Does HDD brand really matter anymore?

[Automata]

Also, I believe Hitachi's HDD manufacturing was recently acquired by Western Digital.

As long as they leave TLER (or related) features off, I have no issue with this. But, I have a feeling that it is probably related and it will get added.

 

[ssjwizard]

I hate to say bad things about products but I really dislike WD hard drives. I used to really like them but Ive had a few bad experiences trying to RMA defective drives through them. Further I lost both WD greens I had within a month and just binned them since I couldnt stand to deal with them again after the last time(not recent). Then this spring my college upgraded all of the the labs and were loosing neer 20 WD blues a day for nearly 3 months.

Aside from that I buy whatever is in my price range for a given size. Im a bit more careful about buying my SSDs than HDD these days.

 

[Automata]

I hate to say bad things about products but I really dislike WD hard drives. I used to really like them but Ive had a few bad experiences trying to RMA defective drives through them.

You are not alone there. It was quite an incredible experience. I've never seen/heard someone try to lie their way through logic.

 

[terran2k]

Im not really a fan on WD drives, I've had many of them throughout the years, they seem to be the worst with vibration. vibrate my case and generate that annoying humm. Samsung spinpoint, those drives are the best I've ever used.

 

[Ivy]

My 2TB WD green after half year still no failure yet but generally i can agree, failure rate seems to be crazy high and i would not recommend to get it unless its almost for free and people only need it for backup.

 

[ssjwizard]

My 2TB WD green after half year still no failure yet but generally i can agree, failure rate seems to be crazy high and i would not recommend to get it unless its almost for free and people only need it for backup.

The part about the price I can agree with, however, recommending a drive known for failure rates for a backup drive has got to be one of the most senseless things ive ever heard. You backup drive should be of equal or greater reliability than your primary drive.

 

[Ivy]

Well then we can just blackmail it, because as a main drive it lacks the required performance. Nowadays i wouldnt get a WD green anymore, not since i had so much troubles with my WD elements that i am feed up. Not sure what i get however, since im in need of 4 TB it may be Hitachi (i guess they will soon have such drives).

The WD green will soon be out of order as soon as i can go up to 4 TB. The WD RE4 however may stay my internal drive for media (since its pretty reliable i like to keep using), although i will have to use a 4 TB in order to fetch all of it and another of same size for backup.

The backups are only media related. For OS backup i use my Vertex 3, or my Verbatim (Samsung) external USB drive. So you see i got plenty of choices.

 

[grumperfish]

Yes, the 7200.11 fiasco was Seagate. I was just smart about it. I never bought a 7200.11, but I do still have a couple of 7200.10's in service.

Also, I believe Hitachi's HDD manufacturing was recently acquired by Western Digital.

I think I had 3 of the 6 7200.11's I bought develop bad sectors. Haven't had a single issue with the new 7200.12's, and I still have a bunch of 7200.10's kicking around..


Edit: The 7200.11's failed early, but weren't non-recoverable by any means, whereas I've had a few WD's go belly-up on me, so I'll keep using Seagate till the heat death of the universe I guess.

 

[hafa]

Bump the WD Green failure rate to 17 out of 20; our main backup drive just bit the dust.

 

[Ivy]

Even with SSD, it seems that they are all about the same, as far as failure rates go.

.

That was a pretty good joke buddy. Oh well.

Believe me people, manufacturer will never ever release any accurate RMA numbers, thats one of theyr best protected secrets. They release as good as no data at all, we would be surprised about the mass of data they hide from us.

Bump the WD Green failure rate to 17 out of 20; our main backup drive just bit the dust.

17 of 20? Cmon you cant be serious, how is that possible? That looks like that product have to be taken out of the store but it apparently doesnt happen. Im getting worried, i hope the new 4 TB Hitachis are out soon, so i can switch.

 

[hafa]

17 of 20? Cmon you cant be serious, how is that possible?

Serious as a 'frickin heart attack. Either really bum luck, the drives are pure crap or a combination thereof. Nonetheless, I'm out now > US$3k on these things...

 

[Ivy]

Combi of bad drive, bad luck, and to less praying, i guess.

 

[CompuTamer]

I'm a WD guy myself, but to be honest, it's just from the past experiences with them. I've never had a WD flat out die on me. That being said, i've never used anything else, so they could be just as good.

I get the cheapest stuff with good reviews

 

[Ivy]

The fun thing is, over half of the people who actually buy those WD greens do not know what "failure rate" truly means and they may have corrupted data already but did not notice it. Finally, as long as you dont know about its the best way to prevent mental attachment and cautiousness. I guess if we truly would know everything bad ever happened, we would see everything in another light, but we always tend to ignore stuff we dont like, that is sometimes critical. I just know from my experience that "dumb" people in this world always are getting abused at some point, thats reality and nothing different.

 

[PanteraGSTK]

For the guys that have had so many WD Green drives fail: that sucks. There had to have been a bad batch or something. I've got 4 WD green drives and one black that have been running 24/7 for going on 3 years with no issues at all (I hope they can't hear me). I've used WD drives for years and have had 1 start to fail. RMA went smoothly (with the exception that they sent me a larger, slower drive). Other than that they've been fantastic for me.

Having said that I've read (and heard from friends) that the samsung drives are pretty solid. I've never seen massive failures from them. I may go that route in the future. You guys have made me nervous about WD's quality control now (I say that, but I'll still buy them).

 

[inkfx]

You are not alone there. It was quite an incredible experience. I've never seen/heard someone try to lie their way through logic.

I guess I got lucky with WD. I've never had any issues with the "advanced RMA" procedure. They always say they are going to charge my account with a holding fee but I've never seen it hit. I always get the drive from them no problem.

I didn't realize there was a mass problem with the Green series, though. (been out of the tech world a bit lately) Explains why my 2 640GB drives failed. Unfortunately I think their warranty just ran up.

 

[olegsomphane]

Yea, if you check out the WD green drives ratings on newegg, you'd see they are horrid. I also read somewhere that the green drives were build to be high performance but did not pass QA tests, so they spun them down and advertised them as "green". Don't know if that was a rumor or not, though...

 

[BudTheChud]

WD are the only HDD's I have used myself, but have had experience with Seagate also, both are good companies, I really have no reason for sticking with WD I have just never had a problem. Still have the original HDD from my first computer way back in the day (WD) and it still runs no problem. Its defiantly slower but it predates sata.