what do you consider the highest quality hard drive?

[amddude]

For a while now, I have been buying WD and Samsung only. I have had to rma drives from both companies but have had fine experiences. I haven't owned a seagate or maxtor in a very long time. What do you consider the best, and why?

 

[Bradtechonline]

I've used a lot of hard drives over the years. Like you, I use WD and Samsung for most of my builds. I have used Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Quantom, and the old IBM Deathstars before Hitachi bought them. Here are my personal experiences.

Seagate: You got to take into account Segate offering 5 year warranty on all their HDD. I didn't have good luck with Seagate, and most of the people I ran into had the same feeling. It has been since 2002 since I've used Seagates so they may have got better. I always thoght Seagates Hard drives ran hotter when compared to WD. I had a Seagate 160 GB PATA drive, hooked up to the same system that a WD 160 GB PATA was hooked up to. I felt of both of them, and the Seagate was considerably hotter.

Maxtor: I had plenty of Maxtors die on me after about a year of use so I quit using them. I bought myself a 80 GB Maxtor drive, and it didn't last that long. I also had two friends have Maxtors fail on them. One was a 250 GB drive, and I cannot recall the other.

Hitachi: A lot of the guys on newegg rave over how fast these drives are. I got the same exact 80 GB SATA drivers that newegg sells in about 20 Acer computers. These hard drives make loud clicking noises, and are noisy drives. I would not ever use one in a personal build, or recommend using these.

Samsung: Quitest drives on the market I think. I've used Samsung almost exclusivly since buying my Samsung 160 GB PATA drive. That same drive is 4 years old, and is running as fast as the day I bought it. Out of all the Samsung drives I've put into builds, I've had one drive fail on me. It was a real odd problem. When it died, it would not let the system boot up. I put it into 5 different motherboards, and it kept the PC's from booting up. Overall though, I am very satisfied with Samsung drives.

Western Digital: Very good drives that I have had good luck with. I got a 2 GB WD drive that still works. The WD's in my acers are night and day compared to the Hitachi's I got with my last batch. Always had very good luck with WD.

I'd rate them like his .

1. Samsung
2. WD
3. Seagate
4. Maxtor
5. Hitachi

 

[Nocturnal]

This is my honest opinion. I fix computers so I've seen ALL hard drive brands die. I don't have or hold one above the others. However, I always put things such as cooling, and well ventilated area (case) into action when I choose a hard drive for myself.

Most times, it's an electrical problem or heat that kills a hard drive. So, a good idea, besides buying the brand that you know and like, is to have a UPS backup for your computer and also to have a well ventilated case with case fans blowing directly over the hard drive.

I have an Antec P160 with a 120MM intake fan blowing directly over my 74GB Raptor and a 300GB Maxtor hard drive. So far, knock on wood, they've been fine under these conditions. I recently also added a UPS.

Everyone's opinion on which is the best will vary.

Also forgot to mention that being good with backups will save you a lot of headache down the line. I would use whatever is the cheapest, so long it's a name brand such as WD, Samsung, Seagate, Hitachi, etc. and make sure you do backups and keep them safe in case you need them down the line.

 

[lobbyone]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Everyone's opinion on which is the best will vary.

FTW!

 

[SuperNaruto]

i haven't had problems with my seagates... most of them are 750gb or the 750gb es..

seagate bought out maxtor.. so pretty much i think remaining stock of maxtor will be gone and everything converted to seagate..

 

[Oyeve]

Every HD company will have a bad run. I fix comps for over 20yrs and can honeslty say that I have come across bad drives from all of them. Maxtors were once the worse drive maker for yrs, but I have 3 Maxline III drives in my system for well over a year and they work great. I have another 4 yr old SATA maxtor drive in another system and is still running great even though its 3 yrs past its warranty. Most of the Deathstars at work are dead. Out of around 50 deathstars only one is still alive but it is noisy as hell!. I have a Seagate in an old 486 system that is around 7 yrs old and it is still running. IMO getting a reliable drive is a gamble. Just look reliable reviews for a particular drive you are interested in.

 

[Imyourzero]

I like Seagate and WD. Never personally owned a Samsung, but we have a ton of the 80GB PATA SpinPoint drives at work and they've been reliable for the most part.

 

[shroud72]

It seems that since HDs have gotten cheaper they have moved the assembly plants from Singapore to China and thus the loss of quality. I recently purchased a WD 500 Gig SataII Caviar RE2 (WD5000YS) as it had a 5 year warranty and was rated very highly on storagereviews.com, its only slightly slower then a WD Raptor but since its listed as an Enterprise drive, its very quiet and fast it met all of my criteria for a new drive.