reliability without buying the most expensive drives.
You would choose the hardware configuration for a server based on it's specific function, and certainly not treat all servers the same.
I'd suggest anyone interested in these issues look at articles on e.g. http://www.tomshardware.com
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StephenG
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Toermalijn
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You mean an external 2,5 inch drive enclosure?
Conrad Birdie
Veteran Member
Yes. When my old HP laptop's power board died, I took out the internal hard drive and installed it into one of these. Very cheap and now works like an external hard drive through the USB ports.
http://www.amazon.com/Macally-PHR-250A-2-5-Inch-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B0000B3ALC
--
Conrad 'Bye Bye' Birdie
'Aspire to inspire before you expire'.
Toermalijn
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Looks nice. But usb is pretty slow in comparison to external serial ata or usb 3.
Think esata is fastest at the moment.
M
malch
Guest
But USB2 almost always works.
eSATA can be a bit hit and miss. The interoperability between different motherboards/controllers and different devices is something of a crap shoot.
When it works, eSATA is great. But, far too often, it just doesn't work at all depending on a combination of variables.
Osvaldo Cristo
Veteran Member
It is a surprise for me, Phill.
I bought my 1 TB drive when I was in USA some years ago and after two years of continous working it stopped. It looked dead. I call Technical Support in USA and they sent me a RMA to a support center in Brazil, the country I live.
In less than one week I got the drive back at no cost - it was a great surprise to me, as it is not common this kind of real worldwide warranty, mainly to countries like Brazil where the taxes for imported spare parts are simply ridiculous.
Certainly I will strongly consider WD in all my future purchases.
Regards,
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O.Cristo - An Amateur Photographer
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