Are larger capacity hard drives reliable?

[gwent]

I am seeing some ridiculously large hard drives out there now - 750GB, 1TB, even a 1.5TB! Are they safe and reliable for backup storage, or do they seem to have a higher failure rate? How about 500GB models? Have they proven themselves yet?
I am looking for some storage, but I don't want to get a larger drive if they tend to be trouble. Thanks.

 

[cjl]

There's nothing inherently unreliable about large hard drives. 500GB is actually on the small side now.

 

[jaguarskx]

As a safety measure I then to buy the "Enterprise Class" WD 1TB drives which are built for RAID servers and are "rated" for millions of hours (statistically speaking) of usage before failing. These are the FYPS series and they typically coost about 2x as much as a consumer level 1TB HDD or about $200.

Spending $200 per 1TB may seem overkill, but I gives me peace of mind. However, it is necessary to back up data (if it is really important to you) to either another internal drive or to an external hard drive of the same size regardless of how expensive the primary hard drive is. I generally encode movies onto my HTPC which I can install up to six 1TB hard drives if I really wanted to. While I have the DVDs for those movies, I back them up onto an external 1TB hard drive in case of failure. Sure I can re-encode my movies, but I think saving time and effort is worth spending extra money on an extra 1TB hard drive and an external enclosure for it.

 

[Sir_Foggy]

I've heard the new drives with PMR are indeed having issues though

Newegg is full of reviews from people who've had many DOA's and all kinds of failures/errors on every one of the 500 GB models I've looked at

And in case anyone's curious I'm currently running with two 250 Giggers's

My Master is an older WDC 2500BB-22RDAO
IDE UDMA Mode 5 [Ultra ATA/100],2 MB Cache-Craptaculer!

Slave is the WD2500AAJS-00VWA
SATA II running in UDMA Mode 6 [Ultra ATA /133].8 MB Cache

 

[Sir_Foggy]

I've heard the new drives with PMR are indeed having issues though

Newegg is full of reviews from people who've had many DOA's and all kinds of failures/errors on every one of the 500 GB models I've looked at

And in case anyone's curious I'm currently running with two 250 Giggers's

My Master is an older WDC 2500BB-22RDAO
IDE UDMA Mode 5 [Ultra ATA/100],2 MB Cache-Craptaculer!

Slave is the WD2500AAJS-00VWA
SATA II running in UDMA Mode 6 [Ultra ATA /133],8 MB Cache

 

[gwent]

I'm wondering if the high failure rates of hard drives on Newegg are due to the terrible packaging jobs they do. I've been reading alot of negative feedback regarding their packing methods, and if you look at their reviews, all of their hard drvies have a high instance of failures and DOAs. I saw a guide on Hitachi that explains how a single hard drive should be packed for shipping, and bubble wrap is completely unacceptable by most hard drive manufacturer recommendations. I even read an email response to somebody from a manufacturer that said the photo they saw from the customer of the Newegg packing job (1 layer of bubble wrap) was not acceptable for safe shipment.

So, I get the feeling that ordering hard drives from these online vendors is a hit or miss thing, due to the damage they take during shipping thanks to UPS and bad packaging. There could certainly be other factors involved, such as the PMR issue Sir_Foggy mentioned, but I think that in general all drives on Newegg are going to look bad thanks to shipping damage.

Any other input?

 

[seboj]

I even read an email response to somebody from a manufacturer that said the photo they saw from the customer of the Newegg packing job (1 layer of bubble wrap) was not acceptable for safe shipment.

I can't speak for everyone's order, but I've bought quite a few HDD's from Newegg, and they always come packaged for all-out war. It usually takes me 10 minutes to cut through all the layers. I'm pretty sure I could play football with the packaged drives and they'd be fine.

But hey, those are just my experiences.

 

[thegr33n1]

I agree with seboj...The pachaging job may not be the prettiest thing in the world but it would seem the HD would have to be ran over by a truck to be damaged at all....I'm sure most HDs take-on more "jolts" or "bumps" in regular use than during shipping

 

[Cuddles]

There is a little more to it than that. I buy my drives from newegg and no probs here but I could. One of the things that strikes me is I'll see a number of DOA reviews all in one cluster and that just shouts out a bad batch. It happens.
The second one you can get a feelof the person as you are reading the review. He combed his hair, left the HD on the table next to his toast, to pick up the phone. Came back turned the HD around in one hand as he is pouring syrup in the other. Somebody calls his name and drops the HD. Wiping his hands on his jeans he reaches over and picks it up and then wipes the HD on his jean. He takes it into the bathroom to brush his teath and walking out the HD Falls again. This time it goes bonkie bonk as it goes down the stairwell. Picking it up agai he heads into the garage to put the HD in and wipes off some extra syrupt that may have gotten on.
Newegg Post: This is crap I put my brand new Hard Drive in and it made a few chucking sounds and died. ...

 

[seboj]

The second one you can get a feelof the person as you are reading the review. He combed his hair, left the HD on the table next to his toast, to pick up the phone. Came back turned the HD around in one hand as he is pouring syrup in the other. Somebody calls his name and drops the HD. Wiping his hands on his jeans he reaches over and picks it up and then wipes the HD on his jean. He takes it into the bathroom to brush his teath and walking out the HD Falls again. This time it goes bonkie bonk as it goes down the stairwell. Picking it up agai he heads into the garage to put the HD in and wipes off some extra syrupt that may have gotten on.
Newegg Post: This is crap I put my brand new Hard Drive in and it made a few chucking sounds and died. ...

:lol: Love it.

 

[Sir_Foggy]

:lol:

I know someone who had an old Quantum FB,She lost her temper and threw it at the wall hard and it still worked fine

And well I just got a 320 GB WD3200AAKS and am pissed at the 15.5 Ms seek time!

Is this what I paid 65$ for??

Please tell me I can up it!

(Used Hitachi Tool to set the AMM at it's lowest setting btw,Made no difference)

 

[Sidrack Marinho]

Newegg just added the 2 TB drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344

No sign from the 1.5 TB model.

Don't purchase before you can see some real reviews!!!!

And it's too way expensive. The Seagate (1.5 TB), even if it's not reliable (too much defective units) it's available for US$ 130. In the first month of release, it was priced US$ 215/200. So, let's wait at least 3 months, until we can get proper reviews and a much better price...

And let's not forget about the Samsung. Best 1 TB model, but on the other hand, many defective units as well...

 

[turboflame]

Seagate's higher capacity drives have been having a lot of issues, not sure if they're all firmware related or not.

Larger capacity drives use more platters so they usually run hotter and put more stress on the motor than smaller drives, though they are probably designed with this in mind.

The new high capacity drives from WD and Seagate will use 500GB platters so it will only take 2 to make a 1TB drive (compared to 3 or 4 now).