Got my first HGST Deskstar in the mail

[bigboxes]

I just built a new 4790K build and lost a couple of PATA thrash drives as the new mobo has SATA only. That's to be expected, but I really needed the space. I have been slowly upgrading my 1.5TB/2TB hard drives in my file server to 4TB models. Plus, when I do that I also have to buy the corresponding 4TB drive to back it up. The costs do add up!

I had been purchasing Seagate 4TB NAS drives. They were the most affordable for the buck and still had decent reliability reviews. It had bothered me that Seagate's reputation has slipped as they (and everyone else) made a race towards the bottom in the unending consumer competition. Just like monitors, consumers want them big and cheap, caring little for quality or at the least they don't want to pay for it.

So, anyways, I decided I'd just purchase a new 4TB drive and move the 2TB drive it was replacing from the file server to my main rig to be used as a thrash drive. As I was pricing a new drive out I found that the HGST 4TB NAS drive was about the same price as the Seagate version. I had not purchased a Deskstar drive since the days of IBM and the Deathstar fiasco. I had 6 of those 60GB drives and each and every one of them eventually failed with the "click of death". I was able to RMA them under warranty and every one failed except for one which is sitting in a box somewhere.

I've heard a lot of comments across the net about how reliable HGST's hard drives are now. Reliability means a lot to me. Don't get me wrong. I keep all my data backed up. However, I still don't want to go through the hassle and stress of restoring data too often. Uptime is important to me as is my free time, which I'd rather not spend repairing something that should work longer than it does quite often. Windows says it's going to take 6 hours to copy 1.7TB of data to the new drive from SATA to eSATA.

Anyone have any experience with HGST drives?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Those are really nice drives, my second favorite 4TB drives (only behind WD Blacks). I just added a second one to my Unraid array this weekend. They are a speed demon for the cost, I replaced a 2TB WD Green (that NEVER should have been in there) and my performance shot through the roof.

 

[aigomorla]

im also amazed at how they changed their reputation as well.

they used to be called deathstar, due to the high fail rate.
But it looks like someone really went internally and cleaned there QoC.

 

[bigboxes]

Those are really nice drives, my second favorite 4TB drives (only behind WD Blacks). I just added a second one to my Unraid array this weekend. They are a speed demon for the cost, I replaced a 2TB WD Green (that NEVER should have been in there) and my performance shot through the roof.

I like WD Blacks for their warranty. I just don't see them as 24/7 storage drives. It's like they are meant for use as either the OS drive or a compliment to the OS drive. I too had a couple of 2TB WD Green drives. Big mistake. Died right after the one year warranty expired. No way I was going to ever buy another one. Shame on Western Digital for putting out such crap.

im also amazed at how they changed their reputation as well.

they used to be called deathstar, due to the high fail rate.
But it looks like someone really went internally and cleaned there QoC.

I know why they got that nickname. I still defended them though. They were great drives when they worked. Fast and quiet. Just not reliable. Sigh. Hitachi spent a lot of capital improving their QA. I don't want to spend double the price, but reliability is probably the most important metric when it comes to my data. I hope that Seagate sees the light and makes some changes in their quality. Surely, they don't want to start shedding repeat customers.

 

[aigomorla]

lol... i still have a couple of working hitachi's and even PATA's IBM's before hitatch bought them out.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

See sig (toshiba/Hitachi are same drives.)

 

[Magic Carpet]

The 75GXP and 60GXP were the really bad ones. I had several IBM/Hitachi drives back then, but luckily did not have any issues.

Despite failures being reported within the manufacturer warranty period of three years, Michael T. Granito, Jr., an American user of IBM's 75GXP hard drives, filed a class-action lawsuit against IBM on 16 October 2001 for defects in the product causing it to "crash", with both of the drives he'd bought having failed within a short time.[7] IBM was found to have misled its customers about the reliability of the drives. Without admitting responsibility, they settled this lawsuit in 2005, agreeing to pay $100 to every user whose Deskstar 75GXP drives had failed.[8] The settlement related to the following family of IBM Deskstar 75GXP HDD models: DTLA 307-015; DTLA 307-020; DTLA 307-030; DTLA 307-045; DTLA 307-060; DTLA 307-075;[9] the Deskstar 40GV was not included in the litigation.

Congrats on the new drive, OP

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Also: 15 years and three owners ago. The next person who FUDs about "Deathstars" is getting a wedgie.

 

[Dasa2]

if i remember correctly the deathstars controller chip would die which use to run rather hot and having good airflow over the drives improved there reliability considerably

hitachi\toshiba are not the same drives but i think toshiba did take the consumer model of hitachi drives when they all split from wd a few years ago now

 

[MustISO]

I had one of the IBM Deskstar 20GB drives, Never failed, probably still works if I could find it and if I had a motherboard with a PATA controller.

 

[MongGrel]

I prefer WD Drives myself the last couple of decades, have Blacks or RE models in most things, even have a couple old Raptor 75's in RAID 0 that I forget are how old for the OS on the bedroom HTPC.

I'm sure other drives have improved over time, but I've had enough other ones fail on me I guess usually go WD for HDD's.

 

[Charlie98]

I had 3 Hitachi 500GB HDDs from 2010/11, they all performed well but were just a wee bit noisy compared to my Seagates. I think I still have one in service upstairs in the GAME rig... as the backup image drive. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one and when it comes time to upgrade the 3TB drives in the HTPC, I'll be looking at Hitachi.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I like WD Blacks for their warranty. I just don't see them as 24/7 storage drives.

I like the warranty, but they are also really fast. I use mine as a parity drive. But they are expensive, I got mine for $200 on a "deal."

I really feel this drive you have is the best balance of price, stability, speed and capacity in the consumer hard drive market. I am going to keep buying them.

 

[MongGrel]

Still have 4 of these from 2009 running on and old Areca 1210 Raid controller in the main rig as a storage array, surprised they even still sell em.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313

Were a bit more than that then

 

[DrMrLordX]

I'm surprised they held on to the Deskstar name. Kudos to Hitachi and their "damn the torpedos" attitude.

 

[pitz]

The only worry I have about HGST drives is that now that they're nominally under the WD banner, WD's reputation (or lack thereof) for quality might rub off on them.

WD would be well advised to take a hands-off approach to their acquisition, and, at best, only take advice on how to make a high-quality and reliable drive from the HGST engineers.

Hard to believe, but those 5-platter 2Tb 7200rpm 7K2000's, which were allegedly going to fail prematurely in the minds of the nay-sayers (on account of high platter count!), are now regarded as some of the most reliable HDDs ever built (see: Backblaze's stats!).

 

[RaistlinZ]

Got two of them in RAID. Solid drives.