(poll) Who makes the most reliable hard drives

[Czar]

pollthingywhatnot

 

[shathal]

Doubt you'll see many IBM entries - what since their debacles with the 75GXP failures and 120GXP 8 hrs/day useage allowance they've pretty much gotten quite bad blows to their previous image of being very good/reliable...

- Shathal.

(2 IBM HD failures in 1 month - pots of joy ...)

 

[Idoxash]

I voted for seagate -- fast, stable, and seemed to be reliable -- running 6mths noon stop

All thoe i have a 2.5 year old WD 40 gig drive that has been on noon stop it's a lill slow and i can tell it is showing it's age a lill but still very nice drive!

 

[Aquaman]

I've only had Quantums & they have never crapped out on me yet........... seeing that Matrox owns them............ I'd go with thier stuff to

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Wolfsraider]

maxtor for me but since i have only used medalist wd maxtor and some older ones generic
the only drives still running are three maxtors approx 3.5 years old and the maxtor 80 gig drive thats 2 months old

 

[tigerwannabe]

ditto on quantum--excellent drives & very reliable

 

[Biggs]

Seagate - fast, quiet, and reliable.

 

[LostHiWay]

I only use Maxtor drives now. They seem to be the fastest and most reliable.

 

[nortexoid]

i don't know, but i've had my maxtor for about 4-5 years now and it's still ticking...i only use it for backup now tho, but still.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

heh..have a Connor 1.2GB around here somewhere still going...Win98 loaded on it as well.. ..currently running a WD 100GB 7.2k 2MB and a Maxtor 80GB 740x..out of numerous Maxtors( 15+) only one went to RMA(electric surge..thru a lol..surge suppressor by Belkin..

) ..Maxtor has my vote

 

[JellyBaby]

You should specify IDE vs SCSI, the later being more reliable. IDE is cheap mass storage. IDE drives are fairly reliable but pressure to cut costs have affected some company's *cough* IBM *cough* quality.

 

[Vinny N]

It'll be a cold day in hell before I stop using Seagate SCSI drives

It'll be a short winter and a long summer in central New York state before I stop using Seagate IDE drives

 

[Paulson]

I just like western digital drives all around

 

[Imported]

I like western digital drives.. My maxtor crapped out on me.. less than a year of use.

 

[Markfw]

Just had to comment on Biggs statement on Seagate:fast, quiet, and reliable.

A couple of years ago or so, they were the NOISIEST drives around. And their reliability wasn't top notch either. The last series of drives they have ARE quiet, and time will only tell on the reliability.

 

[GT1999]

Seagate and Maxtor without a doubt.

Whoever choses IBM or Western Digital should lay down that crack pipe and rethink things...

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: Geekish Thoughts
Seagate and Maxtor without a doubt.

Whoever choses IBM or Western Digital should lay down that crack pipe and rethink things...

same opinion here

 

[dexvx]

I think people are blowing the IBM harddrive failures out of porportion. The 75/60GXPs were bad, but not the 34/120GXPs. I have both and they are rock solid to this day (3/1 years old respectively). Given a certain population, all OEMs will have harddrives that fail.

But to the notion of best harddrive, look at what major OEM use in their business machines: Seagate.

A couple of years ago or so, they were the NOISIEST drives around. And their reliability wasn't top notch either. The last series of drives they have ARE quiet, and time will only tell on the reliability.

You're mistaking Seagate with Western Digital.

 

[Valinos]

I've used both Maxtor and Western Digital drives exclusively and while I haven't had any problems with WD I've used Maxtor for years longer and never had a problem. I did recently have a WD 80GB Special Edition just fry on me but I blame that on my faulty Soyo board that fried two Athlons also. Strangely enough, my CDROMs, video card, RAM, and PSU made it out alive.

 

[Paulson]

Originally posted by: Geekish Thoughts
Seagate and Maxtor without a doubt.

Whoever choses IBM or Western Digital should lay down that crack pipe and rethink things...

I'm sorry, I don't own a crackpipe nor do I own crack...

I have 3 drives that have been working for a long time w/no problems (I have 2 quantums that are like 3/4 years old and run just nice too though )

 

[KillerCow]

Whoever choses IBM or Western Digital should lay down that crack pipe and rethink things...

Why? I have shipped many WDs and only seen a few failures.

I also find Maxtor (by sheer number of shipped drives) and Fujitsu to be very reliable. I have only had one Fuji failure... and I suspect that it was misshandled.

 

[GT1999]

Originally posted by: KillerCow

Whoever choses IBM or Western Digital should lay down that crack pipe and rethink things...

Why? I have shipped many WDs and only seen a few failures.

I also find Maxtor (by sheer number of shipped drives) and Fujitsu to be very reliable. I have only had one Fuji failure... and I suspect that it was misshandled.

Why? I've seen lots of people complain about their failures here at AT and other forums for one, and most importantly I've had a 1200JB die on me (DOA). Other friends of mine have had various WD drives die short lives as well. Maxtor and Seagate on the other hand, while maybe not as fast as WD or IBM's latest offering, are much more reliable based on my experiences.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Haven't had a WD crap out on me yet (knocking on wood).

 

[Rand]

I voted for..... No one!

Who has the best reliability seems to change from generation to generation.
6-8 years ago Western Digital was held in extremely high regard almost throughout the industry and had extremely low RMA rates. 3-5 years ago most people wouldnt dream of touching a Western Digital drive after their little fiasco with all the faulty chips they manufactured in one series of drives.
Within the last 2 years they've been slowly beginning to improve their reputation again.

Reliability varies far too much over time and between different segments of the market to pick any single drive manufacturer as 'the best'.

IMHO-Reliability:

The best mainstream 7200RPM IDE Drive: Maxtor's ball bearing D740X models.
Their FDB models see to fail noticeably more frequently.
The only viable competitors in terms of reliability seem to be Western Digital's BB line, and Seagate's Barracuda IV. I've not found the WD ''BB' line to be as consistent as the D740X BB models, and compatibility issues with older Abit mobos knock it from the top.
I don't consider Seagate comparable due to the Barracuda IV's extremely low reliability and performance when utilized in RAID arrays, granted you can RMA to Seagate for their Barracuda IV optimized specifically for RAID. Also too many of the initial shipments of the Barracuda IV suffered from extremely loud whining noises during seeks, this has since been entirely repaired but it removes Seagate from contention in my mind.

To briefly sum up the 'best' in the other markets IMHO:
5400RPM IDE drive: None. I do not believe any of the current generation 5400RPM models compare to select models of older generation drives from Seagate/Maxtor/Quantum.

10K SCSI: Quantum/Maxtor's Atlas 10k III. The Fujitsu MAN is also on top of the chain.

15K SCSI: Fujitsu MAM.

Seagate deserves honourable mention whenever SCSI comes into play as their SCSI drives are almost always extremely reliabile, and throughout their history Seagate has almost firmly dominated the SCSI reliability charts.

 

[spanky]

seagate