I'm looking for a 1-2TB external desktop hard disk drive. What are the HDD brands that you've used for a long time without mechanical faults or problems? Which brands would you recommend?
Reliable external hard disk drive
[Deactivated] on 14/08/2014 - 22:24
Last edited 14/08/2014 - 22:32
Last edited 14/08/2014 - 22:32
Poll Options
- 2Seagate
- 12Western Digital
- 3Toshiba
- 0Samsung
- 4Hitachi
- 3Others
Comments
So, go with the cheapest?
No the prettiest.
Abuden!
Moving parts = may fail at any time
Where is the candy option?
What are you on about?
You will need to have a ridiculously large sample size (n) to determine which of hdd brands will have the highest/lowest failure rate.
If you're interested you could read up on Backblaze's statistics on HDD failure here but it is strongly urged that you take the information with a grain of salt for various reasons — one: the drives are being used in a datacenter environment and these drives constantly being used on 24/7 basis, meaning they get used much harder than they normally would in the hands of a normal PC user, and second, many of the Seagate drives they tested were also very old models and were even refurbs, which skewed the results positively towards Seagate.
Thanks for the link.
Yes, the Backblaze test are far different from 'normal' usage but it clearly showed Hitachis are relatively more durable than WD and much more durable than Seagates. If this were translated into a normal usage, Hitachis would still outrun the other 2?
No, as mentioned in other tech blogs, the Backblaze study is flawed and innacurate — they did not have an equal number of hard drives to test — its not even a valid statistical experiment. Backblaze even admitted: We don’t have enough Toshiba or Samsung drives for good statistical results.
TLDR, don't use it as purchasing advice
Hence, the aim of this post.
Paulsterio's answer is the most accurate. HDD technology is already in it's mature stage, and as a consumer you no longer need to worry about dud brands. If you are running a datacenter, then perhaps its a different story.
and as a consumer you no longer need to worry about dud brands.
you should consider warranty & price if there is little difference in performance / reliability…
That isn't always the case. I've compared drives with similar specs that vary in price (difference of $10-20).
I've had tonnes of Seagates. None have ever failed for what it's worth.
I've moved to the Toshiba drives since I've had several Seagates fail. They replace them under warranty but you still pay shipping and go through the hassle of retrieving files.
WD draw too much power and don't work with everything.
Since installing my USB3 card, the transfer rates are awesome.I didn't pay shipping for my dead Seagate which is still under warranty. It was all covered.
They're all the same these days, more or less.