Hard drive brands and their failure rates

Post by **matthew1** » 21 Jan 2014, 15:28

http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/wh ... uld-i-buy/

Because Backblaze has a history of openness, many readers expected more details in my previous posts. They asked what drive models work best and which last the longest. Given our experience with over 25,000 drives, they asked which ones are good enough that we would buy them again. In this post, I’ll answer those questions.

Post by **j-dawg** » 21 Jan 2014, 21:51

the deskstar brand had a reputation to live down. i would bet it's better than average because of a few lessons hard-learned when it was still with IBM.

i chose a seagate for my current build over a WD just because i liked the logo. maybe i should have put in some more research first.

Post by **matthew1** » 21 Jan 2014, 22:31

Don't take this too seriously. It's only one data point. (But I would tend to buy a Hitachi, based on this, all else being equal.)

My philosophy is "all hard drives fail". I haven't found one brand to be better or worse than another.

Do a little research, and a lot of backups.

Post by **cn90** » 22 Jan 2014, 09:17

I have been Western Digital for a long time, it is good product but...
Recently I have switched to Samsung SSD technology (no moving part).
All my computers now run on SSD, it is a night-and-day difference.
The speed is amazing.

The rotating platter technology is on the way out...

You can buy Samsung 840 series SSD for about $90 (120GB).

Post by **abscate** » 18 May 2014, 03:27

The Admirals MacBook Pro hard drive filled up ( "I don't know, stuff...") and given it is 5 years old I decided to replace the 120Gb with a hitachi 500Gb

Bumped up to 8 Gb RAM and spent 150 USd up including tools from a Ifixit. Replaced trackpad too since it was starting to wander.

Best part was I had my teens do the work so that when they head off to college they will have seen the inside of a computer.

Post by **Ben850** » 20 May 2014, 17:46

I had been dealing with Seagate since around 1986. Western digital was not even on the map yet.

Yes, all hard drives, (not SSD) will die. I imagine Solid State Drives will expire in time.

When you consider the size of digital storage becoming so small, and the price coming down as quickly, how long will you need your hard drive to last?

I remember Building IBM clone 8088 XT computers in the 1980s when a 40 Megabyte hard drive was two full drive spaces large, and cost $300.

I don't really know where you were going with this question Matt, but it reminds me I need to get a backup drive. Thanks.
By the way, It will be a WD 2.0 TB.

93Regina · Post by **93Regina** » 19 Aug 2014, 20:40

matthew1 wrote:(But I would tend to buy a Hitachi...)

I recently bought an Ultrastar 7K3000 (Western Digital), which is rated at 2.0 million hours MTBF.

It is commercial (Enterprise) quality, and it does make a pinch more noise than consumer grade.

93Regina · Post by **93Regina** » 20 Aug 2014, 10:45

matthew1 wrote:(But I would tend to buy a Hitachi.....

Western Digital may have bought out Hitachi, btw.

On this Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000, the PDF citation shows WD, but at NewEgg, you can see this same model listed via Hitachi model and WD model.

Go figure

Post by **abscate** » 21 Aug 2014, 02:51

All hard drives are made by Taco Dell.

My Mac Air from 2009 has a pretty early SSD and is still going strong. I was told not to defrag this drive ( makes sense) and I have followed that advice.