Hard drive manufacturers and quality control

[blastus]

Every few months when I consider adding or replacing hard drives in my main computer, I am set back my information that so-and-so drive that I'm interested in has so-and-so issue.

For example, pretty much all the Seagate 7200rpm drives (except perhaps those with updated firmware who knows) basically freeze, hang, or otherwise don't work.

The OCZ solid state drives have serious write issues making them perform significantly slower than a 5400rpm drive--people are calling them paper weights unable to perform simultaneous writes.

And now, the Western Digital 5400rpm Caviar Green drives (all sizes) have parking issues which cause them to prematurely die. Why there are so many DOAs for these drives on NewEgg who knows. I was really considering one of these drives but now I think I won't buy one.

So what's the deal with hard drive manufacturers? I find it hard to believe that it's 2009 and they are incapable of making reliable hard drives that just work. If it's not firmware bugs/issues it's something else and I don't believe that all the people buying these drives and trying to use them are stupid either (i.e. trying to put them in a motherboard that doesn't support its capacity etc...)

[Skripka]

Remember the rule of internet reviews: Only those who have an axe to grind take the time to write reviews for products.

Take reviews on NewEgg with an extra grain of salt.

[blastus]

Remember the rule of internet reviews: Only those who have an axe to grind take the time to write reviews for products.

Take reviews on NewEgg with an extra grain of salt.

I know what you're saying, but it's not just one person, it's many different people basically saying the same thing over and over again.

[LowSky]

With many companies having to go "green" it means using less toxic materials, like lead. Lead was used in the solder until recently, lead free solder has a tendency to form odd crystal patterns that look like tiny spikes. these spicks can cause shorts that can ruin electronics. and on hard drives where spaces is in short supply things can go badly in a higher quantities.

It is true more people will complain then those who are fine. Personally I havent had any HD issues in any drive I have ever purchsed off Newegg

[mips]

I don't think people are exaggerating. I know many people that were/are affected by the Seagate 7200.11 drives. My own 500GB drive was affected but fortunately I flashed it before the poo hit the fan.

[Skripka]

I know what you're saying, but it's not just one person, it's many different people basically saying the same thing over and over again.

The Seagate fiasco I had heard of...but many of those OCZ SSD drives are sold as having low R/W speeds of only 50MB/second that are openly stated in the specs....and people buy them and complain about what they should have read or known before clicking "Buy Now".

I've never gone shopping for "green" HDDs, to be honest. But my rule of thumb is that on ANY product roughly 1/3-1/2 of negative reviewers didn't RTFM, didn't read the specs, or are just dumb, usually another 1/3 got a lemon and are voicing anger, and the final 1/3 are usually well-written and thoughtful reviews that are actually worth the server space. You can tell a great deal about the reviewer by what they wrote and how they wrote it.

[sydbat]

the seagate fiasco i had heard of...but many of those ocz ssd drives are sold as having low r/w speeds of only 50mb/second that are openly stated in the specs....and people buy them and complain about what they should have read or known before clicking "buy now".

I've never gone shopping for "green" hdds, to be honest. But my rule of thumb is that on any product roughly 1/3-1/2 of negative reviewers didn't rtfm, didn't read the specs, or are just dumb, usually another 1/3 got a lemon and are voicing anger, and the final 1/3 are usually well-written and thoughtful reviews that are actually worth the server space. You can tell a great deal about the reviewer by what they wrote and how they wrote it.+1

[Sewje]

For quality I tend to get 2.5' laptops drives even for my desktop, they were made to last much longer, more quieter and use less power, they are a little more expensive but still pretty affordable these days.

[gn2]

Samsung are number 1 for me.

[bashveank]

I remember Steve Gibson (of GRC and Security Now!) saying that it has to do with capacity, but more with the demand. A masterfully engineered hard drive would be more expensive for the end user than simply replacing your cheap drive.

[Orlsend]

I think my HDD its going to beat me in the game of survival.

[Spiritous]

All my hard drives are Toshiba.

[HappyFeet]

I always buy Seagate drives, and have never had a problem with them. Just make sure to buy stuff with at least 4 eggs.

[BuffaloX]

Nowadays I only trust Western Digital.
During the last couple of years, I've had to 6 or 7 drives break which were 2-3 years old. Prior to that drives almost never broke, but were ditched or sold because their low capacity or slow speed made them obsolete at least to me.

In my 25 years of experience:

Seagate were almost always bad.
Maxtor used to be solid but turned bad after buying Quantum.
IBM used to be solid but turned bad and was sold to Hitachi.
Samsung I only ever had 3 of those, which only lasted for 1-2 years.

Over all those years WD has had fairly consistent good quality.
But realizing the general fall in quality of hard drives I only buy the ones designed for Enterprise Desktop with extended warranty.

[heartburnkid]

Nowadays I only trust Western Digital.
During the last couple of years, I've had to 6 or 7 drives break which were 2-3 years old. Prior to that drives almost never broke, but were ditched or sold because their low capacity or slow speed made them obsolete at least to me.

In my 25 years of experience:

Seagate were almost always bad.
Maxtor used to be solid but turned bad after buying Quantum.
IBM used to be solid but turned bad and was sold to Hitachi.
Samsung I only ever had 3 of those, which only lasted for 1-2 years.

Over all those years WD has had fairly consistent good quality.
But realizing the general fall in quality of hard drives I only buy the ones designed for Enterprise Desktop with extended warranty.

I'll second this; I've got an 80GB WD Drive from either 2001 or 2002, and it still works fantastically; it makes a "click" when it spins up, but no crashes or data loss. It's currently in my mom's Tivo.