What's your most reliable hard disk recommendation? 3

[zbnet]

I've been building PCs for a few years now (part-time 'hobby business') and have been using Maxtor disks for most of this time, with excellent reliability. I like Maxtor because they are a good compromise between price and quality, and they have good diag utilities and bios-replacement utilities for big drives.

Until recently, when more than usual have started developing problems. I've had enough hassle to maybe consider changing my default choice - has anyone else noticed an increase failure rates of Maxtor drives? What are your recommendations for a new default drive - preferably one with the same characteristics, ie medium price (not the cheapest and not the most expensive), but with good quality and longevity?

 

[paparazi]

I must admit to having a softspot for the Seagate Barracuda range, we just don't get anywhere near as many RMA's as the other big three (WD's, Maxtors and Hitachi) and the new Barracuda 7200.7 range is near as damm it, silent!
I have to include another range of drives, that until recently have always been considered on the fringes and not quite up there with the big boys.
Samsungs new Spinpoint range offer an irresistable combination of capacity/performance and reliability and an incredible low price.
After 6months of selling the new range I can also report a lower than average returns rate (better than Maxtor)
See the excellent write up on Toms.

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20031219/4midclass_hds-12.html

Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[x508]

I'd say get yarself a fishy....Nothing like spending a good day with a 7200 RPM, Seagate Barracuda...

Love mine more every day

*****************************************
May the Code Be With You...
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x50-8 (X Fifty Eigt)

 

[zbnet]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys, I'll probably switch to using Barracudas for a bit and see how they perform (although the Spinpoint range is worth checking out as well, I think).

 

[swayda]

I've been using Samsungs for five years now. I've never experienced a failure or problem.

Don Swayser
swayser@optonline.net

 

[rmiley]

I have to agree with the two recommendations above...Seagate is the way to go.

As a side note, I prefer to stay away from Western Digital...nothing but junk drives in my opinion.

 

[garebo]

I have noticed the same thing with maxtor drives. And i have also noticed a lot of people going to the seagate fish and the samsung spinpoint, good prices too.
I recently bought a samsung spinpoint and i am gradually moving over to these 2 as well.

 

[garebo]

oh ya, i find western digital ok except that when you add another hard drive you have to change the jumper setting on the western dig all the time, same thing when you take a hard drive off, again you have to change the jumper, unless you have it set to cable select.

 

[rclarke250]

I have noticed an increase in maxtor drive failures,And an increase in seagate 40gb drives, 60,120 GB seem better,at least no failures yet on mine. Also the newer WD drives I have purchased are solid. A few years ago I puchased 3 8.4GB samsung drives,all 3 were returned within 6 months. tried again 2 years ago with 2 40 gb drives. 1 lost a bearing and is no good. I just have not had good luck with the samsung drives. Stay away from fujitsu drives. I only use Hitachi/IBM drives for laptops. Have 2 60GB IBM drives 1 failed twice in less then a year. too high of a failure for me. On the 10 systems at my home I have 8 WD and 2 Seagates. most of the WD drives are replacements for dead maxtor drives. At this time they have all been very solid,but time will tell. This is just what I've seen. Others have had different experiances.

 

[garebo]

there seems to be a commonality about the maxtor drives though, which is too bad, maxtor used to be my favorite, and really i still like them but i also read what people write and maxtor is slipping a bit. Of course we also have to realize that maxtor sells a LOT more drives than samsung and seagate prolly put together so you have to consider that as well.
Also, like above, you hear bad tales about samsung, and also western digital too, so its hard to say really.
Fujitsu is another, up to about 5 yrs ago Fujitsu prolly had about the best name around, now, forget it, in my opinion. I know that Fujitsu recalled some drives, but they did it quietly and only with their biggest customers, not the little guys! Same with the IMB Deckstar that people call the Deathstar, i think its the 30 and 40 gig IBM Deckstar that are the bad ones, again, from what i hear, i just stay away from deckstar so i dont get burned. I didnt have one when the news started and have stayed away from them becuase of what i heard. But still there are those who defend the deckstar.

 

[ceh4702]

I have purchased a couple of western digital drives and have good luck with them. I think the preference is for the Cable Select Setting. Some newer motherboard also prefer the cable select settings if they come with the cable select cables.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[ImpetusEra]

Few years back Seagate was loud, slow, and failure prone. WD was in my opinion one of the best choices. Maxtor seemed to be good too. Guess things have changed now? I've noticed a lot of people with dead Maxtors.

 

[ImpetusEra]

Actually, I think a big factor these days is the PC cases. In most cases the HD mounts in a cage with the floppy. These smaller cases usually mean the cage supports just a floopy and 1 HD. When you look at that thing there's a paper thin gap between the HD and the floppy and the bottom of the cage. No where for the heat these 7200 RPM drives pump out to disperse.

 

[zbnet]

ImpetusEra, that's a good point about modern cases and the cooling for drives, but it's not the whole problem: the last Maxtor I had fail was in the bottom part of an aluminium Lian-Li case, with plenty of space round it and two(!) case fans directly in front of it blowing intake air over both faces of the drive. The drive failure happened just days after the warrantee expired...

 

[ImpetusEra]

Yeh, I see a common thing with the Maxtor's just up and failing. Not even detected by the BIOS.

 

[macaroo]

I have been using the WD 120-SE drives with good success. They are quiet and have been extremely reliable to date.

 

[garebo]

Well, when this thread started i pointed out that i had noticed, among people i know and reading here and there, that maxtor seems to be going downhill. Now i see the same story here as well, so it pretty well has to be true!
Too bad, but cant deny it. Seems to me the probs with maxtor started surfacing around the time they downgraded their warranty from 3 yrs to 1 yr, now we know why!!
I will be staying away from new maxtor drives and leaning toward the seagate barracuda and samsung spinpoint or the western digital.

Also, there is a new name around,ExcelStor. I went to their website and they seem to suggest they make their own hard drives and they are not re-packaged from another mfgr.
Anyone have any more info on this or anyone have a lot of experience with these drives?
thanks

 

[happydownloader]

I still use Maxtor hdd's but I always make sure that I get the 8m cache ones. These ones to come with a 3 yr warranty not like the 2m cache ones that only come with a 1 yr.
As for WD hdd's I still love them but you do pay a bit more for them. Now seagate IDE hdd's I stay away from. I had too many of them die on me. Even had one shipment of 40 hdd's and there was only 7 hdd's in the whole shipment that were good! That turned me off seagate right then and there. As for their SCSI hdd's now that's a different story. They are rock solid

 

[garebo]

keep the info coming, this is great!!!

Happydownloader, you are quite right, the 8mb cache models have the 3 yr warranty, makes it a much more trust-worthy purchase.

I have heard you can extend Seagates 1 yr warranty for another 2 yrs year for a small fee of $3.

 

[danomac]

I think everyone's experience varies greatly.

In my experience in the last 6 years, we have had 8 WD drives die, and 2 Maxtor. Although the Maxtor drives were both technically out of warranty, they were RMA'ed and replaced free of charge. Can't beat that. The replacements are fine.

We are currently trying Samsung and Seagate Barracuda - the Seagate is a *really* quiet drive.

We currently are not getting any WD drives in new machines at our choice because the failure rate we experienced.

FYI: The Maxtor drive that died was one of the 2mb 40GB slimline ones. The other was a Maxtor 2mb 120GB. I also have a Maxtor 8mb 120gb, and it's still fine.

D