Most reliable, high capacity drive?

[Viper187]

I'm looking for a good 500GB or better drive to RAID5/RAID6. All I'm reading lately is poor HDD reviews. I heard the Seagate firmware issues have been resolved, but I don't know what to think. I really wanted to go for those 1.5TB drives. I'll be using Promise TX4 cards and linux softraid, if it matters.

 

[Homeboy2]

all i can tell you is my seagate 1.5 is the best drive i have ever had. Seagate website says my version is not affected. 2 weeks so far so good. I got mine at dell on sale for 82 bucks so i could afford to take a chance.

 

[bluzman32]

I would look at the WD 640gb drives at newegg. Very low failure rate from what i've read.

I'm not sure about seagate since all of there 1tb drives started failing. I personally wouldn't touch the 1.5 tb drives until I see results after a good six months of its release. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Homeboy2]

I would buy the 7200.12's stay away from the 7200.11's

 

[Incorporat3d]

I am running 14x WD10EACS in different arrays, mostly on RR2340, Haven't had any problems so far....

 

[MRFS]

WD RE3


MRFS

 

[MRFS]

FWIW: we've had a lot of success with Western Digital,
but the precautions we have taken might have resulted
in the same overall results with other HDDs.

Here's what we do:

(1) all HDDs are installed in drive cages with dedicated fans
e.g. we love the Antec Hard Drive Cooler;

(2) all systems are powered by APC UPS battery backup units;

(3) we try to avoid tasks that cause armature "thrashing"
e.g. GHOST images of C: are written to a secondary spindle;

(4) we run the DiskFixer task in SystemSuite 7 quite often;

(5) we defragment C: about once every 3 months;

(6) we have RAID 0 arrays on every workstation, for speed;

(7) all internal cabling conforms to specifications;

(8) all power supplies are high-quality;

(9) we build with ASUS motherboards exclusively;

(10) we build with Corsair DDR and DDR2 RAM exclusively;

(11) we keep XP/Pro up-to-date with Windows Updates; and,

(12) we update and run Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition often.


We have no scientific evidence of which factor has been the most important.

See the extensive Report published by Google, for more scientific data
e.g. cooling HDDs too much (and too little) appears to cause higher failure rates.

Your mileage will vary.


MRFS

 

[Incorporat3d]

FWIW: we've had a lot of success with Western Digital,
but the precautions we have taken might have resulted
in the same overall results with other HDDs.

Here's what we do:

(1) all HDDs are installed in drive cages with dedicated fans
e.g. we love the Antec Hard Drive Cooler;

(2) all systems are powered by APC UPS battery backup units;

(3) we try to avoid tasks that cause armature "thrashing"
e.g. GHOST images of C: are written to a secondary spindle;

(4) we run the DiskFixer task in SystemSuite 7 quite often;

(5) we defragment C: about once every 3 months;

(6) we have RAID 0 arrays on every workstation, for speed;

(7) all internal cabling conforms to specifications;

(8) all power supplies are high-quality;

(9) we build with ASUS motherboards exclusively;

(10) we build with Corsair DDR and DDR2 RAM exclusively;

(11) we keep XP/Pro up-to-date with Windows Updates; and,

(12) we update and run Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition often.


We have no scientific evidence of which factor has been the most important.

See the extensive Report published by Google, for more scientific data
e.g. cooling HDDs too much (and too little) appears to cause higher failure rates.

Your mileage will vary.


MRFS

1. I Hate Antec, My Last RAID failure was because of Antec. Coolermaster do the same thing, you need even air flow, not lots of it.

2. I have never had a problem provided my PC is protected via APC UPS, 2x Belkin Surgecubes and a Critec Surgeguard on the ADSL Modem.

4. I never have, but my RR2340 Raid Card does live monitoring of S.M.A.R.T. Every Hour.

5. Havnt done that since 98SE, but is a good idea.

8. I use Silverstone Industrial Power Supply's, these will give full output power even at 50 degree temps.
I have chosen the DA model for storage as it has a single 12V rail so you don't have to load your supply evenly.

9. ASUS is the first choice, gigabyte and another good board as well as long as you don't go for a too advanced board.
Every MSI product i have ever had/worked with has been nothing but trouble, unsure if they have imporved.

10. I always use good generic and never had problems, Most RAM issues are due to power supply. (Or Overclock)

11. I always keep this one or two steps behind, good to see someone is still there as a guinea pig.

12. I never use ad-aware programs, they are just as sus as the programs the "propose" they are removing. I see this software as pointless.
If you do find spyware, consider reinstall as even the program wont be able to find all of it.....

Also, your ambient temp for a PC should never be more than 30 degrees, under 26 is adviseable.

 

[tweaker3]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drives-_-Western+Digital-_-22136319