Hard drives reliability

[spittledip]

Hey all

Which manufacturer produces the most reliable hard drives? Is there a most reliable, or is it just a crap shoot? I personally haven't had problems with any and i have had Maxtor(now seagate), Seagate, and WD. Is there any brand that is less likely to fail than others? And which company has the best RMA policy?

thanks

 

[Marty502]

I've had 2 old Maxtor drives die on me, and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 that failed 2 days after installation.

That said, I exchanged it for another 7200.10 and it works nicely. I'd say it's a crap shoot. Most important thing to ensure reliability is to keep the HDD at a low temperature. Mine rarely goes over 30ºC.

This article is very interesting, give it a read:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000748.html

This quote stuck with me:

"According to our research, increasing HDD temperature by 5°C has the same effect on reliability as switching from 10% to 100% HDD workload. Each one-degree drop of HDD temperature is equivalent to a 10% increase of HDD service life".

Hence why I care a lot about HDD temps.

 

[Doclife]

If you value reliable over performance then I strongly suggest you look into 2.5" laptop HD.

2.5" HD have lower rotational speed (5400rpm),uses less power, produce less heat and thus will last longer than the typical 3.5" HD.

 

[Ika]

I do remember reading somewhere that HDD usage % has nothing to do with its reliability or failure time.

 

[Doclife]

Even when you don't access the HD, the HD is still spinning.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: spittledip
Hey all

Which manufacturer produces the most reliable hard drives?

There is no Solid answer to this question.

The factual answer is that it is seasonal.

Currently it is 6 to 4 WD. I.e. about 60% of responders would say WD, 40% would say Seagate.

One of the reasons that it can Not be judged is timing. HDs usually do not fail immediately, it takes time to fail.

If you look today at the Drives that were bought 3-5 years ago it is obvious that Maxtor was at the time the worse.

So which one is the worse Now?

Call me in 2012 and I would be able to tell you.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: spittledip
Hey all

* Which manufacturer produces the most reliable hard drives?
* Is there a most reliable, or is it just a crap shoot?

The "RAID 1" of posts :laugh:
Register at Storage Review to view their "Reliability Survey" results.

 

[corkyg]

My position on this issue is about the same as JackMDS's. I got my first HDD in 1987 or 88 - and since then I have had dozens of them - too many to count. In all that time I have only had one failure and that was a WD.

HDDs are manufactured by lot - and any given lot shares the same QC. There are constant changes in lots due to component source changes, engineering request changes (ECRs) and other factiors.

Much of the reliable life span of a drive depends on how it is used. Heat is always a factor. Vibration and motion are also factors, and certainly power stability is another.

The user of any OEM drive can enhance the reliability of a given HDD by taking care of it.

 

[Old Hippie]

Perfect!
Can we stickie these last 3 answers as a FAQ? :thumbsup:

 

[spittledip]

Thanks for the replies. i kinda figured it was based on luck or an unknown. Aside from taking care of it of course..

 

[n7]

They all fail.

Solution: back up your damn data, always.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Marty502
I've had 2 old Maxtor drives die on me, and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 that failed 2 days after installation.

That said, I exchanged it for another 7200.10 and it works nicely. I'd say it's a crap shoot. Most important thing to ensure reliability is to keep the HDD at a low temperature. Mine rarely goes over 30ºC.

This article is very interesting, give it a read:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000748.html

This quote stuck with me:

"According to our research, increasing HDD temperature by 5°C has the same effect on reliability as switching from 10% to 100% HDD workload. Each one-degree drop of HDD temperature is equivalent to a 10% increase of HDD service life".

Hence why I care a lot about HDD temps.

nonsense
http://storagemojo.com/?p=378
"failure rates do not increase when the average temperature increases. "
the awful truth, drives fail, it pretty much random, it is like russian roulette. and most things we think we do to baby drives are completely useless. if it wants to die, it will. end users tend to base their views on anecdotal experience of a few drives, which is statistically meaningless. the google type studies come from massive numbers of drives. the main thing you have to worry aboutis drive age.