What is the most reliable "consumer" hard drive?

Natos · Dec 13, 2014

My WD Blue recently failed on me. ("surface damage," according to the tools on Hirens BootCD) It was an OEM drive from a Dell machine. What strikes me as weird is that I've had drives run well for 5+ years, and suddenly my WD Blue dies with less than 2 years of use? That doesn't seem right.

I'm looking to replace it now, and I want to replace it with something that will last, and not fail after less than 2 years. I've heard great things about the WD Black drives, but they are considerably more expensive than the rest of the "consumer" drives out there. Is there a drive from another company (Segate, Hitatchi/HGST/Toshiba) that is as reliable? I don't really care about speed, because I have a SSD for my OS and programs. The drive will be used as a drive for personal files, (anything that is not a program or a game) and to store backups of the SSD.

zeyuanfu · Dec 13, 2014

I would normally recommend Blue drives

If you want, you could give WD another chance.
If you dislike WD drives now, then I;d recommend this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.59 @ Directron)
Total: $53.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-13 18:32 EST-0500

For ~20$ more, you can get this drive that has increased reliability:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.45 @ Amazon)
Total: $74.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-13 18:34 EST-0500

I've heard that Hitachi drives are quite good, and for me, they are. I'm currently using a ~7 year old Deskstar drive that came with my Dimension E310, and it's still up and running. If you're willing to consider them, I'd get this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $47.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-13 19:26 EST-0500

Natos · Dec 13, 2014

I have experience with Hitatchi. In Fact, I recently built a computer for a friend, and it contains a 5-year-old Hitatchi Ultrastar. I would go with them, but I haven't had much luck finding them recently. Also, is HGST the same thing as Hitatchi?

I'm willing to give WD a chance. I'm just really disappointing about this one drive's short life. I have mostly used WD drives since I started working on computers.

As for Segate, I don't have any experience with them. Everybody I know is either calling Segate "the best" or "the absolute worst." There is no middle ground.

Thanks for your help.

zeyuanfu · Dec 14, 2014

Hitachi and HGST might be the same, as HGST was formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Hitachi's HDDs can be found on Amazon.

Unless I'm very wrong, WD Blue drives have a 3-year warranty, so if you can get WD or the maker of your computer to replace the drive, it'd be great.

Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with Seagate, but they look overall like a great company. I'd give them a try.

synphul · Dec 14, 2014

Hitachi and HGST are the same. As far as price, for not much more than a wd blue costs there's the wd black or re4 enterprise drives. They're basically the same, the re4 is for a raid environment and the black aren't suitable for raid because of their deep error recovery cycles being too long. Both are rated for 24/7 use and have 5yr warranties.

I used to be a seagate fan. I was upgrading to larger hard drives in 2 machines, so I got a couple of 7200.10 500gb (back when perpendicular data recording was the rage). They were both doa. Sent for an rma and of course got refurbed drives as replacements even though I didn't even get a chance to load windows on either of the 7200.10's. Plus the refurbs were 7200.9's, not the same perpendicular recording versions I bought. I got downgraded AND refurbs. Double screwed. Those drives only lasted a couple years and back to back both failed. I've been running wd re4's for a couple years now without a hiccup in 2 machines that run 24/7.

Natos · Dec 14, 2014

RE4 drives are only on SATA 3Gbps. I'm looking for a SATA 6Gbps drive.

I tried contacting Dell (the drive was ripped from a Dell machine) and they said that they couldn't replace it. WD won't replace it because it's a Dell OEM drive.

Does anyone know if Toshiba drives are good? How do they compare in reliability/speed to WD Black drives?

zeyuanfu · Dec 14, 2014

I wouldn't touch a Toshiba drive in my whole life, not even if it was free. I'd do it if the guy offering me the drive gives me a lifetime data recovery warranty service and if he paid me. I had a Toshiba laptop, and the HDD failed in a few weeks. Had to replace it with a WD Scorpio Blue, and it's still up and running for a few years now. Too bad that laptop's power cord failed and the crap replacement from Amazon fried the screen.

I would go for a Black drive any day compared to any Toshiba drive.

Natos · Dec 14, 2014

zeyuanfu :

Well... In that case... I guess that's why Toshiba drives are so cheap. My Toshiba laptop with a HGST drive inside still works, and it is a speed demon. (at least for a 3rd generation i5)

So, WD it is.

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