Western Digital drives SUCK!

[Ornery]

Argh, I had a couple Caviar drives crap out on me. They won't get any more of my money because of that no matter how good the current crop is. Hmmm, sounds like the current crop ain't so great anyway...

Not too thrilled with how noisy Maxtor is either. They don't click and clatter, but the whine is unbearable!

 

[OS]

ornery,

don't know what models you've tried for maxtors, but my diamondmax 20 gig 6800+ (7200 rpm) is nearly silent. The seeks are also really muted. It's quieter than the 45 gig wd that I just got anyways. The drive is like a year old, but I think most of the newer drives are also similarly quiet.

 

[R2D2]

Hey Orn'r, have you seen the Plus 40's in action... or the Plus 45's?

I can't even hear mine... of course I can't hear my Wife very well most of the time either.

 

[Ornery]

Yeah, the one I got is a 5,400RPM 13GB unit. I RMAed it strickly because of the whine. Replacement was identical. I set it on foam instead of screwing it in. That took care of the noise, but it's a work around.

My latest drive is the 15GB DESKSTAR 7200RPM 75GXP. I don't have to tell you how happy I am with that! I'll be sticking with IBM until I get a bad one.

 

[LXi]

Ornery: I have the 5400 rpm 13GB Maxtor as well, and Im well aware that it's very loud. But considering that this model is nearly 3 years old, I wouldnt be surprised. But you have to know that not all the Maxtor hard drives sound that loud, I have a DM+40 and it's A LOT quieter than the 13GB. Every model since the +6800 are really quiet.

 

[cmv]

I got shipped two 8.4g ATA33 5400 rpm drives from Value America back in the day (I only ordered one, they let me keep the extra). One works fine in my FreeBSD machine without any hiccups. The other is a major pain in the ass. It is getting ready to die any day soon. On a seemingly random basis it'll just start making this read-read-read-read-read-pause-stop-stop and then repeat - for hours on end!

Time to RMA it I think before it just dies, eh?

 

[Aboroth]

I myself own 5 WD Caviar drives of varying ages, including very recent, and all of them are fine. My workplace has 30+ in operation right now and I haven't had to replace any of them.

I have had great experience with Western Digital and wouldn't hesitate to buy their drives again. Some of you obviously haven't. However, I can't stress enough that none of us have had nearly enough experience to say what brand of IDE hard drive is, on average, more reliable than another. I don't care how many computers you look at every day, you are still seeing a fraction of the hard drives in circulation and your personal experience is statistically irrelevant. So is mine. Sorry about that but it is a sad fact of life.

As for Maxtor drives... whew, over half of those I ever saw broke on me!!! Maxtor sux!!!

 

[Ornery]

Well here's what I think about the Caviars before I hit the sack. It depends how often you power down. I think the thermal shock just tortured them.

So how many of you, that didn't have trouble with the Caviar, leave them on 24/7? Personally, during the time I owned them, I would power down whenever the PC wasn't going to be used for the next hour. That means being powered up and down a few times a day.

Talk amongst yourselves...

 

[penclboy]

Ornery, maybe you are right... I've always had my comp on like 24/7. Unfortunately I have never had the good fortune to own an Expert drive. But I did have good luck with WD early on in life. I had a 1 gig that worked fine, it was just the stuff I bought the last few years... uh, frankly they've sucked.

Nr9, I'm sorry but I think the Anand users are a pretty broad base statistically and although they may not see a large part of the drives out there they are random enough to show that something is going wrong. BTW I didn't have any preconceived notions about WD, as a matter of fact I used to recommend them, but with the hell I have been through in the last 2 yrs I can't anymore. HDD problems are the worst... all I want is a drive that doesn't click, clank, stttutter, pause.... , grind, or scrape! :disgust:

 

[FUBAR]

All of the people with noisy WD's (who think they are dying): Have you ever checked WD's page for the firmware update that gets rid of nasty little noises like that? I had a (now 4.5yr old) drive that made those noises all the time, and right befor the warranty ran out I was going to return it when I noticed a little notice hidden on their page.

It's some adjustment mechanism that is a little over-ambitious. Did the update, not a noise since. Drive is still perfect, althouth I don't have it on me right now, and the guy who does is probably putting it through hell... with the powering off that is...