.....and another WD drive bites the big one!

Rich Gibson · May 10, 2005

I'm sitting here listening to the latest addition to the Rich Gibson hard drive graveyard. A 250GB WD sounding like the wind cycling up and down..up and down and clunking in between.

I sure hope someone from WD reads this forum. I've never encountered such inferior products...well, yes I have...Maxtor. Two have died since January, but I've lost four WDs since last summer.

I've noticed Seagate, and now Hitachi and Samsung at CompUSA and Circuit City and Best Buy. Micro Center is still pushing row upon row of Maxtors and WDs.

For anyone, how would you rate the following, quality-wise?

Hitachi
Fujitsu
Seagate
Samsung
?

Thanks :?:

Rich

Iliah · May 10, 2005

Dear Rich,

One of my corporate friends, big Russian computer-trading company, taught me that if the drive is pressurized with foil tape running around the sides - it is not good. Also, they taught me - showing their graveyard and statistics, not to use WD, Samsung, and some other brands. Mounting HD is a very delicate operation - even a small scratch at the side of the drive can end in depressurizing. They do not use tight HD mounting frames, and their assembly people are trained to mount the dtrives with particular caution.

Chris101 · May 10, 2005

Thanks Rich - now I don't feel so alone with my own western digitalis drive starting to putz out on me.

Gale · May 10, 2005

A couple of years ago I had a WD bite the dust. 2 months of operation.

Iliah · May 10, 2005

my experience:

IBM, Fujitsu, Seagate - I use only high-end Seagates - never died. Some are ten years old, external SCSI, travelling with me. All others - sooner or later died. Most after 2 years

Greg · May 10, 2005

This is really a subject for Patrick but I can tell you I have about 40 Maxtors ranging from 20 gig to the big ones. Don't think I ever had one fail. had several of the deathstars go south though.

Iliah · May 10, 2005

I had failures w/Atlas AV types, on videoediting machines. But it is very heavy usage...

jklofft · May 11, 2005

Rich,

HD should be much heartier then what you are discribing. Are you sure that you don't have another problem that is causing these HD failures (e.g. heat or a bad power supply)?

Rich Gibson · May 11, 2005

jklofft said:
Rich,

HD should be much heartier then what you are discribing. Are you sure that you don't have another problem that is causing these HD failures (e.g. heat or a bad power supply)?

Heat could theoretically be a cause, but it's in a number of different PCs. Power supply-wise, no because I have big beefy Enenmax and similar PS.s I learned my lesson when I'd coome home from work and find that the PC had rebooted.

I use Lian LI custom Aluminum cases with the drives situated directly in front of the two intake fans.

Last summer I bought the 25gb WD at Fry's in Chicago for an unusally low price. It failed in a month. The replacement failed this february. Examining it very closely I noticed that this replacement was refurbished. I am pretty sure the latest bunch of Maxtors and WDs are being produced to lower quality specifications.

Two years ago the Maxtors started acting this way and then I switched to WD. Then they started failing last summer at about one every other month. I have four different PCs at home and the failures came from various computers. So far two 120GB and two 250GB from WD.

Rich

Rich Gibson · May 11, 2005

jklofft said:
Rich,

I've only used Maxtors and WD. The last two that I bought were WD and I've had good luck (knock wood). I'm not sure what to tell you (other back-up early, back-up often).

I was scared ONCE! I have the entire 110GB image collection in four differennt locations.

Rich

PGB · May 11, 2005

Don't get hitachi! Those and IBM are probably the worst that I have ever seen. If it says Deskstar or "deathstar" as I call it it is no good.

Maxtor and Seagate are the most reliable and as I sell hundreds of hard drives a month and pull up the return stats. I get one out of 20 drives that come back within my 30 day warranty through the store and all of the drives I have at Greg's place are maxtor's and the oldest ones have been running for 2 years, non stop with no failures.

I like maxtor, seagate more. Fujitsu 3.5" ide drives I had experience with several years ago but because of failure rates I dumped them. Fuji laptop drives are so so and fail often. Any Dell inspiron that has a hitachi notebook drive will most likely fail within one year of owning it. I service 3 a week with this problem. I have probably replaced 75 laptop drives from dell laptops in the past few months.

I really wish that flash drives were not so expensive and not so static sensitive. That would be so cool to run off of a 250gb flash drive. Imagine how fast the seek times would be with that.

Just my .02

Ken-L · May 11, 2005

Over some 15 years in computer consulting I found Maxtor and Seagate to be more reliable than Western Digital.

Some WD drive were very good, but it has been their inconsistency that is the rule rather than the exception.

Fortunately for all of us, the "good" hard drives have evolved from the nightmare all of them they used to be!

sfoxjohn · May 11, 2005

I'm really surprised. I have used nothing but Western Digital since about 1988(20MB - seems hard to believe) and have never had one fail. (Of course now that I said that, it will probably happen). At present I have a 120GB as primary and a 160GB as a second drive. These two have been running fine for about three years, and I use the machine daily when not traveling.

The first three rules of computing, after all, have always been Backup, Backup, Backup!

I have read in one of those computer FAQ columns that turning the computer off and on frequently can cause the drives to wear out faster because of all the initialization. Who knows? I never turn mine off more than every two weeks or longer.

OR ... it's just the luck of the draw.

Ken-L · May 11, 2005

Yes! I have seen computers that ran for years without being switched off, and when they were switched off they would not restart.

sfoxjohn said:
I have read in one of those computer FAQ columns that turning the computer off and on frequently can cause the drives to wear out faster because of all the initialization. Who knows? I never turn mine off more than every two weeks or longer.

OR ... it's just the luck of the draw.

The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) for many components will DOUBLE if the system is NOT switched off and on frequently.

I too only turn mine off when I will be away, or for cleaning, or heaven forbid a "hard crash". But....every component I have runs off a very good battery-backup system that also filters, conditions and protects.

TOLady · May 11, 2005

Maxtors for years, internal and external, no problems to date *fingers crossed*. PC always on unless vacation or storm.

AndyE · May 11, 2005

Currently in use:
20 Maxtor S-ATA
11 Maxtor external
6 Seagate SCSI
4 WD IDE
6 IBM IDE
Total Capacity: 7.5 TB
Last HD problem: 1995

I seem to be lucky

(knock on wood)
Seriously: I really care about cooling and power stability

Panos Kazanelis · May 11, 2005

Hey Rich, did you get to see Gigapart's Hot Deals for this week???
http://www.gigaparts.com/index.php
This is gonna be my next back-up drive for my GameStation PC... HD0187 MAXTOR 300GB U-133 7200 16MB in what, 5 days...!!!

Chris101

jklofft

fks

.....and another WD drive bites the big one!

Rich Gibson

Iliah

Chris101

Gale

Iliah

Greg

Iliah

jklofft

Rich Gibson

Rich Gibson

PGB

Ken-L

Guest

sfoxjohn

Ken-L

Guest

TOLady

AndyE

Panos Kazanelis

Latest posts