Are there any BAD hard drives to avoid buying now-a-days?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

theslug

Senior member
Apr 15, 2004
310
0
0
Notice no one here who is bashing WD has actually been able to give any reason why they are bad.

Just go with WD or Seagate, they are the best.
 

chilled

Senior member
Jun 2, 2002
709
0
0
Go with seagate - all drives come with a 5yr warranty. You can't go wrong with that!
 

Gurck

Banned
Mar 16, 2004
12,963
1
0
Originally posted by: sharkeeper
The best ones have sixty eight or eighty wires on them and spin at 15,000 rpms. All others are just affordable.

Cheers!

Fixed...

:beer:
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
I think if you listened to everyone on the boards about Hard Drives, you'd be so paranoid you'd never buy one and probably wouldnt leave the house until its safe.

Choose the one with the best warranty package or the one that sounds the best.

I prefer Western Digital for my 4 year warranty. Seagate... I havent bought a Seagate since my 420mb Seagate so I reserve my opinion on that.
 

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
17,090
2
0
I've had 3 WD die on me

80GB SE
160GB SE
200GB SE



My future HD's will be by Seagate.

The 'only' thing I like about them is that 'when' I have used their RMA service it has been fast.

Koing
 

theLION

Senior member
Dec 29, 2004
270
1
81
i got 2 maxtors (sata and ide), 2 WD's (raptor and some old ide), and a seagate (Sata) running now....and all are running strong.....so any of those three brands are fine choices.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,453
10,121
126
Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'd avoid Western Digital for their luck-of-the-draw noisy ball-bearing motors. Some are quiet, some go ZZZING!, some start quiet and zing later. No, thank you
Well, I've always had rather good luck with WD drives, even the ones with ball-bearing motors. Sure, they may get noisier after 2-3 years - but at least the drive is still running, unlike many other brands that I've tried. But I thought that WD has finally switched over to primarily using FDB motors now, like Seagate and Maxtor did a year ago? My Maxtor with FDB is actually more noisy than my WD, sure, idle-noise is probably lower, but seek noise is much higher. I can barely tell that the WD is operating, not so with the Maxtor, and the case fans drown out whatever idle noise either drive might have. So for me, seek/operating noise is more important than idle noise. Plus, in my experience, WDs run cooler than Maxtors, and mine seem to have better performance with multiple apps accessing the same HD at once. WD's firmware for their 8MB drives seems more mature in terms of performance.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,453
10,121
126
Originally posted by: columbiaflier
After reading this thread, I can conclude that every hard drive in the world sucks. :roll:
Go with stone tablets, the only danger of a "head crash" is to your skull, your data will stay intact! After all, it's a 100,000-year-old proven technology. How can you go wrong?
 

loic2003

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
3,844
0
0
Go for the Seagate barracuda: Quick, nicely priced, reliable and most of all **QUIET**.

I have two in my system and I can't hear a thing, no sound of the arms moving, no whining bearings or anything. Great pieces of kit.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
go seagate. its the best.


Not so clear cut when you read reviews ,

The Final Word
Between the two 300 GB NCQ-enabled drives we?ve looked at today, the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.8, it is very clear to us that Maxtor simply has a better all-around product. The DiamondMax 10 showed better performance across the board, runs noticeably quieter, and costs anywhere between 5-10% less compared to the Barracuda 7200.8. That?s a pretty clean sweep, in our books


Link.
 

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
17,090
2
0
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: columbiaflier
After reading this thread, I can conclude that every hard drive in the world sucks. :roll:
Go with stone tablets, the only danger of a "head crash" is to your skull, your data will stay intact! After all, it's a 100,000-year-old proven technology. How can you go wrong?

lol

Funny stuff

Koing
 

WalkingDead

Golden Member
Jul 28, 2000
1,103
0
76
In the last few months, I had a Maxtor 80gb HDD die twice, 250gb Maxtor die, 100gb WD die, 200gb WD die.

Right now I have only Seagate 'Cuda left and a Fujitsu SCSI HDD on my desktop. 2x IBM/Hitachi laptop HDD (both from Dell Notebook) on external enclouser. I'm stay clear of IBM/Hitachi 3.5" HDD too.
 

Texun

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2001
2,058
1
81
Seagate - 3 out of 5 failed in less than a year.
Maxtor? - Maybe 10-12, and still have some 6 years old running fine. Had 1 die at the 3 year mark
WD - 2 out of 6 failed in 2 years.
Samsung - 2 and still running but they are only 8 months old.

My unscientific conclusion: They all fail at some point.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,112
318
126
The only hard drives who's performance I can remember are Western Digitals, some were good, some were not. I've had three 40GB ones die on me, always within months of each other, but my fourth one is good. All of my others (a 4GB, two 20GBs, a 60GB, and three 120GBs) were faithful however, so maybe it's just that one particular size that needs to be avoided. I used to have a Maxtor and an IBM, but that was a long time ago, but I do know they never died on me.
 

dashiki

Senior member
Jan 24, 2005
247
0
0
I only buy Maxtor I have built with them for years in this rig I have 2 80gb SATA and one IDE 250GB they are quiet and have always run strong. In my office we have 4 computers running a total of 6 Maxtor HDD's some SATA some not and they run 24/7 they are very reliable
 

TazExprez

Senior member
Aug 7, 2001
689
0
71
I am thinking about getting a new HDD. I am stuck between a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 or a Seagate Barracuda 7200.8. I am considering getting the SATA 300GB version of either of these two drives. I currently have a 36GB WD Raptor and will be replacing this with one of these drives. I was considering getting a 74GB WD Raptor, but I want more space. Thanks for your help.
 

thegimp03

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2004
7,426
2
81
I would stay away from Maxtor...just haven't had a lot of luck with them. I mostly buy Seagate and WD's though and would have to say that Seagates are far superior.
 

jamesbond007

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
5,280
0
71
Originally posted by: Mem
go seagate. its the best.


Not so clear cut when you read reviews ,

The Final Word
Between the two 300 GB NCQ-enabled drives we?ve looked at today, the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 and the Seagate Barracuda 7200.8, it is very clear to us that Maxtor simply has a better all-around product. The DiamondMax 10 showed better performance across the board, runs noticeably quieter, and costs anywhere between 5-10% less compared to the Barracuda 7200.8. That?s a pretty clean sweep, in our books


Link.


Sorry, but that report doesn't consist of average lifetime of the drives. I can speak, from experience, that Seagates in my systems outlast all my friends' Craptors and Will-Die drives. The Craptor may look great on paper and charts, but sorry, data integrity and solid performance is where it's at. Period.
 

mooncancook

Platinum Member
May 28, 2003
2,874
50
91
The conclusion of this thread: no conclusion!

i think i'll just go for the best deal instead
 
sale-70-410-exam    | Exam-200-125-pdf    | we-sale-70-410-exam    | hot-sale-70-410-exam    | Latest-exam-700-603-Dumps    | Dumps-98-363-exams-date    | Certs-200-125-date    | Dumps-300-075-exams-date    | hot-sale-book-C8010-726-book    | Hot-Sale-200-310-Exam    | Exam-Description-200-310-dumps?    | hot-sale-book-200-125-book    | Latest-Updated-300-209-Exam    | Dumps-210-260-exams-date    | Download-200-125-Exam-PDF    | Exam-Description-300-101-dumps    | Certs-300-101-date    | Hot-Sale-300-075-Exam    | Latest-exam-200-125-Dumps    | Exam-Description-200-125-dumps    | Latest-Updated-300-075-Exam    | hot-sale-book-210-260-book    | Dumps-200-901-exams-date    | Certs-200-901-date    | Latest-exam-1Z0-062-Dumps    | Hot-Sale-1Z0-062-Exam    | Certs-CSSLP-date    | 100%-Pass-70-383-Exams    | Latest-JN0-360-real-exam-questions    | 100%-Pass-4A0-100-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-300-135-exams-date    | Passed-200-105-Tech-Exams    | Latest-Updated-200-310-Exam    | Download-300-070-Exam-PDF    | Hot-Sale-JN0-360-Exam    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Exams    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-JN0-360-exams-date    | Exam-Description-1Z0-876-dumps    | Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps    | Dumps-HPE0-Y53-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-HPE0-Y53-Exam    | 100%-Pass-HPE0-Y53-Real-Exam-Questions    | Pass-4A0-100-Exam    | Latest-4A0-100-Questions    | Dumps-98-365-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-98-365-Exam    | 100%-Pass-VCS-254-Exams    | 2017-Latest-VCS-273-Exam    | Dumps-200-355-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-300-320-Exam    | Pass-300-101-Exam    | 100%-Pass-300-115-Exams    |
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    | http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    |