Seagate 1.5TB

[Lightning983]

Hello,

I'm just curious, does anyone own Seagate's new 1.5TB drive?
I'm looking for general experience on the drive because i'd found a really good price for it. (basically it costs the same As Samsung & WD 1TB models)

I'm only gonna use it for data storage not as a system drive.
Anyone knows of any reliability issues, or is the drive a good investment?

Thanx,
Tom.

 

[RebateMonger]

Investing in any new design is always a risk. If you need the storage space, then go for it. It's a bargain. As always, keep ongoing backups of any data you can't afford to lose.

 

[jeffw2767602]

These drives are notorious for failing at an alarming rate. If you get a good enough deal on one and don't mind the risk of having to RMA the drive a couple times, go for it. Check out Seagates own forums for more details on the problems these drives are having. I have heard of people buying 5 and 4 of them being DOA or dying within 30 minutes. I hope they fix these drives because I REALLY want about 4 of em .

 

[Zap]

I own four of them. One is still new/unused, and the other three already have over a GB of data on each of them. No problems.

 

[Lightning983]

Okay crap... now someone is saying they are failing, and others are happy with them... i'll go check out the situation on the Seagate forum... because i also really need a couple of those drives. Probably going to get about 6 of them and make 3 arrays in RAID 1, but still, i don't really want any one of them failing.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Lightning983
Okay crap... now someone is saying they are failing, and others are happy with them...

Both statements are true regarding any and every hard drive on the market. All hard drive brands and models have a failure rate of some small percentage, while the rest are just fine.

Buying a hard drive with a flawless record for reliability is just setting yourself up for data loss if you don't do backups.

If you need 1.5TB in one drive, then the Seagate is your only option. No amount of forum polling will change that, until another brand releases that capacity. As for 1TB drives, I've read (in various forums) of people having difficulties with all brands.

It is difficult to say whether one drive brand/model tends to fail more than another, unless all drive manufacturers release data pertaining to RMA. The thing is that even if one particular brand seems to get more complaints of failures than other brands, what if that failure-prone brand outsold all other brands? Even if they all have the exact same failure rate, the better selling brand will have more failures. That does not increase the chance of it failing for YOU or ME.

Regarding people buying a few drives and having nearly all of them turn out DOA, I'd be willing to bet that those drives were mishandled in shipping, or packaged poorly. For instance, while it seems a sound method, just surrounding drives in bubble wrap and shipping peanuts does NOT meet Seagate's guidelines for proper packaging.

 

[RebateMonger]

I agree with Zap's comments. Few people deal with enough hard drives (especially recent models) to know exactly how they are doing as far as reliability. I CAN tell you with reasonable certainty that Maxtor drives made between 2002 and 2004 are crap. I CAN tell you with reasonable certainty that Western Digital 2.1 GB drives made around 1995 are crap. And I'm pretty sure that IBM DeathStars are crap (but there are some folks still using them and having no problems). I CAN'T tell you exactly what's going on with 1 TB and 1.5 TB drives.

I've already posted on these Forums that I've ordered six 1 TB drives so far. Five WD Green drives and one Seagate drive. One of the five WD drives was DOA and the Seagate appears to have failed, too. the WD drives were from Newegg and packed in bubble wrap and peanuts. The Seagate was in a retail package.

Remember that this is new technology, with higher aerial density than ever before and with multiple platters. Both these things make the drives more complicated to manufacture reliably. ALL hard drives fail. The only question is when. If you can't afford to lose the data on the drive (or array), then make backups.

 

[Kingbee13]

I'm always weary of a 4 platter design, which the seagate 1.5tb drive uses. I've been shopping for some new large capacity drives for a home server, and in addition to the reliability concerns of the 1.5tb drive, its performance is shakey as well, if any of the reviews are to be trusted. For my purposes I've decided to go for the new WD green 1tb drive but not the one on new egg its the old model also with 4 platters although reliability doesnt seem an issue the new 3 platter design is slightly faster and more energy efficient. If your looking for performance WD RE3 or WD black deliver some nice performance at the cost of noise and heat. The Samsung F1s offer decent performance, are quiet and cheap.
I can't say how good or not the seagate drive is, all I can say after researching it, I decied to go a different route for my use.

EDIT:

Yes to get a single drive at 1.5TB the seagate is the only option all the drives I listed are 1tb only

 

[david1286]

wow

 

[n7]

I just ordered one, even though i know they aren't that great for performance.

It happened to be cheaper per GB than all the 1 TBs for me here, & i use the big HDDs for storage only anyway...

 

[dfuze]

I'm in the market for the 1.5tb seagate as well. Is there any sense in waiting till black Friday, or does anyone think the price won't get any better than the $150 at New Egg currently?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: dph1077
I'm in the market for the 1.5tb seagate as well. Is there any sense in waiting till black Friday, or does anyone think the price won't get any better than the $150 at New Egg currently?

There's not a lot of them out there. I'm guessing no sales this year for these drives.

 

[Zap]

$150 looks to be regular price, so I'd just wait.

Damnit, I should have waited too.

 

[dfuze]

There is the 2.5% off at Newegg using MS Live cashback, but I'm hoping for a little more off $3.75

 

[Lightning983]

Well, i probably sound like a broken record, but i only wish i had those prices
1.5TB goes for 230$ here, and most 1TB drives go for about 200$ +/- 20$

Anyway, i was asking because i need to make a dedicated computer that would work 24 hours a day, for 5 days a week, and Seagate always seemed like a good choice.

I also have some doubts about 4 platter HDD's, so any other recommendations for a durable / reliable 1TB drive?
Or would a plain desktop model be OK... i'm not really familiar how many hours a day can these drives work, and i always thought that 24/7 work is reserved for enterprise drives (like the Seagate ES.2, or WD RE3)

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Lightning983
Okay crap... now someone is saying they are failing, and others are happy with them... i'll go check out the situation on the Seagate forum... because i also really need a couple of those drives. Probably going to get about 6 of them and make 3 arrays in RAID 1, but still, i don't really want any one of them failing.

Big problem with this particular drive modelL

11-11-2008 Seagate Acknowledges Problems With 1.5-TB HDD

"Seagate's 1.5TB Barracuda has been available for a couple months from multiple retailers. But shortly after release, reports of random freezes appeared on several sites.

The hang apparently occurs in Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Vista when streaming video or transferring files at low speeds.

After a couple of weeks of silence, Seagate has finally officially acknowledged the problem.

In a response to The Tech Report, they say they're investigating the 'issue' affecting 'a small number of Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives.' Acknowledging the 'inconvenience' is a start, but most users expect at least average performance and prompt service from the capacity king of data storage."

 

[Quiksilver]

Seagate is working on the freezing issues.

 

[Lightning983]

Okay i read that, and i don't think i want to get a drive that has issues. I don't care if the solution is as simple as a different firmware, because if they made that mistake, who knows what else is wrong with the drive...

I guess i'll stick to the "old" 3 platter 1TB drive.

 

[Zap]

Meh. I just use these for archiving. Raptors and VelociRaptors are my primary drives.

 

[Lightning983]

Okay, i have a question, i see a lot of people buying WD's Green Power line of drives, and since they work @ 5400rpm, is it safe to assume they'll be more durable...

And i'm sure the speed of the drive is adequate. Any owners here?

 

[dfuze]

I just bought one (arrives later today). I don't know if they are more durable, but from what I have read running at 5400 rpm lets it generate less heat, which I guess could lead to a longer life. I'll be storing data and my dvd collection on it, so speed won't be a problem for me.

 

[Lightning983]

Well i'm also looking for a drive just for storage... and when i decide about the brand i'll be getting 6-8 of these drives and put them in RAID1, but i still want to be as reliable as possible.

I just saw a couple of articles where Seagate "acknowledges" there are problems... so 1.5Tb is definatley out of the question for me, because i don't really wanna buy 6 "faulty" drives.

So i need an opinion... if any of you are buying a drive, simply for storage, and your choice is between:
WD 1TB GreenPower
Seagate 1TB
Samsung F1 1TB
Seagate 1TB ES.2

Which one would you get?
Its a pretty subjective matter, so that's why i'm asking
Thanx,
Tom.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Lightning983
buying a drive, simply for storage
...
Which one would you get?

The cheapest one.

Alternately, if you are trying for lowest power draw possible, the WD.

Alternately, if you are trying for the highest performance possible (for a fast file server?), the Samsung or the WD Black (which you don't have listed).

 

[Lightning983]

Ok...

Well the cheapest one would currently be Samsung F1 1TB. it goes for about 155$, and its the cheapest 1TB drive i can get. The first one above it is Seagate, and 10$ more expensive, but the warranty for Seagate here is 3 years so... it's basically the same.

I think i'll be getting the Samsung, simple because WD's Black or RE3 series isn't available in my country yet...

 

[d3vil]

Here's my exp w/ the Seagate 1.5 TB drives..

I got quite a deal from Tigerdirect last week for the Seagate 1.5 TB.
$150 + $7 shipping - 5% fatwallet cashback - 5% live cashback - $25 ebillme rebate = about $117 shipped. This deal is still valid I believe.

First Drive that came.. I put it in the PC, turned it on, heard some really bad cranking noise from the drive.. But after about 1 minute it stopped and any time i rebooted after that there was no cranking noise. The cranking noise was not a good sign. Ran an old seatools test, no problems. Tried formatting it in windows, stops at 69%. Tried twice to format. Then I download the latest windows version of seatools, and it fails the generic test. Talked to seagate support technician, he said it should not fail any tests whatsoever so it's a bad drive. (Seagate support was pretty good, they offered to replace it for me, but said the vendor is easier and will do it for free)

Shipped it back to Tigerdirect at no cost to me because it was DOA.

Second Drive that came. No issues, no weird cranking noise on first startup. Passes all tests I threw at it and formats successfully. Looks good.