16MB Cache 250GB SATA Hard Drive $93

[Hacp]

buy 5 and run raid 5 FTW!

 

[imported_djspe]

I've owned a lot of Maxtors and Western Digital Drives for about 5 years. So far 2 out of 4 Maxtors and 2 out of 4 WD drives (all were 120GB 8MB cache) failed. However, the WD drives were still in warranty so I got a replacement for the cost of shipping. Both Maxtors were out of warranty. In my experience a good warranty does not mean that your data is safer, that burden rests on the user to backup often, but it DOES mean that if your drive dies you can get a replacement.

I think my next drive will either be a Seagate or Western Digital OEM. The new WD new Server Class Drive WD RE2 looks very interesting. Anyone seen a comparison of drives running in RAID0? I've seen some older roundups but they don't include the newer models.

 

[MicroChrome]

Originally posted by: Dhaval00
I can't trust Maxtor for 500 GB of my data any given day :S.

Don't thread crap on others posts.

I've had very good luck with maxtor. All hard drives fail. I've seen WD/Seagate go down just like the rest of them. That is why you do a raid 1 mirror. If one goes down it's no big deal.

I don't back up any of my crap. Don't really care. I guess it just goes to show how much you value your data.

 

[Ryland]

Every WD digital drive I have ever used has failed. Every Maxtor drive has been fine. I think its a complete crapshoot.

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: pcmax
I can't trust Maxtor for 500 GB of my data any given day :S.

Here here!

I am sure if Maxtor HD has that much of a failure rate, it would at least get a lawsuit like the one for the IBM Deathstar 75GXP.

 

[Granorense]

I have been running RAID-0 on my main systems for a long time, but I ghost the array to a 3rd HD every time I load pictures or install software. I always back up my computers because I don't trust any brand of hard drives, my data is too important to me. The hardware can be replaced but the data sometimes can not. As far as I am concern use any hard drive you like but play safe and back up, as a matter of fact this could be a great back up drive!

 

[SlowSpyder]

Globalcomputer.com has 300gig SATA drives for $94.99 + shipping (after rebate). These are Seagate 7200.8 drives. I didn't know if I should put this here, or start a new thread... anyway, just another option.

http://www.globalcomputer.com/applicati...chTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1197385

 

[ITPaladin]

Fatal Error

Miva Merchant has encountered a fatal error and is unable to continue. The following information may assist you in determining the cause of the error:


Error Code: MER-DTB-00371
Description: Product '150417' not found


Monarch link is bad. Newegg $96.50

 

[BadA]

This thread is cracking me up... everybody says...

"if one HD fails, the entire array fails" as if RAID is evil and dangerous.

What happens if I only have one drive in my computer and it fails? Is that any better or worse?

 

[JasonCoder]

Also of interest is the recent purchase of Maxtor by Seagate.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=u...TF-8&q=maxtor+seagate&btnG=Search+News

Very interesting indeed. Looks like Maxtor stumbled and Seagate was there at the right time?

 

[dczyz]

It is pretty simple, a raid 0 setup doubles your chance of loosing your data to a hard drive failure - since you now have 2 drives and if either fails you loose all of your data.

I have tried out raid 0 on a test box - hardware controller and for day to day real world usage and for gaming I did not see enough of a performance increase to justify the risk.

Other then mirroring for data protection purposes I do not recomend it for the semi enthusiest.

 

[feelingshorter]

link wont work for me..

"Miva Merchant has encountered a fatal error and is unable to continue. The following information may assist you in determining the cause of the error:

Error Code: MER-DTB-00371
Description: Product '150417' not found"

 

[Melectricus]

I agree that I think my Maxtors are the loudest, but failure rate seems equal to any I've used over 18 years including 6-12 of each: Haitachi, IBM, Maxtor, Seagate, WD and Samsung - so just average. I will note that I haven't bought a Maxtor in a few years - been happy with Seagate recently because they are quiet. Anyone can flame on any manufacturer - I'd like to see the longevity now - we'll all be smarter in a couple of years We'll see how Maxtor/Seagate works out eventually.

 

[jitspoe]

Originally posted by: BadA

This thread is cracking me up... everybody says...

"if one HD fails, the entire array fails" as if RAID is evil and dangerous.

What happens if I only have one drive in my computer and it fails? Is that any better or worse?

Well, the thing is, Maxtor drives have a high probability of failing. If you have several of them, you're just increasing that probability. At work, we had a 10 or 20 TB blade that was made up of Maxtor?s, and it failed 3 times in less than a week. And that's running raid5, so you can still have your data if a drive goes out. But multiple drives were failing simultaneously. Perhaps it was just a really bad batch, but I don't trust them at all. In my personal experience, 3 of the 4 Maxtor hard drives I had went bad. Never again.

Also, why did you revive such an old thread just to say that?

 

[wallsfd949]

Originally posted by: Dhaval00
As far as I am concerned, I wouldn't stripe my HDs in any RAID array. If I have the money, I'll go for RAID1 just for data security.

Raid1 and data security do not belong in the same sentance.

Backups/offline backups/offsite backups and datasecurity do.

Please don't let someone think that just because they run RAID1, there data is secure. The only thing RAID1 allows for is no downtime in the event of a single hard drive failure. Raid 1 is not data security.



good deal, thanks OP

 

[TheNewGuy8]

There are a bunch of different RAID arrays, one of them takes 2 or more HDDs and writes each piece of data to both drives simultaneously, giving your system a real time backup.

Another type, called striping, I believe, is where you have 2 or more drives, and every two bits of data are written to either one drive or the other, alternating so the computer can effectively read and write 2x as fast. However this is dangerous, because if either drive fails all your data is gone.

There are other arrays, but those are the most common.

 

[Connoisseur]

Not to thread crap but i'm just pointing out. My work requires me to work with many hard drives and I have noticed one consistent fact. If you put a maxtor, a WD, and a Seagate in the same exact environment (especially unventilated), the Maxtors will run a good deal hotter than the latter two. In second comes Seagate and WD is the coolest as far as I've experienced. And no, this isn't just ONE drive. I've dealt with dozens of each model and this seems to be a consistent occurrence. Now I'm not saying this contributes to failure rate, but it does make me nervous. People who want a cool case might want to consider this fact as well.

 

[Satyrist]

Originally posted by: BadA

This thread is cracking me up... everybody says...

"if one HD fails, the entire array fails" as if RAID is evil and dangerous.

What happens if I only have one drive in my computer and it fails? Is that any better or worse?

And this elicited bumping a nearly two month old thread, how?

Sorry.

 

[shl0791]

Please remember to use a big enough power supply when running more than 2 drives.

In the past, I'd have hd's failing all the time, as well as unreliable sectors. Once I replaced the power supply (I'm running 500 watts now) the problem went away.

 

[coderiver]

It looks to me like all these drives are SATA 150 which means they are only slightly faster than EIDE Ultra 133.
Aren't the best drives the SATA 300? These would be more than twice as fast?

Or I am I missing something?

 

[fargus]

Yup... you're missing that this is a four month old thread.

 

[zikronix]

I have had IBM, WD, MAXTOR, SEAGATE...ALL fail on me...as long as its a name brand Ill prolly buy it. my most recent failure was a maxtor but it was due to a power supply problem... I once dropped a maxtor on accident down some stairs...500meg

that thing ran two years longer

 

[The Master]

You probally shouldn't revive old threads.. coderiver but last I read up on the subject most drives couldn't even hit ATA133 speed so to be honest ATA150 or ATA300 is overkill anyway...

On my hard drive experience I am a absolute Western Digital fan until recently (there Raptor's rock) but all there normal hard drives now have 3 year warranty's (OEM) and for many years they where in the lead with the first 8 mb cache drives.. but these days I lean towards seagates/hitachi's cause there offering 5 year warranty's and most of there's have NCQ too.. (though in all honesty can't say NCQ makes a difference) I recently went cheapo though and went with maxtor's (I just hate them.. no good reason) 300 Gb for a cheap raid 0 of 550 Gb and beside for having them knock cause I had 5 hard drives stacked in a row.. (the maxtors where knocking some where between 3rd and 4th in this long array of drives) when I pulled them out whichever one was knocking stopped and worked just fine (just means heat issue) one reason I was willing to go cheapo was cause the maxtor's had 3 year warranty's and where a good price/gb

Anyway I would strongly suggest if you want them to last you buy WD's Raptor's or Seagates (OEM) that's my suggestoin from a hard drive buff (and as has been said in this thread every one's mileage seems to very with hard drives)

 

[ironk]

you could buy the SATA II one for almost the same price:

http://labs.anandtech.com/alllinks.php?pfilter=4264

not hot.

 

[Vigil522]

Here's my take on hard drives. They are all made so fast these days that one brand doesn't really seem to be better than another in the long run. Hard drives die all the time regardless of the brand. Hitachi SCSI drives used to burn up all the time, Maxtor and IBM drives are kind of loud, the Seagates have 5 year warranties. The only semi-safe way to protect your data is to run your drives in RAID5 and BACKUP the important stuff on tape, CD, DVD, etc. In my server I run 6 IDE drives (2x160GB, 4x120GB; total usable space=600GB) in a RAID5 array and have 2x40GB drives in RAID1. Some of the drives are WD, some Maxtor, some Seagate. I have lost 2 WDs (one died, one actually caught on fire), unfortunately at the time so my RAID5 was killed. I replaced them with Seagates because they were on sale. I just buy whatever size I need that's on sale. Eventually they will all fail (hopefully not at the same time). However, I also have some old WD drives (1.6 GB) that were supposedly flawed when they were made (the 3 platter version), but they are still running strong.

By the way, the drive that caught on fire was a WD. It was out of warranty, but WD replaced it for free anyway. I think they were a bit surprised when I told them that I had a 4 inch white flame shooting from it. Good thing I had to the case open when it happened! That is a whole story in itself!