Buying a new HDD, need to choose from 3

-={420}=- · Dec 5, 2003, 11:05 PM

I really need a new hard drive because I feel this Maxtor is dying and I don't want it to be too late. Don't ask how I know. Anyways, I narrowed it down to 2 drives. Here they are:

Seagate 120GB / 7200 / 8MB / 9.3 / ATA-100 EIDE Hard Drive

Western Digital 120GB / 7200 RPM / 8MB / 8.9ms / ATA-100 / EIDE Hard Drive

Basically, I would probably buy the one with the lowest seek time (WD) but what I am most interested in is reliability. That is my #1 priority. That's why I came here to see what you guys have to say as far as reliaibility goes on these 2 companies/HDDs. I was definitely turned away from Maxtor after my hard drive died as did those of many others I know. Right now the one I have is giving me many problems which I will not get into detail with. I need to get a new hard drive soon so I would appreciate your advice in helping me choose the most reliable of the two.

If your could find another good choice for around $100 then please tell me.

~~craig588~~ · Dec 5, 2003, 11:16 PM

I would go with WD. Why? They have NEVER failed me. I have had EVERY other brand have a HD die on me

Necrosis · Dec 5, 2003, 11:19 PM

Definitely not the third choice. I have my first Seagate drive & am quite impressed. It filled in for the 160 when it took a dump this past summer.

-={420}=- · Dec 5, 2003, 11:24 PM

You've had a seagate fail on you? That's pretty hard to believe. Hmm... I've never heard of WD having any reliability problems...

Actually, the Hitachi's out -- dunno why I missed this.. I have the Tigerdirect magazine and there's an easy comparison chart... Hitachi's the only one with 1 year warranty (not so much that I care) and it's not even in stock ATM. But, something's telling me it's not as reliable as the other 2 because both have 3 year warranties. That tells me those companies are confident in their product.

Seeing as WD has the lower seek time, It's currently my #1 pick.

-={420}=- · Dec 5, 2003, 11:26 PM

OK, so far...

1 vote - WD
1 vote - Seagate

Necrosis · Dec 5, 2003, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by -={420}=-
You've had a seagate fail on you? That's pretty hard to believe. Hmm... I've never heard of WD having any reliability problems...

Actually, the Hitachi's out -- dunno why I missed this.. I have the Tigerdirect magazine and there's an easy comparison chart... Hitachi's the only one with 1 year warranty (not so much that I care) and it's not even in stock ATM. But, something's telling me it's not as reliable as the other 2 because both have 3 year warranties. That tells me those companies are confident in their product.

Seeing as WD has the lower seek time, It's currently my #1 pick.

I was surprised too..but the conditions how it failed were more to blame. BTW, have you thought about going Serial ATA?

~~craig588~~ · Dec 5, 2003, 11:29 PM

I have had 2 segate drives die on me.

-={420}=- · Dec 6, 2003, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Necrosis
I was surprised too..but the conditions how it failed were more to blame. BTW, have you thought about going Serial ATA?

I didn't win the lottery here. Just have $100 to spend on a new hard drive. I don't wanna buy extra equipment which of course will also lead to new problems, my mobo doesn't have SATA built in so I would have to buy a card, the special power connectors, new cables, etc. which I don't have the money for atm. One thing I might do is set up RAID 1 because that won't cost me anything as my mobo already has this feature and mirroring is just what I need so I don't have to worry about losing my data.

Quote:

Originally posted by craig588
I have had 2 segate drives die on me.

Ouch!
That's 1 more point for WD.

scobywhru · Dec 6, 2003, 12:55 AM

Seagate barracudas are pretty quiet but the Western Digital should be faster, and I beleive the WD SE 8mb Cache drive has about the longest warranty out there of the two drives

Necrosis · Dec 6, 2003, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by -={420}=-
I didn't win the lottery here. Just have $100 to spend on a new hard drive. I don't wanna buy extra equipment which of course will also lead to new problems, my mobo doesn't have SATA built in so I would have to buy a card, the special power connectors, new cables, etc. which I don't have the money for atm. One thing I might do is set up RAID 1 because that won't cost me anything as my mobo already has this feature and mirroring is just what I need so I don't have to worry about losing my data.Ouch!
That's 1 more point for WD.

Oh I thought your board had it on-board..well screw that idea. However, I do want to say because one person has had problems with a manufacture doesn't mean everyone else well. Okay...maybe IBM but that was from poor engineering. There is many factors you have to throw in the mix..for example just a few years ago WD sucked pretty bad. However, I will say I prefer WD's registration & support over Seagate's too. Honestly, for IDE WD is the way to go.

-={420}=- · Dec 6, 2003, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by scobywhru
Seagate barracudas are pretty quiet but the Western Digital should be faster, and I beleive the WD SE 8mb Cache drive has about the longest warranty out there of the two drives

Yes the WD is faster. The warranty is 3 years for both of them.
ATM, I'm leaning towards the WD...

krazy1 · Dec 6, 2003, 01:07 AM

I like both WD and Seagate... if I had to choose one or the other I would go with Seagate.... Seagate to me is better but not by much at all.......

Quote:

You've had a seagate fail on you? That's pretty hard to believe.

No it isn't.. ANY drive can fail.. at work our systems come with either WD or Seagate and I have seen them both die..... We had a system come in a month ago and the the Seagate drive failed the end of last week. It is bound to happen. Mechanical things will fail....

-={420}=- · Dec 6, 2003, 01:51 AM

Yeah, I mean any piece of equipment can fail. But, in general, both WD and Seagate have a good reputation. From what I've heard though, Seagate is more reliable.

krazy1 · Dec 6, 2003, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by -={420}=-
Yeah, I mean any piece of equipment can fail. But, in general, both WD and Seagate have a good reputation. From what I've heard though, Seagate is more reliable.

Not by much... but yes a hair more reliable.....

vk2amv · Dec 6, 2003, 05:00 AM

I have had a lot higher percentage of Segate drivfes die on me than Western Digital. And I have had and also sold a lot of both. Seagate have lost the bal as far as reliability and quality goes and WD have picked it up. At least thats my opinion.

-={420}=- · Dec 6, 2003, 06:06 AM

I just found something weird on the detailed specs of the seagate. It says this:

[Reliability/Data Integrity]
Nonrecoverable Read Errors per Bits Read: 1 per 10

I don't really understand what this means but it doesn't sound good to me. Can someone explain this to me? The WD specs don't have this at all.

Here's the link in case anyone's interested:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...00A2%20P&Tab=2

Anyway, I think I will be going with the Western Digital one. I have until the 15th to choose.

FluffyChicken · Dec 6, 2003, 06:12 AM

If you can buy Samsung, thery're pretty much the most reliable.

Hitachi/Maxtor/WD are as reliable as each other.
With Hitachi you need the 8MB cache to get the 3yrs Warrenty

CHECK the warretny for the Western Digital on their site before buying, they have just changed it all again and MOST drives are now on 1yrs only. I think except the 10K and maybe a few of the SE drives....

Want some stats on reliability goto www.storagereview.com and have goto the reliability stats. There not perfect ut you'll get an idea.

What was the 3rd choice (I only see 2)

~~craig588~~ · Dec 6, 2003, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by -={420}=-
Ouch!
That's 1 more point for WD.

This was a while ago, a 600MB drive and a 2.1GB drive. Their reliability might have improved.

~~HawK~~ · Dec 6, 2003, 09:38 AM

Hm.. well i have a WD800jb se and also have a seagate ATA-IV 80gb in my system
they are both doing very well (atleast in this their 1st yr) (SMART still say's 100% on both)
But the WD is far out the fastest of the 2 !!.
Have to mention the WD is the 2nd in my rig, because the first never came alive from the first day

, but could swap it for the one i have now, one point for not buying online

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 6, 2003, 09:42 AM

I'd chose the 8mb cache version of maxtors... thier great....

the wd's are great/a little better but they have the higest fail rate band wise !!!!! per a poll of techs and shops on windrivers.com quite a while back.....

I've never liked seagates thier drives usally a little slow problematic /cheapo drives / thie made a little cheapr then wd or maxtor

krazy1 · Dec 6, 2003, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by FluffyChicken
If you can buy Samsung, thery're pretty much the most reliable.

Hitachi/Maxtor/WD are as reliable as each other.
With Hitachi you need the 8MB cache to get the 3yrs Warrenty

CHECK the warretny for the Western Digital on their site before buying, they have just changed it all again and MOST drives are now on 1yrs only. I think except the 10K and maybe a few of the SE drives....

Want some stats on reliability goto www.storagereview.com and have goto the reliability stats. There not perfect ut you'll get an idea.

What was the 3rd choice (I only see 2)

Personally I will NEVER buy Maxtor again. Since they bought out Qantum their drive quality has gone down the hole. When Maxtor bought Quantum the took on Quantum's technology and droped part of their own. I have seen 10X's the drive failure with Maxtor since they took over Quantum. I have several drives here Pre-Qantum and they are still going. All the ones I bought after the buy out are now dead. As for Hitachi, they are what used to be IBM and they too are having trouble. I have seen Hitachi drives die in a week or 2 and this is no joke. Western Digital and Seagate are the best ways to go. Hell Seagate dominates the server world, get yourself a SCSI card and a server class HD and you will be all set... hehehe.. The seagate Server class drives I have here are rated for 50 years non-stop use.... They have been running almost non- stop now for 4 years without a problem....

As for the warrenty length, just about all the HD makers have now gone to the 1 year warrenty. Long gone are the 3 year warrenty....

tek · Dec 6, 2003, 10:18 AM

Western Digital

-={420}=- · Dec 6, 2003, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by FluffyChicken
If you can buy Samsung, thery're pretty much the most reliable.

Hitachi/Maxtor/WD are as reliable as each other.
With Hitachi you need the 8MB cache to get the 3yrs Warrenty

CHECK the warretny for the Western Digital on their site before buying, they have just changed it all again and MOST drives are now on 1yrs only. I think except the 10K and maybe a few of the SE drives....

Want some stats on reliability goto www.storagereview.com and have goto the reliability stats. There not perfect ut you'll get an idea.

What was the 3rd choice (I only see 2)

The 3rd choice was the hitachi.

Yes, the WD does have a 3 year warranty, I just checked again.

I will never buy a maxtor again, that's for sure! After having 2 die on me...no thanks!

Hmm, I still have a tough choice between the Seagate and the WD.

-={420}=- · Dec 6, 2003, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by krazy1
Western Digital and Seagate are the best ways to go. Hell Seagate dominates the server world, get yourself a SCSI card and a server class HD and you will be all set... hehehe.. The seagate Server class drives I have here are rated for 50 years non-stop use.... They have been running almost non- stop now for 4 years without a problem....

I would if I had the money

Maybe in the future.

BONEHEAD · Dec 6, 2003, 01:36 PM

I would go w/seagate. I have had 4 wd scsi drives die two were 4 days old. Never lost a seagate (that i did not kill). I don't know how there warranty is on ide but i have dropedd a few scsi drives and got replacements in about a week. don't ask.