hard drive brands: you opinions...

[Everfalling]

i've been told across the board that Westen Digital HD's are the best, but what about the other brands? maxtor, seagate, samsung... how do you rate them?

if you could, list your favorite brands (or least favorite) in order of preference, #1 being best and then downward. also, if there are any reasons why you put something at the top and others at the bottom, please say so. thank you :)

[gridracer]

I will never buy a western digital again I have a 40 gig that died 6 months ago it said warranty until nov. 23 2005 ( built on nov 23 2002) when I bought it but now for some reason warranty is supposedly only one year on it according to WD so I got nothing for drive that failed under supposed warranty.I will stick with seagate now with a 5 year warranty.The seagate I bought to replace it is definately quieter also.

[Everfalling]

I will never buy a western digital again I have a 40 gig that died 6 months ago it said warranty until nov. 23 2005 ( built on nov 23 2002) when I bought it but now for some reason warranty is supposedly only one year on it according to WD so I got nothing for drive that failed under supposed warranty.I will stick with seagate now with a 5 year warranty.The seagate I bought to replace it is definately quieter also.

hmm... i was thinking more about technical pros and cons, instead of fluke bad expereinces...

[wizzackr]

hmm... i was thinking more about technical pros and cons, instead of fluke bad expereinces...

I'd go to www.storagereview.com and find a drive which performs good in what area you need. Then have a look at their reliability survey and see if it is known to be reliable before passing a buying decision.

In general I think the 'ranking' you seem to be looking for depends a lot on what you actually look at: Seagate seems to be a good pick (or as you said, could be considered 'best') when it comes to reliability and cool&quiet operation, for example, while performance of their latest line was not on par. Then again, that changes a lot with every generation of drives a company releases, so, as said before, I'd rather have a look at a specific product line than a brand.

[DougLite]

Seagate: Gold standard in reliability. For many, the name Seagate is synonymous with the word reliable.
Maxtor: Right now, Maxtor is killing everyone on price without compromising noticably on reliability or performance.
Western Digital: Best performance right now (from their 16MB drives), along with good cool/quiet operation.
Hitachi: Covers capacity points with pretty zippy drives that WD doesn't, along with excellent thermal and noise performance.
Samsung: Makes the quietest drives money can buy. Period.

I can come up with a reason to buy drives from each desktop maker, depending on the application. Decide what's important to you, review some performance data, and make a decision.

[unhappy_mage]

Samsung: Makes the quietest drives money can buy. Period.
Solid state ;) But I guess at that price point it's not money any more, it's a grant that you have to use up before tomorrow.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072 (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=150072&tm=33)

[Ultra Wide]

One area samsung lags in is size/capacity, their lagest SATA drive is 250GB.

[DougLite]

Solid state ;) But I guess at that price point it's not money any more, it's a grant that you have to use up before tomorrow.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072 (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=150072&tm=33)IIRC, Samsung also makes one of the few (only?) solid state drives available, and with a sound of about, oh, I dunno, zero dB, it's probably the quietest drive you can buy :p Don't make me add "mechanical" to all of my Samsung quiet assertions ;)

[Ruffy]

I've killed too many maxtors to trust them for anything of value

WD's latest look good
I tend to buy Seagate now, even tho I stayed away from them for awhile after a 1gb died many years ago

Only installed 5 hitachi's or so
only 2 samsungs, so far so good on both

[drizzt81]

I'd go to www.storagereview.com and find a drive which performs good in what area you need. Then have a look at their reliability survey and see if it is known to be reliable before passing a buying decision.


That is an excellent point. However, the only way that the RS will give good information is if people enter ALL their HDDs into the survey. Are you pulling your weight?
I think I am (click for bigger pic):
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/gwk/results_sm.PNG (http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/gwk/results.PNG)

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/154479.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=154479)

[DougLite]

^ I've started entering my drives, I might be able to top that :eek:

[drizzt81]

^ I've started entering my drives, I might be able to top that :eek:
with >3 TB you should easily beat me.