Queries on Hitachi, Seagate & WD 2Tb HDDs

[kirby7777]

My WD RE4 GP has developed many bad sectors after just 3 year of light use. http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711769 It will be RMA soon. It is used as the main drive of an i7 system. No gaming.

Considering trying out either the Hitachi or Seagate 2Tb Hdds.
http://www.umart.com.au/newindex28.phtml?id=10&bid=5&sid=72002
http://www.umart.com.au/newindex28.phtml?id=10&bid=5&sid=86998

Some queries here.

1) What is their respective warranty? I believe Seagate consumer HDDs is now 1 year warranty? Hitachi still has three years?

2) Noise level of each?

3) I have read quite a few bad reports about the Seagate 2Tb not being as reliable but it is fast because of the 1 Tb platters. Would Hitachi be much slower?

4) An alternative to the above is to go to WD RE4 2Tb with 5 y warranty. http://www.umart.com.au/newindex28.phtml?id=10&bid=5&sid=86998
However it is priced at over double the prices of the above HDDs. Maybe buying two Hitachi or two Seagate or one of each and use the second one as backup might be a better option.

Please comment.


Thanks.

p/s I wish to keep to mechanical drive and not SSD for this computer. Not really keen on WD Caviar Black because of the noise.
I have a Seagate 1Tb (1Tb platter) and a WD RE4 1Tb respectively in two other computers. The Seagate is certainly quieter and much faster then the WD RE4.

 

[Automata]

1) According to the expired listing on Newegg, Hitachi carried a 3 year warranty. I'm running 25 TB of raw disk in my server, all Hitachi. I highly suggest their drives.

2) Mine are sitting in a server rooms away from me, but they don't seem to be loud. The 5k3000 is a bit slower (5200 RPM), so it should be quieter than normal drives.

3) It has been awhile since I've tested them individually, but I remember the drives doing ~100mb/sec and decent seek times. If you are going to put them in a RAID array of any sort, the speed of the individual drives isn't relevant as you will be limited by the network card.

4) I'd need much more information than what you are giving. What are you storing on these drives? Are you using RAID/other software? How important is this data? How much storage do you need now and in the future? etc

 

[kirby7777]

1)

4) I'd need much more information than what you are giving. What are you storing on these drives? Are you using RAID/other software? How important is this data? How much storage do you need now and in the future? etc

It is basically Win7 64 bits and programs in the 100Gb C partition. In D partition there are mainly music files. Later I am going to use this computer to digitalise and encode video files from analog sources.
All data will be backup to another HDD periodically.

 

[Automata]

So you are not running RAID? You can get whatever you want, then.

 

[Ivy]

I do believe that the old RE4 (FYYS) is more reliable than the newer RE4 GP. I would not get the GP, thats certain. I do own the old RE4 and so far its working proper. I am regulary checking the file integrity so i would detect failures, if there is some of it.

I can recommend the 4 TB Hitachis, perfom awesome and no noise at all. (i have the drive fully open in front of me.. cant hear any noise).

 

[kirby7777]

I do believe that the old RE4 (FYYS) is more reliable than the newer RE4 GP. I would not get the GP, thats certain. I do own the old RE4 and so far its working proper. I am regulary checking the file integrity so i would detect failures, if there is some of it.

Thank you.

How do you check the file integrity?

 

[Ivy]

Well, my big HDD is stored with media files. Those files got a MD5 data file which is the result of a MD5 data hash. The hash information is stored on a separate file. I regulary check the files from time to time using such a hash. In term a HDD is making failures, the hash will either be totaly wrong or the hash can get unstable, that way its pretty easy to hunt down a malperforming drive. A drive using hash methods for houndred of GB of data have to be totaly stable else there will be failures, even a single wrong byte will be detected. When i detect failures, on either, the main or backup drive, that drive will get exchanged with a new one, and the drive still working proper will be the mirror for the new drive.

SMART data can be viewed using Crystal Disc Info but its close to useless and just here to get a raw view of a few stats which might be important in some term, but it is in no way able to hunt down a malperforming drive. Im not even sure if Windows is able to, as far as my experience goes, the use of advanced hash tools is the stuff able to reveal the most accurate health info. Usualy Windows doesnt reveal any failure, even if the drive is already the most faulty stuff on the planet. As i said, the only true way to hunt a drive is to put some abnormal stressing hash tools on it and let it run until the drive either gives up, or is reporting a success.

I mean, the condition where Windows would reveal failures, at that point a drive is already in such a terrible condition that it can be considered a junk of ores. And totaly unable to be recovered, thats fatal damage. Im not sure what kind of internal error check HDDs got, but it doesnt seem to be a blast, if it works at all, it can be seen in SMART.

 

[kirby7777]

I have picked the Hitachi 2Tb.
Did a HDD Regenerator scan and HD Tune scan: not a single error.

The following links showed that it is as good if not better than WD Caviar Black.

http://www.digitalversus.com/internal-hard-drive/hitachi-deskstar-7k3000-2-tb-p10440/test.html

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1243-page1.html

http://www.behardware.com/articles/835-1/hdd-roundup-eight-2-tb-hard-drives.html

 

[neo668]

I'm going to get a new 2TB HDD today for all my media files and backup. I can't believe my existing 8TB of storage space (home only) has all been used up. I'll just choose the cheapest one I can find as long as it's a name brand with at least a 3-year warranty.

 

[kirby7777]

I'm going to get a new 2TB HDD today for all my media files and backup. I can't believe my existing 8TB of storage space (home only) has all been used up. I'll just choose the cheapest one I can find as long as it's a name brand with at least a 3-year warranty.

Basically only WD, Hitachi and Enterprise Seagate left for 3 or more years of warranty?

 

[neo668]

Seagates are the most popular in Hong Kong and they come in either 3-year or 5-year warranties. I think I'll most probably be getting a Seagate which I'm very happy with. None has failed me so far. The only WD I got I had to RMA within the first year. Maybe I'm just luckier with Seagate.

 

[kirby7777]

Seagates are the most popular in Hong Kong and they come in either 3-year or 5-year warranties..

Are you sure? I thought all consumer grade internal Seagate HDD only has 1 year warranty now. Only the enterprice grade has 5 year warranty.

 

[neo668]

Are you sure? I thought all consumer grade internal Seagate HDD only has 1 year warranty now. Only the enterprice grade has 5 year warranty.

Maybe you are right. Haven't bought a HDD for almost a year now. Let me check and I'll let you know later today.

 

[neonblingbling]

Are you sure? I thought all consumer grade internal Seagate HDD only has 1 year warranty now. Only the enterprice grade has 5 year warranty.

I think I read somewhere where users reported having a 5 year warranty for Seagate drives purchased at retail Best Buy locations. I cant remember the source off the top of my head, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I think I read somewhere where users reported having a 5 year warranty for Seagate drives purchased at retail Best Buy locations. I cant remember the source off the top of my head, so take it with a grain of salt.

Yep! I saw a 5 year warranty the last time I was at the Lebanon, New Hampshire Best Buy.

 

[neo668]

I phoned the Hong Kong distributor of Seagate and WD drives and this is the warranty info I got.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2 years
Seagate Barracuda LP 5900.12 2 years
Seagate Constellation ES 7200.1 3 years
Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 SCSI 58 months

WD Caviar Blue 3 years
WD Caviar Green 3 years
WD Caviar Black 5 years
WD RE4 5 years
WD VelociRaptor 5 years

2 years is fine for me. I'll just go with the cheapest.

UPDATE
So I eventually bought a 2TB WD20EARX. It was the same price as the cheapest 2TB Seagate. The WD I bought is a Green drive which speed varies from 5900 - 7200 RPM (so called IntelliPower). Whereas the Seagate was an outright 7200 RPM drive. I didn't need the speed so I went for the extra year warranty (ie. 3 years) that came with the WD.