Large platter reliability

[allen200]

im getting a pair of seagate greens for storage, and am deciding between the 1.5 and 2tb versions. for just $20 more per drive, of course the 2tb has more value. but will their excessively larger platters (667gb vs 500gb) be more susceptible to problems? browsing newegg, anyone can see that larger drives in general get worse reviews than smaller ones, and these two are no different. but both of these are within the same family, so they should be made identically. on another note, could the smaller drive actually be holding 667gb platters but only using 500gb of it?

advice from anyone who knows about this stuff (or own these drives) would be appreciated.

 

[sminlal]

The only halfway decent report on the relative reliability of different drives I've seen is this one.

 

[analytic]

I would say it is not the size of the platter that matters but the number of platters in a hard drive.
I never buy drives having more than 2 platters exactly because of reliability issues.
Seagate is planning on releasing 1TB/platter hard drives this summer.

 

[allen200]

I would say it is not the size of the platter that matters but the number of platters in a hard drive.
I never buy drives having more than 2 platters exactly because of reliability issues.
Seagate is planning on releasing 1TB/platter hard drives this summer.

yeah i agree. it's consensus that the less moving parts the better. i just took it a step further and am trying to figure out if there are any reliability differences with drives of the same family but with different size platters. it occurred to me when i compared the black caviers on newegg; the 500gb has perfect reviews, yet the 750 has lot of doa's and complaints of loud noises, though they both have the same architecture and number of platters.

anyway, i could be just too picky. since both of these seagates are cheap, ill probably just get one of each and see for myself.

 

[sminlal]

...the black caviers on newegg; the 500gb has perfect reviews, yet the 750 has lot of doa's and complaints of loud noises, though they both have the same architecture and number of platters.

Unfortunately reviews are subject to reporting bias - (a) you don't know if 750GB drives have a much higher sales volume and therefore higher number of complaints, and (b) people are more likely to complain than praise. I place greater trust in reports that show the rate of failures for all drives sold, such as the one I linked to above.