Seagate or Western Digital?

[alth79]

Ah maaan, just bought a seagate 2tb and wishing I'd gone the WD route for that little bit extra! What's the best back up options out there - duplicate to another drive or any other options?

[vinnyT]

I use Macrium Reflect (http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx), to create full drive image backups.
The link above is the direct link to the free version, which is fine for most people.

[viper626]

Been using 2 x 2tb nas Seagate drives for storage and no complaints in 3 years...

[roddenberry]

After reading all the posts, I see that reliability is pretty much random, and depending on usage, one brand will not necessarily fare better than another...

But based on my own experience, I have a soft spot for WD drives. Caviar green in particular is ideal in an environment where noise level and heat might be an issue, and even after many years of usage, not one single green has ever died. I don't need the speed of the blue and black WD (graphic design) but they are still better than the experience I have had with Seagate drives (I have too many 2TB and 3TB bricks that I now use as doorstops...).

Robert in Montreal

[Agrippa]

Hitachi and Samsung drives are the only ones I've never had problems with, except a single Samsung which was DOA. I've been running 8 of each for 3 years without a hitch and have probably had about 20-25 of each in total, none of which have given me any trouble. Seagates, Maxtors, IBMs and WDs have all died on me over the years.

Not that that means much at all, as current generations of drives are all different from the drives I own or have owned and can't be compared to them. Nor is there any point in basing purchasing decisions on someone else's purely anecdotal evidence. Personally though, I'm sticking with HGST or Samsung until they fail me too.

[Optimaximal]

People historically hate on Hitachi's because they bought the business from IBM in the wake of the Deathstar incident. They worked hard and rescued their rep, so much so that two suppliers at work recommend them without reserve.

I personally prefer WD over all else - used to like Seagate but a few DOA's go some way to put you off.

[excalibur2]

Well I don't know if WD quality control has gone down hill as I just sent back a 1tb blue as I couldn't format it, win 7 wouldn't install and the electronics were eventually giving a weird reading of being a floppy drive A...h'mm don't have a floppy drive connected.

[Optimaximal]

Well I don't know if WD quality control has gone down hill as I just sent back a 1tb blue as I couldn't format it, win 7 wouldn't install and the electronics were eventually giving a weird reading of being a floppy drive A...h'mm don't have a floppy drive connected.

Given a Floppy drive uses a completely different interface to even old-school PATA drives, I'd also question how your motherboard is reading it

[DanceswithUnix]

Given a Floppy drive uses a completely different interface to even old-school PATA drives, I'd also question how your motherboard is reading it

The LS120 floppy drives used a PATA interface.

[excalibur2]

Given a Floppy drive uses a completely different interface to even old-school PATA drives, I'd also question how your motherboard is reading it

Same Sata slot and with another hard disk and no problem reading. A puzzle with a new WD hard disk and in file manager see a floppy drive "a" showing.

[Optimaximal]

The LS120 floppy drives used a PATA interface.

Calling the LS120 a floppy drive was a stretch of an already stretched term.

Same Sata slot and with another hard disk and no problem reading. A puzzle with a new WD hard disk and in file manager see a floppy drive "a" showing.

Weird! Some BIOS's will present a floppy even if one isn't connected if you enable them in the BIOS, but this sounds like a definite case of the mainboard or Windows misreading whatever gibberish the faulty drive was putting out.

Fun & games!

[excalibur2]

I've had quite a few drives over 25 years and usually throw them away before they wear out...but it's the first problem I've had with a new drive and it happened with my favourite maker i.e. WD

[excalibur2]

I've had quite a few drives over 25 years and usually throw them away before they wear out...but it's the first problem I've had with a new drive and it happened with my favourite maker i.e. WD

Well I can't praise scan enough in the way they have handled my RMA as they have kept me well informed, anyway looked up the tester's report and he used a phrase about my faulty WD drive which I haven't heard off..."Click of Death".
So black mark for WD as this one slipped through your quality control.

[Shordes]

Honestly, I've not had much experience with brands other than WD. I have a single Seagate external drive and I'm satisfied with it.

I'm also quite satisfied with my WD Caviar Blue, but this one isn't even a year old yet. There's no signs of failure, I've never had any problems with it.

We'll see when I put it in the Fractal Design Define S I'm planning on buying, wondering how it'll do sideways

[Marcvs]

Avoid Seagate 3TB drives at all costs!

[rapidracer10]

From experience i would say seagate are more unreliable (had 3 drives fail in last couple years). Backed up by the studies of thousands of drives at backblaze.

Makes me sad as seagate was my top in the days they put the 'seashield' on the back of the drives if anyone remembers. Solid stuff
Post-2010 they have gone downhill, but think they may be improving slowly.

The new WD Blues (well, not so new now nearly 2 years out) are brilliant. The 1TB single platters, great speeds and i suspect reliabilty fairly good