What 1TB drive to get

[Lightning983]

Hello,

Okay i need to get a 1Tb drive for storage, so i went to the places i usually shop, and i can get a WD, Seagate, Samsung & Hitachi for basically the same price.

Now, performance isn't really my 1st concern and reliability is. I'm basically looking for a drive that will last me a long time with normal performance. I don't run my computer 24/7 all year long, but i do sometimes leave it on for a couple of days.

So i guess if anyone here has some experience with the reliability of these drives please suggest which model would be the most appropriate.

Well, thanx
Tom,

 

[Foxery]

You'll get wildly different opinions on brands around here... everyone's had their bad experiences with every brand. Out of the 4 you listed, I'd expect WD and Seagate to be the top picks.

 

[Jest3r]

I would personally stay away from Hitachi because I've worked on too many toshiba laptops in which it turned out to be a dead HDD (they used Hitachi for many models). But like Foxery said, I'm sure there are plenty of bad experiences with any brand. I would go with WD.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

If reliability is your goal, always keep your data backed up and get the drive with the longest warranty. Myself, I buy Western Digital drives from zipzoomfly--they have the best hd shipping containers that I have seen.

 

[taltamir]

the seagate 1.5TB is 1. carrying the seagtate reliability. and 2. cheaper per GB than any 1TB drive. So I suggest that one.
If not, then, well, any will do. reliability should NOT matter because YOU should be backing up your data... if you expect to buy a reliable drive and then be safe from data loss then you will be disappointed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
If reliability is your goal, always keep your data backed up and get the drive with the longest warranty. Myself, I buy Western Digital drives from zipzoomfly--they have the best hd shipping containers that I have seen.

The five Seagate 7200.11 500GB HDs that I bought from Dell Small Business were also packaged very well.

 

[scruffypup]

In my opinion they are all basically the same,... you will have many who swear to avoid one or another, and vice versa. All can have problems at some point.

Typically though if it says 3+ yr warranty you can ease your mind in that regards for the most part,if you are worried about data, raid it in a mirror fashion, use a second harddrive to back up most critical stuff, or save to DVDs,... backing up is the only real way to ensure no data loss -but that is still left up to how you backup and how often.

I had an 80gb and 45 gb drive fail recently and still have a 1.2gb and 12gb drive solid as heck,... but then again over the last 6 years I used the 80gb and 45gb drives more,... so which is really more reliable? All pretty much the same really.

Seagate and Western Digital have been my faves over the years due to price/performance/storage,... some hated maxtor, but I had great luck with them,... the one I never had is Hitachi,... but still feel it is a matter of personal opinion for the most part.

By the way,... If anyone wants a 4.6 gb drive,... I have one, or the 1.2gb, or 12gb,...

 

[faxon]

generally i buy seagates because they have the 5 year warranty vs 3 that most WD drives come with. what taltamir says is true to an extent though. dont just buy 1 drive whenever you need to expand your data storage capacity. if you are setting up a large space to store files in set up a raid5 with at least 3 drives, preferably 4. if you just need some added storage space get 2 and raid1 them. the only drives you dont want to worry about as much are your boot disk, and even then, it is usually easier to use a logical disk for your boot disk and use the rest of the space as a separate storage partition on the same disk to prevent data fragmentation in your boot files

with all that said and done, get yourself a pair of 1.5TB barracudas from seagate. best $/gig and from my experience they usually last the longest in terms of reliability, on top of having a 5 year warranty

 

[Fallen Kell]

As others have been saying, Seagate is my drive of choice and has been mainly because they put their money where their mouth is...

 

[Lightning983]

Originally posted by: taltamir
the seagate 1.5TB is 1. carrying the seagtate reliability. and 2. cheaper per GB than any 1TB drive. So I suggest that one.
If not, then, well, any will do. reliability should NOT matter because YOU should be backing up your data... if you expect to buy a reliable drive and then be safe from data loss then you will be disappointed.

Okay, so i guess the general agreement is that Seagate drives are reliable.
I asked about that because i don't really want to back up 1TB's of data... you can understand why

And i've just been to the shop to ask around what they think a bit, and they said the Samsung F1 and Seagate are their picks...

I can get the Seagate for 205$, and Samsung for 190$... those are the prices in my country anyways...


And about the 1.5TB drive, is that even out yet? because i don't see it in any of the shops, should i even wait for it, because it will probably cost a bit of a premium?

 

[zerogear]

Samsung, because its 3 platters. Seagate has 4 platters.

Samsung has 3 year warranty, Seagate has 5.

xD in the end, 3 platters has faster access time, but Seagate has better warranty. Soo.. its up to you.

 

[faxon]

Originally posted by: Lightning983

Originally posted by: taltamir
the seagate 1.5TB is 1. carrying the seagtate reliability. and 2. cheaper per GB than any 1TB drive. So I suggest that one.
If not, then, well, any will do. reliability should NOT matter because YOU should be backing up your data... if you expect to buy a reliable drive and then be safe from data loss then you will be disappointed.

Okay, so i guess the general agreement is that Seagate drives are reliable.
I asked about that because i don't really want to back up 1TB's of data... you can understand why

And i've just been to the shop to ask around what they think a bit, and they said the Samsung F1 and Seagate are their picks...

I can get the Seagate for 205$, and Samsung for 190$... those are the prices in my country anyways...


And about the 1.5TB drive, is that even out yet? because i don't see it in any of the shops, should i even wait for it, because it will probably cost a bit of a premium?

what country are you in? newegg has the 1.5tb drive for $189+Shipping. you are getting ripped off buying a 1tb drive for that much unless it is an ES.2 series drive.

 

[Lightning983]

The prices are like that here generally, because you have it in $, and when they bring it here they just replace it for the same amount in euros...

And i miscalculated... the Seagate is 184$, while the Samsung is 175$
Its just the way it is here...

And btw, i just heard that the Samsung F1 line has some issues? so with me looking at reliability that's kind of upsetting.
Bottom line, i don't need a super fast drive, so i won't mind if Seagate is a bit slower... I'm leaning to the Seagate, maybe gonna wait a week or 2 for the 1.5Tb version, but i'm kind of set on getting the Seagate.

 

[Lightning983]

Okay, i ended up buying the Samsung F1, because i got a great deal on it... like 15% cheaper than the Seagate...

Now i'm just curious, i did a quick HD Tune test on it, so can you have a look and tell me if that's what it should look like?

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5051/72519666pm1.jpg

Also, i did that SpeedFan SMART test, and i got this... is this a bit weird for a brand new drive?

http://img359.imageshack.us/my...?image=98326957lj9.jpg

 

[Idontcare]

It appears to be OK, but here is what I get for a new 500GB Hitachi:

http://i272.photobucket.com/al...ucket/Hitachi500GB.jpg

And here is what I currently get for a 10month old 160GB Western Digital:

http://i272.photobucket.com/al...oto_bucket/WD160GB.jpg

 

[Lightning983]

Yeah, i know... i get even better scores with all 3 of mine Hitachi 160GB drives (RAID 0), and also with my other 2 x 320Gb storage Samsungs.

So i'm just wondering, after reading some bad stuff about the F1 series, should i just return the drive? or does all that mean nothing, and i can stop worrying
Because i don't think i would enjoy filling up the drive with 800GB of data, just to have it fail, or start giving out SMART errors.

 

[Concillian]

Whatever brand you buy, they have a certain failure rate. You never know if you're the 1 in 100 or 10000 or whatever who get a bad drive. It happens. The important thing is that you're prepared for it.

IMO performance is so small between drives that I don't worry about it. Just go for whatever and buy 3 when you buy them, so you know your data is safe. I didn't care a lot about this before digital media. Documents are only semi important, and are easily kept on an online account or something because they're small enough. But now I have pictures, videos, music, etc... that I would NOT ever want to lose.

I run a backup scheme where my important data is backed up daily onto a second identical drive (essentially RAID 1 without the RAID, and only backed up every 24 hours) and then I use a 3rd identical drive for external backups every month. That drive is either in my fire safe or at work in the event of natural disaster.

When my parents had a house fire sparked by their electrical panel, it was a real eye opener that this kind of thing could happen, and I've since taken measures that readily ensure my data is safe. I don't buy just one drive anymore. 3 or zero.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Lightning983
I asked about that because i don't really want to back up 1TB's of data... you can understand why

That's really the wrong attitude to take. If you care about your data at all, you WILL back it up. Or else you will LOSE it. There's no getting around the fact that all mechanical devices will fail eventually, and usually at the worst time possible.

 

[Lightning983]

That didn't really come out right... what i meant to say was back up often... like backing up 1TB of data once a week is too much for me, and currently i don't really wanna spend money on 2 drives just to do RAID 1.

That's why i was curious about reliability, i have a lot of data i need to dump on this drive, and in a couple of months i'll RAID1 it, so i was asking about general reliability, don't wanna loose the data in these couple of months.

But i have a separate 320GB old IDE drive for backing up, it works only once a week, so it should last a long time
I can get the data i store on the 1TB drive back, but it would take me like 5 days to copy it back on...


Does anyone here have the Samsung F1? i'm curious what their SMART readings look like?