need some views from the pro's about HDD

[marc]

I would seriously not recommend anyone to get a WD hard disk. I've had some WD hard disks that just get corrupted files with no reason at all, and some of my friends have experienced the same problem. After I sent them for RMA under warranty and got new units back, I sold them all off immediately.

The same goes for WD hard disks used in notebooks. In my friend's Acer Gemstone, the WD hard disk has some crackling sound already now after a few months. Sigh.

I don't know if we're all just really unlucky, but I've had enough.

[1031982]

Originally Posted by marc

I would seriously not recommend anyone to get a WD hard disk. I've had some WD hard disks that just get corrupted files with no reason at all, and some of my friends have experienced the same problem. After I sent them for RMA under warranty and got new units back, I sold them all off immediately.

The same goes for WD hard disks used in notebooks. In my friend's Acer Gemstone, the WD hard disk has some crackling sound already now after a few months. Sigh.

I don't know if we're all just really unlucky, but I've had enough.

Wow, I never had any real problems with WD. I had one drive missing an IDE pin, and it was swapped out quickly and that was my biggest problem that I can remember. Now Maxtor, that's a different story. Nasty drives with me... I had some fail after 4 months. Just stop working for no reason. I tried a Samsung, but the speeds were lower then indicated and they would NOT do anything about it. Drive worked for a long time, external influence damaged it, so I don't know how long it would have lasted. But I won't bother with them voluntarily.

[marc]

Oh. I've had pretty good experiences with Maxtor and Seagate (both under the same company). I guess it all comes down to our luck.

I was nearly tempted to get a Samsung because I think they were the only brand to give 5 years warranty, but thankfully I did not after hearing what you said. I don't think they even sell Samsung hard drives at my region anymore. No idea what happened to them.

[Adrian Wong]

So bad? How long ago was it?

Then again, practically all HDD manufacturers have had their share of bad drives. Take a look at IBM. Some of their Deskstar models were so bad they were called Deathstars!!

Now their drives are no longer facing the same problems. Still some of the stigma remains...

[1031982]

Well, Samsung drives are peaty much budget buys IMO no. I wouldn't have a problem using a Seagate drive personally. But I am sure you are right. It comes down to our luck. Heck, I don't know how long I have had the 360GB WD drive, but it's been in there a while. I will replace it only for capacity soon enough. Might get a 1TB drive.

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

So bad? How long ago was it?

Then again, practically all HDD manufacturers have had their share of bad drives. Take a look at IBM. Some of their Deskstar models were so bad they were called Deathstars!!

Now their drives are no longer facing the same problems. Still some of the stigma remains...

Very true. But the Maxtor was replaced with another bad drive. At that point, I told them if the next drive was bad as well, I just won't use the manufacture any more. They said they would verify the drive an so on. Sure enough, a week later, it failed. If I was a budget PC, and load times are not important, I will use Samsung. For the most part, after the OS loaded, it was just fine. So I would use Samsung for just storage also. But I have my limits, and I think I am reasonable in terms of my experiences with the companys.

[marc]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

So bad? How long ago was it?

You mean the WD drives? All throughout the recent years. I think from about year 2003. My friend's Acer notebook having the WD hard disk problem is just a few months old.

Originally Posted by 1031982

Well, Samsung drives are peaty much budget buys IMO no. I wouldn't have a problem using a Seagate drive personally. But I am sure you are right. It comes down to our luck. Heck, I don't know how long I have had the 360GB WD drive, but it's been in there a while. I will replace it only for capacity soon enough. Might get a 1TB drive.

I used to have a Quantum Bigfoot 2GB hard drive back in the days. It was so well-built I could move it around everywhere and it didn't have any problems, not even a single bad sector. I used it for about 8 years and now it's in one of the PCs which I think 'might' still be in use in my dad's office. It has got to be at least 10 years old now.

If only they still built hard drives like that. Nowadays they are so fragile, it's quite sad.

note: Quantum was the original brand name for Maxtor hard drives. And now Maxtor is owned by Seagate.

[1031982]

Well, I had problems before the Segate takeover.

[Chai]

Yup, I have problems with 2 Seagate drives, before and after taking over Maxtor. I had a Maxtor which was OK, but the bearing noise was showing sign of wear and tear. I have 3 WD HDDs now, all are working fine.

I love my WDs, Raptor and SE16s.

[Max_87]

I have 3 maxtor drives, 1 died, 1 half faulty and 1 still alive and working
All my 3 seagate drives are still running fine, one 7200.9 and two 7200.10. The other 2 is WD, one is the very old 30GB 300AA which still runs fine now, and the new WD5000AAKS.

Only maxtor drives are dying on me so far... The rest all running fine.

[Mac Daddy]

Well I have had Maxtor and Seagate and never really had any HD problems to speak of. I have never owned a Western Digital drive but will in a few weeks a buddy of mine is sending me a WD SATA 320G at a really good price

On drives heres a pic for ya I have no idea how many machines this has been in and forget exactly when I got it but it is running the Ubuntu Server 6.06 OS on my server machine as of this weekend (other drive just for data). Never had a bad sector

(check the date sticker in the top left)