4tb drive help, its a christmas related

[alidan]

im getting a hdd for christmas, a 4tb drive.
i want 1 driver to replace all 5 non boot drives i currently have, with some space left over, so 4tb is a must for me, but i have 3 options.

hitachi
seagate
western digital

the wd drive comes with 5 year warranty, but with how hdds are now, im probably just going to upgrade drives yearly, keep the old ones as backup and use the new bigger one as main, so the 5 year isnt that big a deal

seagate has a crappier reputation, and i had 6 failures, but that was a 1.5 like that was known to be buggy, i have a 750gb drive from them that has been solid for i think 4 or 5 years (got a wd drive thats been solid for 8) it also has 128mb or ram

but i never had a hitachi, and i heard they were good.

i know wd bought hitachi, but because hitachi is still a name, i am thinking wd didn't absorb them yet

with the wd and seagate i only have one option, but the hitachi, there are 6 versions all with different numbers, and i dont know what any mean.

the wd is 350
the seagate is 260
and hitachi is between 250 and 330$
if i go for a 5000rpm i believe its down to 200$

any opinions? anyone know the quality of these things? i really only need it to run reliably for 1-2 years.

also anyone know the warranties process on western digital and hitachi, as i know seagates very well.

 

[phil22]

My experience with hard drives, of which I've purchased many over 15 years, reflects your comments.

Seagate/Maxtor: not recommended. I've had more of those fail prematurely than I can remember.

WD: I trust this brand and usually buy WD whenever I need a drive.

Hitachi: again, a brand I trust. I've got an Hitachi external drive. 4 years old and it's working fine.

Hope may comments help you decide.

 

[alidan]

it does help a bit, but this

http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-Internal-0S03355/dp/B005TK3HNI/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1355404309&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-0F14681-HDS724040ALE640/dp/B0084JFLUS/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1355404309&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-Internal-0S03363/dp/B005SZ622W/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1355404309&sr=1-8

is the new confusing point, to me they all look exactly the same besides 3 numbers in the product name. that and looking at product reviews on newegg dont paint the hitachi in a very flattering light.

anyone know the warranty process for western digital and hitachi? because i think that may be what this comes down to.

 

[Emgu91]

My experience with hard drives, of which I've purchased many over 15 years, reflects your comments.

Seagate/Maxtor: not recommended. I've had more of those fail prematurely than I can remember.

WD: I trust this brand and usually buy WD whenever I need a drive.

Hitachi: again, a brand I trust. I've got an Hitachi external drive. 4 years old and it's working fine.

Hope may comments help you decide.

I may be a girl but i agree with Phil22. I am running a little over 20Tb's in my own home i have had many drives over hte years fail or corrups (on 2 occasions at my hand (drop) i was very upset) the reliability of WD has Surpassed Seagate and maxtor drives. Im trying to phase out my Seagate Drives at the moment With new WD Cavier Green 64mb 7200rpm Drives. Just bought a WD my book 4TB for 200 off ncix cannot wait
My one Hitachi Drive i have ever owned which i bough in june 2009 is one of my most reliable Drives. I have had only 1 WD fail, and nearly 4 Seagate Drives of Various models fail... soo history def counts in my purchasing Thoughts
Happy Holidays

 

[alidan]

already got the hitachi drive, 250$

only problem is the warrenty.

seagate and wd both cross ship so if the drive was dieing or going bad, i could get a new drive coppy my data than send the old drive, but hitachi if it ever comes to that i have to threaten them to get crosshipping.

im hoping it never comes to that

i would have went seagate but i read about how people on amazon are striping or were striping 4tb seagates form go flex drives, and seagate telling you to screw off if you need to call a warranty with one of those drives.

and western digital went from 350 to 400 when i decided to get one of their drives, and because that made me feel like i was getting bent over a table, i went hitachi, even though their warranty made me not want them in the first place...

heres hoping i made the right decision, and that the drive works for at least 2 years.

 

[MidnightDistort]

Most of my drives have died due from mishandling. (2 of them were external) There was one WD that died on me but it might have been because i had another drive ontop of it while it was running (it was one of the older IDE with the drive holes) so i am taking a wild guess as that's what happened to it. Anyway i think it's the temps that matter the most, iv'e seen most die from excessive heat which is why i'm going to recommend you get an internal hard drive.

If you want an external you can look for an enclosure with a fan or some vents on the side so it's got some airflow. It might be a bit more expensive but as from what i hear from some externals, they are designed to work with that enclosure and it would be difficult to use if the enclosure dies. Just remember that hard drives are not meant to be moved around (much) when they are on which is why i usually will go internal won't spend too much on external hard drives & even go for SSD's for my laptop drive replacement. The drives can be moved around while on, but if they are dropped while your moving it around it could cause major problems. Some have gone out from it being bumped around.