Is there a hard drive brand you prefer over another?

[Rob Williams]

Seeing as how this storage forum hasn't had some activity for a while, let's drum up some interest by seeing if anyone here has a loyalty to a certain hard drive vendor, and if so, why?

Personally, I started out as a Western Digital guy, but then I ran into bad issues with two drives in a row (I don't recall which ones, but this was back when 4GB hard drives were the norm), so then I moved over to Seagate, who I've stuck with since. I've ran into one problem with Seagate's drives before, which isn't too bad since I've had plenty. Their RMA process was painless and fast, so I've felt rather comfortable on this side of the fence.

I've been hearing great things lately about WD though, and their drives are looking really sweet. Anyone have experience with their RMA service?

 

[Merlin]

I was a Maxtor fan for years, then WD, when thr raptors came out, but really the speeds of raptors are not that noticible in just my opinion.
Currently I like the Hitachi drives with perpendicular recording of data.
Most drives are probably okay, just shipping gorilas dont care and cause most of the problems for a RMA.
I have two, now, Hitachi Deskstars 1 tb each in the NAS207 Server. They run cool and fast ( SATA )
I dont even look at anything but SATA for an install.

Merlin

 

[Rob Williams]

but really the speeds of raptors are not that noticible in just my opinion.

The Raptors impress me even less when I see SSD's in a nice RAID setup. The differences are huge. All we need is for SSD's to actually become affordable... and hold more than 80GB...

 

[THUMPer]

I have always had good WD drives. Using some 36GB Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and such. And a 500GB for data.
WD's RMA service is PAINLESS. I have only used it once or twice, but every time has been really fast.

 

[Kougar]

I've been hearing great things lately about WD though, and their drives are looking really sweet. Anyone have experience with their RMA service?

Yes. RMA service is as easy as anyone elses, but they send you old reconditioned refurbs that are warranted for a year or the life of the replaced drive, whichever is longer.

I have owned Western Digitals, Seagates, one Maxtor, and two Hitachis. One Hitachi was a clicking Deathstar drive I got for almost nothing on ebay, only to find out it was still under warranty. So pesto, free Deathstar drive.

All the WD drives that came with OEM machines still work, but those were 10-20GB units from ~2000 or earlier. All the more recent Western Digital drives have given me issues, and I will never buy WD again. The only drive I have had to RMA because it failed on me was a WD, all the rest (including the Deathstar) still work fine. The refurbed WD also began exhibiting issues the previous one did, whereupon it loudly clicks once and turns off / spools down, which is rather bad news if it was your OS drive at the time. After a minute the OS will seize as it panics, before it blue screens.

I also ebayed a few retail WD drives I picked up as cheap lossleaders to get a little spending money. Exactly a year after I sold them I get emailed from one of the buyers telling me his WD drive is doing the same thing, except Western Digital's 1-year warranty had just expired for him and he was hoping I could provide him a safety net. He wasn't very happy.

Currently, I own a large number of Seagates... more storage than I ever could use but it's nice to be able to to 1-to-1 backups now without space concerns. Never had a Seagate fail on me yet and a few of them are 3-4 years old... Maxtor is also 3-4 years old, and are so is one Hitachi.

WD is worst only to Fujitsu or China's ExcelStor brand in my view. Seagate is the company I endorse, only they offer 5 year warranties on ALL internal drives. WD is only 1, 3, or 5 years depending on OEM, Retail, and if you own a Raptor. Hitachi is 3 years, sometimes 5. Even Samsung offers 3 years.

Seagate makes some of the worst external drives, I've heard by long and far the most sour experiences with those and they never last even a year. But for internal drives, they are the only ones I'd recommend fully. Hitachi is next, and after that it's a toss up between Maxtor and Samsung.

 

[Rob Williams]

That's quite the take on WD... though I've heard similar experiences in the past. I agree on the reasons for liking Seagate also... my thoughts are right along the same lines. I've had great luck, so I haven't felt the need to switch.

Seagate makes some of the worst external drives, I've heard by long and far the most sour experiences with those and they never last even a year.

That goes without saying... the worst of it is they don't even seem to care. I've linked them to this thread on three different occasions, and not once did they actually go and post there, or follow-up with me on it. I am hoping that newly-released models are built better, but I'm not going to bet on it.

Thanks for the info on the WD RMA policies... I had no idea they just gave you a refurb back. I'm not positive Seagate didn't used to do the same thing, but the only drive I ever RMA'd with them sure looked brand-new when I received it. Of course, that's what 'refurb' usually entails.

 

[slugbug]

I've never had a Seagate drive fail me yet.

 

[Kougar]

I do assume Seagate sends back a refurb as well, I'd be amazed if they did not. I don't know though.

Those FreeAgent models have become notorious for their ability to die exactly within a year or so... well within their warranty period, so I am sure Seagate is more than aware of it.

They have a large problem just because the non-PRO Freeagents spin themselves down after 15 minutes, and windows gives error messages when trying to access them. It has been awhile but last I heard users still couldn't disable this feature, unless you bought the Pro edition.

With WD, they send you a special refurb... black painted housing with special model # to show you it's a refurb, as if the stickers on the top were not enough of a hint! And the Deathstar I RMA'd came back as a refurb, which was fine by me to be honest.

I had better correct myself, WD seems to offer a 3 year warranty on the majority of drives, they did away with the 1-year warranty stint. Raptors and Enterprise class drives get 5 years.
As far as "reconditioned" drives I was wrong again, here is their quote:

Recertified Products (USA and Canada)

WD recertified products may consist of customer return units and may be repaired. All products are tested and determined to meet WD's stringent quality standards before they are sold as recertified. Please note that some recertified items may have marks, scratches, or other slight signs of wear.

All recertified products carry manufacturer’s limited warranty of 6 months.