Western Digital blows: Alternatives?
OK. This past summer I wanted a bigger internal HDD. So I bought a WD drive. It was DOA. I returned it and got another one. It's starting to make funny noises after not quite 3 months of light use.
Guess which brand I'm not going to replace it with.
Any suggestions? Is Seagate still good? Has IBM licked the problems they were having with the DeskStar series? Any other recommendations?
This year marks is the first time I've had HDD problems since HDDs first appeared for Macs, and I've had two. Someone is going to get hurt.
[ 12-07-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
Guess which brand I'm not going to replace it with.
Any suggestions? Is Seagate still good? Has IBM licked the problems they were having with the DeskStar series? Any other recommendations?
This year marks is the first time I've had HDD problems since HDDs first appeared for Macs, and I've had two. Someone is going to get hurt.
[ 12-07-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
Comments
I'd always had good luck with Maxtor of all brands. dunno why, but i always thought of them as a poor knock-off type brand, but i've had excellent luck with them.
I've owned at least one of every kind of drive. when i make purchases now, i always go Maxtor, although i've had good luck with WD as too, so go figure.
i think the biggest problem is that everyone is going with 7,200 RPM drives nowadays, and i'm still not sure that i trust them. every drive i had go bad was a 7,200 RPM, never lost a single 5,400 RPM drive.
who knows.
i think every person has a horror story to go with every brand, and every person will be able to sing the praises of at least one brand.
By the way, doesn't purchasing advice go in General Discussion?
[ 12-07-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
<strong>
By the way, doesn't purchasing advice go in General Discussion?
</strong><hr></blockquote>
I suppose it does. I put it here because my HDD was dying. Duh. Not thinking.
Moving...
...although i always hear stories...go figure, oh well computers like me more then they like you
All I know about maxtor is that they are LOUD! even when new.
My seagate was fine until it just did not work one day after a short 11 months.
Fellowship
I've had a WD 120GB Special edition with the 8MB cache since beginning of the summer, and it works like a champ.
WD and Maxtor are the only ones making super high capacity drives right now if I recall correctly, but if you don't need that, I think I'd probably touch a Seagate. That's what my RAID array is being built with. I've never been done wrong by Seagate
Toutefois, afin de se faire une idée, notre partenaire LDLC.COM nous a fournis courant Octobre les taux de S.A.V des disques qu´ils avaient vendus courant 2002 (10 mois de fonctionnement maximum donc). Bien entendu, les retours effectués directement auprès du constructeur sans passer par LDLC ne peuvent pas être comptabilisés, mais durant la première année cela représente une minorité des retours, et comme tous les constructeurs disposent d´une procédure de retour directe en ligne les proportions sont conservées. Ces chiffres sont obtenus sur les disques de la génération 40 Go / plateau tels que les 120GXP, D740X ou Barracuda ATA IV, et la quantité de disques vendus est indiquée entre parenthèses :
Disques IDE 7200 tpm 40 Go :
Seagate : 1.6% (7643)
Maxtor : 1.9% (8052)
IBM 120GXP : 3.1% (4790)
Western Digital : 7.2% (1726)
Disques IDE 7200 tpm 60 Go :
Seagate : 0.7% (284)
IBM 120 GXP : 2.5% (722)
Maxtor : 2.5% (1791)
Western Digital : 8.6% (490)
Disques IDE 7200 tpm 80 Go :
Seagate : 2.4% (1248)
IBM : 2.8% (2131)
Western Digital : 3.1% (1676)
Maxtor : 3.3% (2060)
Disques IDE 7200 tpm 120 Go :
Western Digital SE : 3.0% (132)
IBM : 3.1% (708)
Western Digital : 5% (120)
D´après ces chiffres, Seagate semble fournir les disques offrant la meilleure fiabilité. Maxtor et IBM sont également bien placés, ce qui est nouveau pour IBM puisque avant la gamme 120GXP, les 75GXP puis les 60GXP affichaient des taux de retours SAV très (très) élevés. La bonne tenue des 120GXP semble confirmer le retour Ã* la normale chez IBM, ce qui est un bon point pour les 180GXP.<hr></blockquote>
In resume Seagate is according to this repair companie, the best, following by Maxtor and IBM. IBM is better since the introduction of his new 120 GXT series, the 60 GXP and 75 GXP have a hight return rate. Western digital is the less reliable.
And the most reliable HD are the SCSI one.
Here is the link where they compare various HD : <a href="http://www.hardware.fr/articles/448/page1.html"; target="_blank">www.hardware.fr/articles/448/page1.html</a>
In case of need i am ready to help. Good luck.
Thanks for the article, powerdoc. That was very helpful (it doesn't hurt that I haven't completely forgotten the French I used to be fluent in, either).
And thanks everyone else for chiming in. Fellowship, I don't know what to say in your case, except that even the best companies turn out the odd lemon. Seagate's had a great reputation for years now, and it looks like they're still earning it.
Although, if I find the WD SE, I might give it a go. Mmmm, 120GB...
[ 12-08-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
However, I've heard only good things about the new 8MB cache drives that WD makes. I think I'm going to get one of those for my renderbox. I hear they're really quiet too, which is a bonus.