Seagate reliability??

[sterling]

HI All

Im building a computer for my office. I need the most reliable hard drive. I have been reading user reviews at other websites and it appears that Maxtors and Western Digital have problems. Seems like there is alot of DOAs. I was wondering what type of experiences have u guys had with the latest 80gb 8meg cache Seagate drives?

thanks

 

[jfall]

I just ordered a Seagate 7200.7 80gb drive, most likely the one you are thinking about getting. I did some research on Seagate drives, most people seem to say they are very reliable and quiet, they are not always at the top of the speed charts with WD and Maxtor however. Also I have gathered that most people tend to say that the WD's make the most noise, and the Maxtor's are some where inbetween.. I did hear a lot about WD RMA's as well, but I also heard a lot of good things about the drives. I really don't think you could go wrong with any of the three drives, but from what I have heard the Seagate sound pretty reliable

 

[Texun]

I've had that drive in my personal file server for about 3 months, and although not exactly a marathon test it has been perfect. If you want a quiet drive this is the one to get. I've read pretty much the same as jfall but with more of an emphasis from posters on the quality. A lot of people seem to feel the Seagates are exceptionally good drives. Since this is my first Seagate in about 9 years, and I've only had mine up for 3 months, I'll keep my fingers crossed until I know for sure.

I have 4 Maxtors and 3 WD-JB's now. I am giving WD another chance. Years ago I had 4 out of 5 die on me within 24 months. Always had great luck with Maxtors though but everyone has their share of horror stories about one brand or another. I moved from Maxtor early this year simply because of the warranty and price where I live.

Hope this helps.

 

[dmw16]

I have actually always loved IBM drives (although I have a WD now because the special edition drives are so great). I know some people had major headaches with IBM I have one that is like 4 years old now in one of the computers at home and it runs like a champ. I also have a maxtor 8.4gig (and that was huge when I bought it, so its old) and it runs great. I have never had a Seagate, but when I used to work in IT during HS (intership type thing) we had like 4 servers w/ seagate drives have their drives go...like the other guy said...everyone has horror stories. I say, read the reviews and go with them...so it seems like Seagate.
-doug

 

[wacki]

I have all three.
I personally like Seagate and Maxtor.

Seagates have a steel plate on top and bottom and are super quiet. Almost too quiet. I had to literally put my ear on the hard drive just to check and see if it was working during a trouble shooting experience. As far as reliability, I've had maxtors and western digitals both go bad. I've never had a seagate go bad, but I've had 5 DOA seagates, honestly I think it was very, very bad luck. Something like 1 out of 150,000 to the fifth power bad luck. Atleast according to the tech person that was the odds.

Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate are all good. As far as quality goes Seagates just seem to feel better to me. Not very scientific, I know but hold one in your hand and then listen to it run and you decide. Also keeping the hard drive cool is one of the best ways to increase the reliability of a hard drive.

 

[HalfCrazy]

My old Pentium II 266mhz is using a old Fujitsu 6.4gig hdd. Which is still running very strong without any signs of wearing out anything soon. As for Western Digital hdds I used many of them in the past and still do. I never once had one die on me yet or had a DOA hdd. I even used Maxtor hdds also without any problems. Matter of fact none of the hdds I ever owned has ever died or failed on me. Guess I been really lucky on getting a good batch.

 

[MDE]

Seagates are pretty quick and near silent. I installed one for someone and thought I forgot to plug in the power connector on the drive. They seem more solid than WDs and Maxtors too.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
I installed one for someone and thought I forgot to plug in the power connector on the drive.

Hehehe! I did the same thing. Fired it up - didn't hear it and immediately started looking at the plugs!

And like wacki said... not scientific but they feel do solid. One thing I did one rainy afternoon when I was bored was stick a spare 80mm fan to the bottom of the HD cage using double sided tape. It blows straight up on the drive. Not sure if it makes a difference but at least I felt good about it.

 

[Boonesmi]

quiet and work very well

i like my seagate 160gb sata

 

[billyjak]

I had a 40 gig 5400 RPM litterally melt in a Friends Box, the smell lasted for weeks,
I RMA'd it and received a new one with no problems.

Do I trust Seagate drives now, Well I woun't order one because of that.
If I wasen't home when this occured it was a fire inside my PC.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: billyjak
I had a 40 gig 5400 RPM litterally melt in a Friends Box, the smell lasted for weeks,
I RMA'd it and received a new one with no problems.

Do I trust Seagate drives now, Well I woun't order one because of that.
If I wasen't home when this occured it was a fire inside my PC.

One of those 'horror stories.' I've had four Maxtors and you don't see me badmouthing them.

 

[een]

I have three seagate hard drives, and is constantly using them. 13, 20, and 80gb, they are all really silent, seems like the higher the capacity the more silent it gets...

Anyway, all my friends have been getting seagates as well, and none of them go bad...

 

[bob4432]

i would definately get another seagate. i have one that i bought in 96 or 97, only 1.7GB ata33. about a month ago i needed to test some stuff so i took it out of storage and it ran like a charm, well a slow charm (i think the floppy drive's transfer speed is faster) by today's standards but no problems at all with it. excellent drive.

 

[RalfHutter]

Even though I exclusively use Seagates and have no problems with them that's not enough of a reliable sample size for you to make a judgement from.

Over at StorageReview.com they have a Reliability Database that has a lot more data than what you'll get here in one thread. It's still not statistically significant but it's a way bigger sample than you'll see here and probably the best repository of HDD reliability data that us regular consumers will be able to find.

 

[HokieESM]

I've used several Barracuda IVs in "quiet" systems. Some have been running for a little over a year. Seem to be pretty reliable. They have reasonable performance, and they're not horribly expensive.

I have been using some Samsung drives here recently, and performance has been good. The P80 series is too new to really test reliability, but they do have three year warranties (all of them) and I WILL say that they run VERY cool (which is good for reliability... mine averages 27oC). Also, performance of the 8mb cache drives (such as the Samsung SP1213N which is $108 at Newegg) is pretty good--similar to drives from Maxtor and WD.

Anyways, I don't think you can go wrong with the Seagate. I've never had problems. They DO run a bit hot--so if you can, make sure you have a fan blowing over them. Good luck!

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: RalfHutter
Over at StorageReview.com they have a Reliability Database that has a lot more data than what you'll get here in one thread. It's still not statistically significant but it's a way bigger sample than you'll see here and probably the best repository of HDD reliability data that us regular consumers will be able to find.

Thorin

 

[nick1985]

i love my seagate...its been running strong for almost 2 years

 

[HokieESM]

Originally posted by: RalfHutter
Even though I exclusively use Seagates and have no problems with them that's not enough of a reliable sample size for you to make a judgement from.

Over at StorageReview.com they have a Reliability Database that has a lot more data than what you'll get here in one thread. It's still not statistically significant but it's a way bigger sample than you'll see here and probably the best repository of HDD reliability data that us regular consumers will be able to find.

Hey Ralf, i didn't know you posted here--I've always read your sage-like advice at SPCR. Listen to this man: he gives good advice (including just telling you his experiences as well as digging up actual sources).

StorageReview is a great resource for reliability.... Ralf's right, you can get a bigger sample size. I'll also say that a long warranty can be nice (some are a year, some are three)--but if its mission critical, RMAing it isn't any good. But if you keep good backups, then get one with a long warranty... you can at least replace it if it dies.