Best Quality hard drive??

[thxturtle]

I'm wondering what the best quality hard drive is. Requirement for good quality is that if you bump it accidently it doesn't screw up or if you move your computer around the HDD doesn't stop working.

I have a Maxtor that has been giving me problems ever since I moved. A friend of mine had has a Western Digital one in his computer and brought his computer over to my apartment to hook up to my LAN so we could play games together and it COMPLETELY SCREWED up EVERYTHING. Can't even format and reinstall anymore. (positive it's the HDD, put an old one and everything is fine now)

So what is a good IDE hard drive? I thought that Western Digitals were good but is that in the past now? Maxtors were flaky but I've heard good things about them recently. Seagate? IBM? Fujitsu? etc? Really curious. I want a HDD that can last a long while even if it takese a couple of bumps. (bump shouldn't kill a HDD anyway)

 

[Mem]

You will get loads of replys with different recommended brands,so I`ll get the ball rolling with IBM , mine is 2 years old been moved around & still going strong.

 

[Mday]

drives die all the time from all the companies...

some models are better than others, and there are just duds.

overall, there is no "best."

i only have WD HDDs in my system. even the WD expert series that were manufactured by IBM.

the ONLY HDD i ever had die was a seagate, but that was back in the 1.2 GB days, when drives had less capacity. not that i'd never buy a seagate again, but i've never had anything go wrong with my WD drives, except that i can't locate any more 18 GB expert drives for RAID 10, which i want. I have RAID 0 now with 2 18 GB experts.

if getting a new IDE drive, the IBM 75GXP series are GREAT!!!... great means i'll get them... unless replaced by another generation of drives. but then, the 75 GXPs would be cheaper and still perform well. anyway, my next drives will be 4 of the same ones for RAID 10.

 

[randomlinh]

I was gunna go for a 75GXP, but at ~$135 shipped after coupon for 30GB, i may go for the Quantum 30GB LM Plus. $105 or so after coupon and rebate.

 

[thxturtle]

These are the HDD I've had and the problems I've had with them. This goes back to I think 1996.

4.3 GB Seagate (Just died without warning)
5.4 GB Maxtor (had some data corruption problems)
10.2 GB Quantum Fireball (worked best of all the ones I've ever had but got no ATA66 )
20 GB Maxtor Diamond Plus (data corruption after moving it around)

So I guess the Quantum was the one that I had the best luck with. I changed to the Maxtor because the price was right and I could get ATA66 with it that my MB supported.

Please post your luck with HDD you've had in the recent past ( you don't need to tell me that your old 40MB HDD blew up or something ... unless you still use it! )

 

[Mem]

Fine ,well my Harddrives that have included WD,Quantum,Fujitsu,IBM, have all worked great, & I have been lucky with Zero rate failures.

 

[novice]

I have had 3 hard drive failures in the 5 years that I have had PC's. The first was an 850 mb Connor, obviously I was not the only one since Conner was out of business in less than the 9 months it took my drive to fail. Then I had a 2.1 gig Western Digital fail. I RMA'd it and the 3.2 gig they sent me to replace it is still going strong after two years. I then had a Western Digital Caviar 13 gig fail in about 8 months. I have not installed the new 13 gig replacement drive yet. My 15 gig Quantum lct 10 is working fine after about 3 months, still no sign of the rebate, though... My Maxtor 10 gig Diamondmax Plus 40 is still going strong after about 6 months. And the 7 gig maxtor I bought from a friend has worked great for about 3 years. If I was to buy today, I would not be afraid to pick up a maxtor, IBM or Quantum. Quantum seems to have the best deals right now, and a slightly loud drive doesn't bother me as long as it keeps working. Chuck

 

[Varborta]

I had many hard drives from 1 gig to 14.4gig, seagate, ws, and IBM
and western digital had the best warranty why? because their hard drive
high failure rate yep 2 of my hd and 1 of my friend's hd had error zero track
thing and other problems and seagate had error reading hd too so far IBM
had just couple kb bad sector on my old 8.4gig and this 14.4gig no problem yet.

J.C

 

[utopia]

The 75GXP gets my vote any day.

 

[Choralone]

I second that utopia! My 15gig 75GXP zooms! Would probably boot Win98SE in about 3 seconds if not for my NIC's.

 

[billyjak]

IBM 75GPX 2-30 GIGS all the way

 

[oblivion2888]

QUANTUM FIREBALL

 

[Cknyc]

I have never had problems with IBM drives or Western Digital Drives. I had 2 western digital drives, a 200meg and a 4gig. Both drives worked well. They got loud after a few years old. within the last few years i have only bought IBM's. I have owned 2 14gxp's and a 37gxp all three drives are great. All work, no bad sectors, and are all quiet. These are really reliable drives. I will be buying a 75gxp soon. You cant go wrong buying IBM's

 

[urbantechie]

I think the best drives go in this order:

IBM
Quantum
WD

 

[urbantechie]

WTF? I dont think I know how to use Bullets or numbers.

 

[RSI]

urbantechie,

I agree with you on Quantum (especially) and IBM, but completely disagree on Western Digital.

Western Digital sucks, always has sucked, and always will suck. High price, low reliability and low speed.

Up to this point I haven't heard a single situation of a Quantum just dying, never. I've heard all kinds of problems occuring with Seagates (although mine are fine), Western Digital, Fujitsu and Maxtor.

If I weren't going to buy Quantum, I'd buy IBM, probably nothing else though. If I had to choose something else, I'd choose Maxtor.

-RSI

 

[OS]

I don't think any one brand drive is really significantly better. Even with the beloved IBM series of drives, I've seen die on several occasions. There are lots of little anecdotal stories floating around, but that doesn't really mean anything. I had a discussion with my former boss about hard drive brand reliability and he said that he hadn't notice any one brand being more reliable than any other (he runs his own computer shop which has been around for 15 years or so). I think if you stick with any major brands (IE IBM, Quantum, Maxtor, WD and Seagate) with a good warranty/RMA policy, you should be ok. Anyways, that's my experience with IDE drives and take it for what it's worth.

 

[murf4321]

very simply put....I am a big fan of maxtor!!!

 

[LXi]

OuterSquare: Very true. Im so sad that many people dont realize your point just because of one or two incidents.

 

[Eli]

IBM ...

 

[Super6]

I've had no problems with WD, Maxtor, or IBM. Haven't gotten around to Seagate or Quantum yet. I think it's mostly luck of the draw.

Super6

 

[LXi]

It's definitely a luck of draw, as many knowledgable and non-biased people have stated, your chances of having a hard drive fail is virtually identical regardless of which brand you go with. Many people just wouldn't accept that.

 

[AMB]

I have had three Maxtors now and havn't had a sing problem

 

[LXi]

Beatcha with 5.

 

[Eli]

I tend to agree, it's pretty much luck of the draw. But there HAS to be some quality issues with some drives. They have to make a sacrifice somewhere. That said, the local mom&pop shop that I've talked with rates them as follows, based on RMAs and the like:

IBM
Fujitsu
Quantumn
Maxtor
Seagate
Samsung
Western Digital

They say that Fujitsu drives are remarkably reliable for their price, but IBMs are the best hands down. They say that WD is the worst. Just the opinion of one shop. *shrug*.