Longest Lasting HDD models ?

[phpdog]

Hi ,

After Buying 4 x 250Gb Seagate drives together thinking they would last me for at least 2 years and 2 of them below 50% health after 9 months , i was wondering when peoples opinions were on different HDD makes 7 Models .

I have 6 x 250Gb HDD's in total .
4 x 250Gb Seagate ST3250820AS
2 x 250Gb Maxtor STM3250820AS

1 of the Maxtor HDD is at 66% Life and there all under a year old .:|

Can anyone reccomend good long life drive models ?

I use my system as a media Center and it runs 24/7 , so i was thinking of external drives so there is less heat inside the case .

I was going to buy 2 x 500GB LaCie Red Brick, 1 x USB 2.0/1.1, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache @ £ 112 . 00

There the ones that are like big LEGO Bricks .

 

[Gusty987]

WD

 

[MichaelD]

Hello.

What program is telling you that your drives are below 50% health? Are you having any problems? (Data not found...blue screens...whatever?)

I'm assuming we're talking about the rig in your sig. A rig like that can get pretty hot inside. What case do you have? How many fans? Any fans on the hard drive cage(s)? Do you clean the case?

Adding external drives for 24/7 storage is a bad idea.

1. You are introducing another point of failure (the external case/circuitry itself)
2. No external drive will ever be as efficiently cooled as an internally mounted drive simply b/c it's mounted inside a tiny little metal box
3. You pay more per GB for an external drive

Seagate is the best HD manufacturer these days IMO...possibly, you got some bad drives. Possibly, your lifetime reporting utility is wrong. Possibly your case is an unventilated oven. Could be anything.

If you're worried about losing your data...

There's nothing like BACKUP. For example: I have 8 dual layer DVDs burned with just my MP3s on them. I also have all those MP3s stored on two physically separate hard drives. One of them is an external USB2.0 drive that ONLY gets turned on when I manually make backups. If both my HDs die, I still have my MP3s burned to disc. The odds of me losing everything is very low.

Food for thought. 🙂

 

[Canai]

I have an 80GB WD drive that I've had since 2003 or so, whenever the Athlon XP 1900+ was the fastest chip around, and it's still running strong 😀

WD all the way 🙂

 

[krotchy]

Rather than go external, try a case with dedicated hard drive cooling, or pick up some lian-li or silverstone 3x5.25 inch -> 3/4 hardrive modules, they each have a dedicated 120mm fan to cool them.

Also I too want to know what is telling you they are below 50% health? I personally have never had issues with seagates and prefer them over almost one, maxtor on the other hand tended to be the worst, but their newer stuff might be good as its rebadged seagates.

 

[phpdog]

Yes its the system in my sig that im talking about .

Its has more than adequate cooling 120mm Front and Back Intake fans just about 2 inches in front of 4 of the drives . And 2 x 120mm top Exhaust fans running low RPms .
So cold air is brought in through the bottom and hot air out through the top .

I use the latest version of HDDLife Pro , I just installed this 2 days ago because 1 of the Seagate drives was cutting on and off .

3 x 250Gb Seagate ST3250820AS SATA II

Device #1: Model:SEAGATE ST3250824AS
Device #1: Serial:4ND48QQK
Device #1: Firmware:3.AAH
Device #1: Identify info: 7d01::5970:1d1c:0000:0000
Device #1: Size(512):250059264Kb
Device #1: Temperature:38 , Health:30% , Performance:30%
Device #2: Temperature:39 , Health:44% , Performance:44%
Device #3: Temperature:37 , Health:75% , Performance:75%

Device #4: Model:MAXTOR STM3250820AS
Device #4: Serial:6QE05Q8A
Device #4: Firmware:3.AAE
Device #4: Temperature:39 , Health:66% , Performance:66%

1 x 80GB Maxtor SATA

Model:Maxtor 80GB 6Y080M0
Device #0: Serial:Y241PKJC
Device #0: Firmware:YAR511W0
Device #0: Temperature:42 , Health:80% , Performance:80%

Ironically the drive with the most health is the oldest drive the 80GB Maxtor its about 3 years old .

 

[grunjee]

I don't think there are any good models; it's all luck of the draw. Get a good one and it'll last 5 years or more. Get a bad one and you've seen what happens.

Hard drives fail - it's a fact of life. I work as a PC repair tech and it happens all the time, on all brands and models, old drives and new. We get in 1-2 drives a week that are brand new, straight from the factory, that are DOA (all Seagate too btw). I don't understand how this can happen, but it does.

 

[natto fire]

What PSU are you using with that rig?

My vote goes to Seagate as well. I have a 120GB that is over 4 years old and still shows 90% health. BTW, those SMART readings are not always a true indication of drive fitness, but I doubt it should be as low as you are reading. Dirty power will kill hard drives pretty quickly, so you are either using an inadequate power supply, or have really bad luck. Of the 25 or so drives I have owned, I have had 2 Western Digital's fail (out of warranty) and 3 Maxtors (2 in warranty, their RMA process was great at the time). No Seagates have failed me, but to be fair, the 120 is the most recent (unless you count my old 170MB Conner 😛) I have used, with a 200 and a 320 also showing zero problems (the 200 GB is pushing 3 years). So yeah, what case and PSU are you using?

 

[phpdog]

I found a great SATA Caddy for internal drives Icydock MB-455SPF Backplane - 5 x SATA II 3.5" Disk Storage Tower

My PSU is a Tagan TG530-U15 530w - Case is a Enlight EN 7280

These are the 5 500GB Internal SATA HDD ' s i have the choice of :-


500 Gb HGST (IBM/Hitachi) HDS725050KLA360 Deskstar 7K500, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £93.39 £109.73

500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £67.99 £79.89

500 Gb Seagate ST3500641AS Barracuda 7200.9, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.2 ms, NCQ £64.99 £76.36

500 Gb Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £68.89 £80.95

500Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £74.89 £88.00


Would anyone recommend any one of these drives over the others ?

My own choice would be the WD5000AAKS .