Seagate Seven warranty of three years

[the_servicer]

I am looking for the most reliable compact USB storage device I can find. The Seagate Seven caught my eye just because of its three year warranty. Does that imply that it may be more reliable than other Seagate products with a two year warranty?

I don't really care about speed or cosmetic appearance or capacity. I just want the most reliable drive.

I considered the Samsung T1 SSD but I am concerned that an SSD will be inherently less reliable than a mechanical drive.

Any thoughts?

 

[drescherjm]

Does that imply that it may be more reliable than other Seagate products with a two year warranty?

I say doubtful. 7200.9s 7200.10s and 7200.11s had 5 year warranties and also had high failure rates although after this the 5 year warranty was gone..

I considered the Samsung T1 SSD but I am concerned that an SSD will be inherently less reliable than a mechanical drive.

I say that SSDs are at least 2 times less likely to fail than spinners. I mean aren't published SSD annual failure rates (for samsung or Intel) are less than 1% with spinners > 2%

 

[the_servicer]

I say that SSDs are at least 2 times less likely to fail than spinners. I mean aren't published SSD annual failure rates (for samsung or Intel) are less than 1% with spinners > 2%

I thought I read that SSD units are more likely to lose data if left unpowered for a long time, or if exposed to heat, etc. Plus the fact that they're only good for a limited amount of usage before they start going bad. Am I wrong about this?

 

[drescherjm]

they're only good for a limited amount of usage before they start going bad. Am I wrong about this?

The write limitation under normal desktop usage is not an issue at all. I expect my SSDs to last several decades and my hard drives ~5 years.

 

[doublejack]

I second the suggestion of going with an SSD. They are more reliable than mechanical disks, and this is way more true when looking at an external drive. Mechanical drives can suffer immediate and irreparable damage from a seemingly minor fall while they are running. Additionally, a solid state drive generates way less heat, which is also better for long term use in a tiny enclosure.

If reliability was my #1 concern for an external drive, there's no question I would go with a SSD.

 

[doublejack]

I thought I read that SSD units are more likely to lose data if left unpowered for a long time, or if exposed to heat, etc. Plus the fact that they're only good for a limited amount of usage before they start going bad. Am I wrong about this?

In all of those cases an SSD will hold up better than a mechanical drive. Heat will more easily damage a spinner, as will magnets. If left not running for a long time, a mechanical drive may not spin up at all - they will eventually seize up. That's a bigger risk than NAND flash losing data from not being used.

 

[the_servicer]

Whoa you guys are making me rethink. Was all this stuff I was reading about SSD tech just FUD?

I was also going to forgo upgrading a ThinkPad X140e to an SSD because I thought the spinner would be more reliable!

 

[the_servicer]

Samsung are overrated and my first Samsung HDD failed miserably in less than a year. And they cost more than the competition, so save a few bucks and go with other brand.

The external Samsung T1 doesn't seem to have much competition.

 

[drescherjm]

and my first Samsung HDD failed miserably in less than a year.

Around 2% are expected to fail in this amount of time regardless of the manufacturer. You had 1 drive. To me all you can say is you had bad luck.

 

[x509]

Whoa you guys are making me rethink. Was all this stuff I was reading about SSD tech just FUD?

I was also going to forgo upgrading a ThinkPad X140e to an SSD because I thought the spinner would be more reliable!

Quite the opposite. If you do upgrade your ThinkPad you will be pleasantly surprised at the improved performance. Plus, you will extend battery life a LOT if your work involves a lot of disk access.

 

[the_servicer]

Quite the opposite. If you do upgrade your ThinkPad you will be pleasantly surprised at the improved performance. Plus, you will extend battery life a LOT if your work involves a lot of disk access.

Thanks. However please note, as I said before, I do not care about things like speed and battery life. I am hoping this thread will discuss only reliability.

Edit: What I mean by "reliability" is that a device does not accidentally lose data.

Having said that, I have heard that certain Intel SSD models are inappropriate for portable battery powered computers because of their power consumption.

 

[larrymoencurly]

It's possible the USB-SATA adapter is built better (Japanese capacitors), but I really doubt the internal hard disk inside is any different. To me the best warranty is a second drive for backups because hardware is cheap and data recover is expensive.

I'd assume that a Samsung or Intel SSD would be more reliable than the best hard disk, but I'm not so sure with other companies because apparently they do little engineering and just copy the reference design of the company that designed the SSD controller chip, and they may cut corners on that.

 

[Choucove]

All I can really think is, with a good backup in place (which EVERYONE should have) then the risks of data loss from a drive failure should be greatly mitigated. I will always recommend a SSD over a mechanical spinning disk for reliability, performance, and longevity. If you are worried about a random loss of data, that's what an external drive with a backup image or file/folder backup is for.

 

[AlienTech]

It's possible the USB-SATA adapter is built better (Japanese capacitors), but I really doubt the internal hard disk inside is any different. To me the best warranty is a second drive for backups because hardware is cheap and data recover is expensive.

Of course there are differences, almost everything inside is different, the platters, motor, heads, actuators, the seals. They try to save a few cents on everything and use cheaper quality items which is the main difference. Higher quality parts don't guarantee that it wont fail but using lower quality parts will surely fail far sooner.. If you saw the photos of the Seagate 3TB drives which were opened up, the platters had water sedimentation on them. I would be surprised if a Japanese company did that.

 

[doublejack]

Thanks. However please note, as I said before, I do not care about things like speed and battery life. I am hoping this thread will discuss only reliability.

Edit: What I mean by "reliability" is that a device does not accidentally lose data.

Having said that, I have heard that certain Intel SSD models are inappropriate for portable battery powered computers because of their power consumption.

If all you care about is reliability, then SSD wins in a landslide. This is especially true when the drive is exposed to movement, such as in a laptop or external enclosure. Want proof? Just watch this- https://youtu.be/MU6TZxwyg0w

/thread

 

[Aesma]

Nothing is so reliable that you don't need backups, therefore plan for backups and go from there.

Of course when you have been using SSDs for years, hard drives for the OS are an awful experience.