Which is The Most Reliable Hard Drive Brand?

[4Ryan6]

The very existence of this thread is just goes to prove how little understanding people know about HDD reliability. In short, they all fail eventually.
Faulty batch drives are rare and they fail before their warranty period expires, totally unpredictable.

It is this nature that requires important data on any mechanical HDD to be backed up.

Affirmative!

 

[PCKing]

I own two hard drives, one from Western Digital, while he other is from Maxtor. I can say both have great quality but I like Maxtor more since I really didn't face any problems while using it.

 

[srinidhi27]

I would suggest never to buy a SATA SEAGATE hdd. I bought one and had it replaced 4 times in a year everytime losing all the data i had and over that faced same trouble.

 

[bbneo]

I own two hard drives, one from Western Digital, while he other is from Maxtor. I can say both have great quality but I like Maxtor more since I really didn't face any problems while using it.

What problems did you have with the Western Digital? What capacity (size) was it?

 

[izepyck]

Seagate for me, hands down no question the best drive(s) I’ve had. I've returned all manufactures drives for RMA but the #1 returned drive I've dealt with is a WD. That might just be because there are more out there, IDK. I still have a 200MB Seagate HDD that works, why I keep it, not sure. So yes all drives will fail in the end but Seagate has rock solid longevity from what I've seen.

 

[feci1024]

Hi,

I had my share of problems with hard drives,

I've started with a 1.6 gb seagate, which died completely for no apparent reason after a few weeks. It got replaced with a 2.1 gb seagate, which worked for at least 3-4 years, but it started developing bad sectors, so I've replaced it with a 40 Gb WD (this was around 8 years ago), the WD is still working, but I wouldn't trust to actually use it for any kind of data.
Shortly after that I got me a 60 gb maxtor, which again started to fail after 1.5 years, it was a problem with the PCB, I believe the power cable wasn't making contact all the time, because some wire got interrupted. It got very noisy and hot, but I've kept using it, making backups on DVD's almost on a daily basis.
Two years ago I bought a 200 gb seagate, which is still functional, but it developed bad sectors, and once you have a few of those, other will come and it's usually a bad idea to keep on using them.
Around a year ago I bought a NAS with a samsung 1 TB drive in it, which is still working, although you can imagine that I use it mostly for backup purposes, so the drive doesn't see to much action.
Almost at the same time I also bought 2 seagate 1 TB drives (9 months ago), unfortunately from the faulty Barracuda 7200.11 series, which have the firmware SD15, which has some problem that makes the drive fail after around 8 month of usage. I already lost one of them, the second one is faultless, at least according to the SMART error log. I'm planning on buying 3 more 1 TB drives, probably from Seagate, Barracudas .12 and I will be on the look-out for possible problems via the forums.

I also assembled a few dozen computers for friends and colleagues, but most of them are still happy with their hard drives. Only some maxtors have failed until know.

I believe that getting a good hard drive depends on luck, but not entirely. There are surely manufacturers who are better in what they do, and having 3,5 years of warranty is also a good sign that they trust their drives.
It also depends on what you do with your hard drives, because you can't expect the same lifetime from a drive 24/7 used in a file server compared to the drive from my mothers computer, which she uses only to play Zuma one time a week.

 

[poptart911]

Drive reliability doesn't go so much by brand. Look at each individual model, and look at reviews to get an idea of the failure rate. Also, look at how long that particular model has been produced. Bad models don't get manufactured for a very long time.

 

[Guest]

I have 6 Seagates SATA II 7200.11 with 500GB within my server (as RAID)
extra fans are installed to take away thermal risk...
But I face regulare HDD crashes since the beginning.

Every 2months a harddisk crashes - so I had 4 times already taken the RMA process from my HW supplier (which works fine without problem) but I wonder what will happen after the first year is over and warranty is over from my local reseller...
I am afraid to take direkt contact with Seagate which might take much longer and is more cost intensive (transport...)

I already think about exchanging all disks step by step with WD or HITACHI which I used before and they are still up and running since 5 years...

cheers up

 

[chibiwings]

I have same problem can't decide which hard drive to buy. Any opinion on the said brands since i've read before that different drives has different Spindles on their Drives. All i know is the fujitsu is the most realiable because it has a dual spindle for it's platter and this information is couple of years ago.i wonder if the other brands adapted the same style.

 

[jslipman]

That’s not so easy to answer. It heavily relies on personal experience. If I absolutely had to cast a vote I would personally go with Seagate.

I never had to return a single Seagate drive in all the time I’ve been using them. Right now I have a 6 year-old Seagate on a machine of mine that has been working strong and fine since I’ve first bought it. And it’s always been the primary drive of that system running about 12 hours a day nearly every day of the week.

On grounds of reliability I‘ve been presented with no reasons to look anywhere else… So far...

But that’s just me, and I admit that it might have a lot to do with luck.

I just lost precious data on a 250GB Toshiba portable drive. I am debating between Sea Gate and WD. I have heard some bad things about Sea Gate including higher prices and bad customer service. You had a good experience so i need to know how big is your sea gate drive and do you have Vista??

 

[blackhawk1928]

None of these cheap hard drives from western digital and all that stuff is truly reliable. You want realy quality and reliabilty get a Fiber Channel Hard Drive...its a completley different dimension of hard drives, busniss grade and much higher quality.

 

[cjl]

None of these cheap hard drives from western digital and all that stuff is truly reliable. You want realy quality and reliabilty get a Fiber Channel Hard Drive...its a completley different dimension of hard drives, busniss grade and much higher quality.

Not necessarily. You can get high end SATA hard drives designed for enterprise use - Seagate's Constellation drives and WD's RE drives are examples of these.

 

[mowsala]

Seagates have never given me anything but trouble, I would recomend either Western Digital or Maxtor- which I have never had any problems with.

 

[Nihil_67]

As the Maxtor fanatic (the last one I had was made 2003 have some mechanical problems) in those days they were the top after the crash I became Seagate fanatic.Every person asked me for advice during these 6 years answer was no doubt Segate Baraccuda.But after this colaps started end of 2008 what indicates Maxtorintegration and their technology 7200.11 after 8 months just died.My fault is i didn't see affected models,even didn't know something is going wrong with seagate and I should know something is happening because warranty for OEM Seagate allways was 5 years but 3years last was only 3y of warranty..So I lost all my data 750GB,the store gave my money back but 30 Euros less because price dropt in market.
Now I am planing to buy WD black edition with 5y waranty what is quit OK as insurence of good qualityt.
Farewell Maxtor and Seagate,NEVER AGAIN!

 

[cjl]

Nihil:

Seagate's 7200.11 fiasco was unrelated to maxtor or any maxtor technology. It had to do with a major code change that had been started well before maxtor was purchased. In addition, I recently bought some new hard drives. Specifically, 2 2TB Barracuda LPs and a 7200.12 1TB. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of them have the 5 year warranty again (rather than the 3 year that they had for a while).

 

[greenfield]

Western digital HDD all the way, There is nothing Better then Western
I bought so many HDD from Western digital And none of them has any problem

 

[Nihil_67]

Nihil:

Seagate's 7200.11 fiasco was unrelated to maxtor or any maxtor technology. It had to do with a major code change that had been started well before maxtor was purchased. In addition, I recently bought some new hard drives. Specifically, 2 2TB Barracuda LPs and a 7200.12 1TB. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of them have the 5 year warranty again (rather than the 3 year that they had for a while).

Well you don't know that nighter do I but what I kno is that 2005 Seagate announced its acquisition of Maxtor.What they use of Maxtor technology or else I know that Maxtor
"With Maxtor being under financial pressure over the past couple of years due to a string of quarterly losses and manufacturing problems which resulted in having to shut down production for a short interval earlier this year, it was only a matter of time before it was snapped up by one of its competitors. It happened today, as hard drive manufacturer Seagate has agreed to purchase its rival Maxtor for US$1.9 billion."
I can see the same destiny of seagate. (don't forget I was a Seagate fanatic).
The sellers stop naming seagate "seagate but now they call it Maxtor and do not recommend this HDD manufacturer because they have so many reclamation they just aware of seagate going down.
So I am not only disappointed but angry because I have 4 Seagate HDD so i have to buy one more for backup and that is a lot of backup because the frustration makes me not believe so should I make more HDD and make a few backups?
And other thing that makes me angry,in time of problems officials site os Seagate was very quiet,and trying to avoid that something wrong was a huge wrong and giving some insane links for firmware and another but you they think all the world is the master of the hardware and software? This is pathetic!

 

[cjl]

I know it with reasonable certainty (it comes from a friend of mine who works at Seagate). Believe me, I wouldn't have trusted a 7200.11 for anything, but the .12s are doing quite nicely.

 

[Nihil_67]

I know it with reasonable certainty (it comes from a friend of mine who works at Seagate). Believe me, I wouldn't have trusted a 7200.11 for anything, but the .12s are doing quite nicely.

We shall see.The last one I both 5 months ago 1 TB 7200.12. like mad surfin to find if this model affected.I didn't find but the thing is as the one I returned 11. generation this 12. also have some bug like wont up the OS.Listing everithing and than black screen.The same thing was with the last affected one.Othervise when I up OS from 160 GB Baracuda 9. it is cool so God help me this new one is ok other wise I'll go every site and spit to seagate.You can iagine how anrgy I am.And above the al the data is not included in recover warranty.It like have a girlfriend you 100% sure and after long time she betrays yu uhhhh
I hope they wikk return the old reputation with the OEM 5 years warranty but lost trust is hard to get back

 

[Nihil_67]

Western digital HDD all the way, There is nothing Better then Western
I bought so many HDD from Western digital And none of them has any problem

And what edition is the best by your opinion, Black,green,blue?

 

[cjl]

Well, I have a 1TB WD Black and it's been great.

 

[Nihil_67]

Yes,that's my choice too.And can you tell me if you are in Europe and if you know the price of HDD SATA2 7200 1TB WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS, 32MB? I am just curious to compare prices. By your comp. config. I see you prefer the top harware

 

[EmJade]

Notice that hard drive failures go in flurys? The most reliable backup harddrive is one that is not accessible, especially by the internet, or even your own computer. I realized this when I notice my harddrive (external) being acivated on its own and my printer permanently hijacked every time I installed it. It should be a closed system and a seperate mini program which can be instantly reformatted to preserve its integrity on a seperate utility. Not too many people want to go to that trouble, but that should ensure the reliability of your backup records. After 2 years of re-installing my Toshiba os each month, along with every problem thinkable, this is what I believe. Oh, yes, security programs were not of any help. I found my computer being pinged from China, and my well respected firewall subsequently disolve in front of my eyes, even as I chatted with a supposed tech. Very enlightening. Thank you

 

[Pailin]

I have been a Seagate fan a while, having as many as 7 HDD's in my system at one time.

I always rotate older drivers into archiving usage by 2 years of age...

But only tentatively still mention Seagate... Just!

As last year had 3 drives fail on me >_<
All the 7,200 300GB varieties.

Only just got my vote still, else am starting to lean towards WD

 

[RedOnRed]

After 18 years of having home PC's and 12 being in IT I've had countless Maxtors die on me, numerous Seagates, lots of Samsungs - with two out of three Samsungs that I had die on me at home, but I have never had any problems with Western Digital.

With Western Digital I don't think that can just be called luck.