Western Digital 8mb cache Hard Drives Reliability

[LancerEvolution7]

*I want to make it clear that I am not supporting or not supporting any particular brand of hard drive*

I've been surfing in THG's forums for the last few months and almost everytime I see a post asking for a recommended hard drive, the preferred choice is the 8mb versions of the wd drives. I do believe that they are the fastest ide drives on the market right now, but what about reliability? I see people not recommending IBM 120gxp hard drives because of IBM's bad history with the 60gxp and the 75gxp, even though they are one of the fastest drives on the market. And Maxtor is usually not mentioned even though they probably got the best reliability rate during the recent years. WD drives have had a pretty bad history. You can check out the interent and find that some of the more recent wd drives have reliability issues. My friend bought a wd(don't know what model) last year and it broke this year. So I'm just wondering, are people just recommending this drive because of its speed and the catchy 8mb cache without considering the reliability of it?

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[HammerBot]

Actually if you look a this <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=24799#24799" target="_new">poll</A> there has been reported significantly more failed Maxtors than WDs.

I usually also recommends WD Caviar special edition. I got two myself. But the drive really isnt that old yet. I think its too soon to tell whether this drive may have some flaws. But so far I havent heard of any crashed WD800JB.

<i><b>"I don't understand what it is! Let me kill it!" -- Worf</b></i>
<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6062#6062" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[Crashman]

NOT A SCIENTIFIC POLL, if 90% of the DRIVES OWNED by people in that poll were Maxtors, and 90% of the failures were Maxtors, the Maxtor would be average.

Anyway, most of my failed drives are Western Digital, and since I've owned several hundred of each, I am overqualified to make a judgement against WD. The only reason I recommend them is for the 3 year warranty.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Unfortunately very true and sad.
Im glad i got my maxtor D740X earlier this year while it was still protected by a 3 year warantee, as is my replacement 60gxp.

<b>Cogposto tomsa, ergo sum - <i>Descartes</i>
</b>Translation:<b> I post at Toms Hardware, Therefor I am. </b>

 

[bgates]

I'm kind of leary about getting another WD, mine just went out this morning after less then a year of use. Actually, this is the first time its happened to me.

I replaced it with one of the latest Maxtor's. Maybe I'll go back to WD later in the future if they decide to increase the cache past 8 megs.

 

[HammerBot]

What WD type was that?

<i><b>"I don't understand what it is! Let me kill it!" -- Worf</b></i>
<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6062#6062" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[LancerEvolution7]

The poll, as crash said, is not accurate. When they took the poll they didn't set how it should be conducted. If out of 100 people, 50 had maxtors, 10 had wd, 20 had ibms and the rest is misc, then obviously there is going to be a higher failure rate among maxtors. You have to look at the number of people that acutally voted.

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