I had 4 HD crashes in 2 years. All of them are 80 Gig ATA 7200 rpm, two are Seagate and two are WD. Always virus protected. I have no idea what’s wrong. I have another 6.4 Gig WD 5400 rpm that works with no failure for 10 years. So is this because bigger drives rotating faster? Heating more? Any special measures to be taken to keep them safe? Then what about these new drives with hundreds of Gigs? Please guys share your experience with the HD reliability. How to pick a reliable one and keep it up and running for long? Thanks.
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HD reliability 4
- Thread starter nagornyi
- Start date
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- #2
I think the general consensus is - its a lottery! Apart from the odd bad 'run' from a manufacturer (I can think of Maxtor and Fujitsu suffering this in the past), drives can last from 0 minutes to approaching infinity (or 11 years!)
No doubt people here have their favourites and may disagree with me - but that's my experience. BACKUP is the operative word.
No doubt people here have their favourites and may disagree with me - but that's my experience. BACKUP is the operative word.
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I agree whole heartedly with wolluf.
There's no way to tell when a drive will fail. However if you are having this many failures, you can check a couple things to make sure its the drives that are failing and not something else causing problem.
Are the drives actually crashing? As in they no longer work, make strange sounds or just don't turn on at all?
Or are the just suffering data corruption, but a format ets them back up?
Do they have adequate air flow, so they aren't extremely hot when operating?
Are they being shaken of moved?
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
There's no way to tell when a drive will fail. However if you are having this many failures, you can check a couple things to make sure its the drives that are failing and not something else causing problem.
Are the drives actually crashing? As in they no longer work, make strange sounds or just don't turn on at all?
Or are the just suffering data corruption, but a format ets them back up?
Do they have adequate air flow, so they aren't extremely hot when operating?
Are they being shaken of moved?
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
- Thread starter
- #4
2 of them were data corruption, 2 were mechanical crash, with clinking sound when trying to read.
Yes, I am a bit concerned with heating. HDs are always pretty warm. But so id my WD HDD which is OK for 10 years. And I saw they sell special HD cooler, but should we always use them?
And again, as I need to get the new one anywat, what is believed now to be good reliable brand/model? Please advice. Thnnks.
Yes, I am a bit concerned with heating. HDs are always pretty warm. But so id my WD HDD which is OK for 10 years. And I saw they sell special HD cooler, but should we always use them?
And again, as I need to get the new one anywat, what is believed now to be good reliable brand/model? Please advice. Thnnks.
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Check this out:
Your personal findings tend to agree with the study![[smile]](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif "[smile] [smile]")
Tony
"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me
Your personal findings tend to agree with the study
Tony
"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me
The data corruption can be due to many things, least of which is the drive itself. So you could rule those out.
As for the other 2, that were mechanical failures, those could be manufacturing faults. Ir could also be a power problem.
I started having problems with a desktop I built, where my secondary drives could not be recognized, or would have data corruption.
Turned out to be a power issue, where the PSU wasn't capable of powering everything in the case. It eventually caused my video card to burn out. I though at first the drives were bad, i wet through 3 of them all Seagates. Turns out they were all fine, when plugged in another computer, but would not come up in the original one.
Make sure the drives are getting enough power, and that the PSU isn't spiking.
Also regular backups to non mechanical media, such as CD's or DVD's is also strongly advised.
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
As for the other 2, that were mechanical failures, those could be manufacturing faults. Ir could also be a power problem.
I started having problems with a desktop I built, where my secondary drives could not be recognized, or would have data corruption.
Turned out to be a power issue, where the PSU wasn't capable of powering everything in the case. It eventually caused my video card to burn out. I though at first the drives were bad, i wet through 3 of them all Seagates. Turns out they were all fine, when plugged in another computer, but would not come up in the original one.
Make sure the drives are getting enough power, and that the PSU isn't spiking.
Also regular backups to non mechanical media, such as CD's or DVD's is also strongly advised.
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
- Thread starter
- #7
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1
- #8
If reliabilty is you main priority look for enterprise editions that have extended warranty periods (5 years) they are marginally more expensive but are designed to last
See:
Martin
We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
See:
Martin
We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
I pretty much concur with the above comments.
Didn't see anyone mention the use of a good UPS.
We have a lot of power events in our area so a UPS is almost mandatory, but I think it is cheap insurance in all cases.
For a moderately priced UPS for a typical desktop I have been happy with the new Belkin's. I am using quite a few of the F6C550-AVR models. These have Automatic Voltage Regulation as the model number implies.
As for brands. Am currently using Seagate's and have been happy with them. Had some bad Samsungs a couple years ago and switched to Seagate (with 5 year warranty).
Didn't see anyone mention the use of a good UPS.
We have a lot of power events in our area so a UPS is almost mandatory, but I think it is cheap insurance in all cases.
For a moderately priced UPS for a typical desktop I have been happy with the new Belkin's. I am using quite a few of the F6C550-AVR models. These have Automatic Voltage Regulation as the model number implies.
As for brands. Am currently using Seagate's and have been happy with them. Had some bad Samsungs a couple years ago and switched to Seagate (with 5 year warranty).
MavenGroup
MIS
I think everyone is on the right track here. Here are my two cents:
1. UPS w/ AVR. Need it - gotta have it. I like CyberPower.
2. If you PC is a consumer PC (Office Depot, Best Buy, etc.) and you have added more components to it (HDD, add-in cards, etc.) you probably need a newer, more powerful power supply. Consumber PC's are built with the bare minimum to save manufacturing costs.
3. Cooling. Add a case cooler (see #2). Make sure you have your cables routed cleanly inside the case to ensure air flow.
4. Clean. Case regularly dusted/cleaned depending on environment.
5. Vibration. Newer drives spin faster, etc. Is the sub of your speaker system sitting next to the case on the floor, etc. Are you kicking the cast all the time?
6. Cabling. Just for fun - switch our your IDE cables. Could be a transmission issue. This is a low cost item.
Hope this helps.
Happy New Year.
John
1. UPS w/ AVR. Need it - gotta have it. I like CyberPower.
2. If you PC is a consumer PC (Office Depot, Best Buy, etc.) and you have added more components to it (HDD, add-in cards, etc.) you probably need a newer, more powerful power supply. Consumber PC's are built with the bare minimum to save manufacturing costs.
3. Cooling. Add a case cooler (see #2). Make sure you have your cables routed cleanly inside the case to ensure air flow.
4. Clean. Case regularly dusted/cleaned depending on environment.
5. Vibration. Newer drives spin faster, etc. Is the sub of your speaker system sitting next to the case on the floor, etc. Are you kicking the cast all the time?
6. Cabling. Just for fun - switch our your IDE cables. Could be a transmission issue. This is a low cost item.
Hope this helps.
Happy New Year.
John
I like Seagates at the moment. Their 5 year warranty is really great. I used to be a Maxtor fan but changed over to Seagate about 3 month ago. The reason was that I had a major main bord blow up which took four of my 15 Sata drives out. They are all arranged in three raid 5 areas. One of the drives was a Maxtor the others were Seagate. The drives were about 4 years old and bought in Thailand. I did send them to the Australian Seagate office and within 6 days I received new drives from Singapore by courier. Well this type of warranty can not be faulted. Nothing was heard from Maxtor. So in future Seagate is for me.
Best regards
Jurgen
Best regards
Jurgen
CapitalData
MIS
You will never hear anything from Maxtor anymore, because Seagate simply purchased Maxtor almost 2 years ago. 
Yes, at this moment, Seagate drives seem to be the best, however we started seeing many of them come in with all kinds of failures - boards, mechanical issues, etc.
You can't just say that I hate Maxtor because 4 of 15 blew up. Western Digital blow up, Maxtors do, Seagates do too. They all do.
Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.
Yes, at this moment, Seagate drives seem to be the best, however we started seeing many of them come in with all kinds of failures - boards, mechanical issues, etc.
You can't just say that I hate Maxtor because 4 of 15 blew up. Western Digital blow up, Maxtors do, Seagates do too. They all do.
Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.
I agree, all drives fail! they are mechanical and therefore one of the more unreliable bits of hardware that make up a computer system.
Point is, all drives will eventually wear out and fail but some makes and in some cases lines of products seem to have less percentage failures (say in the first 2 years) than others.
As far as the Seagate/Maxtor debate goes....as soon as Seagate bought out Maxtor, mainstream Maxtor drives were re-classified and rebranded as being the mainstream offering against Seagates banner of high end quality.
In Seagates hands, it would seem from our own experiences of buying large quantities of drives, that Maxtors OEM bulk reliability has taken a bit of a dive.
Looking at finnish and packaging of recent Maxtors does tell a story that Seagate have changed manufacturing processors to reflect their budget status.
My opinion but I'm sure others in retail on this site have also noticed these changes.
So
Still like Seagates, WD's don't seem to bad, I like Samsungs but YES they ALL fail.
Martin
We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
Point is, all drives will eventually wear out and fail but some makes and in some cases lines of products seem to have less percentage failures (say in the first 2 years) than others.
As far as the Seagate/Maxtor debate goes....as soon as Seagate bought out Maxtor, mainstream Maxtor drives were re-classified and rebranded as being the mainstream offering against Seagates banner of high end quality.
In Seagates hands, it would seem from our own experiences of buying large quantities of drives, that Maxtors OEM bulk reliability has taken a bit of a dive.
Looking at finnish and packaging of recent Maxtors does tell a story that Seagate have changed manufacturing processors to reflect their budget status.
My opinion but I'm sure others in retail on this site have also noticed these changes.
So
Still like Seagates, WD's don't seem to bad, I like Samsungs but YES they ALL fail.
Martin
We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
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