Hi,
I am looking for recommnendations on hard drives, thanks very much in advance. Im going to buy a hd for backup and want to know first what dictates it relaibility, I mean, what kinds of hard drives are less prone to faill? which one would you recommend me?
I have heard bigger drives fail more, is it true?
The amount of plattters aslo affect the probability of failure?
am looking for something btw 500 to 1TB, prefere the bigger drives but would go with smaller if they are more reliable.
Thanks again,
Penny

That's easy. Just buy a Seagate. Oh wait, they're crap now. You could buy a Deathstar, or I mean Deskstar, which is IBM, but not really because they sold out to Hitachi. Ya know, it's not that easy. There's a website out there somewhere that ranks failure by actual model, which is likely the best way to judge. If you say Single Platter drives are more reliable, I'll show you a single platter drive that's junk. If you say a certain brand is best, I'll show you a drive made by them that's junk. If you say larger drives fail, I'll show you a 1TB drive that usually outlasts a 250GB drive of another manufacturer. There is no easy way to judge. I used to go by the fact Seagate has a 5 year warranty, but I've sent in personal drives numerous times, and it's a pain in the butt. If I add up all the shipping charges, it would have been cheaper for me to buy two of another brand drive.

Let me give you some advice that might keep you from becoming a customer. A hard drive is NOT reliable storage. None of them. Think of them as temporary storage. If you're storing something important on a drive, back it up regularly. Some swear by Tapes, while others swear at them. Personally, I have a single drive with all my important stuff on it, and have it all backed up to a second drive every night. If for some reason the copy fails, the software generates a report. When one of the drives fails, I simply replace it with a spare from another computer, and send it out. if both drives fail, I'll have to rely on my DR skills. You might want to use three drives. It's still a lot cheaper than Data Recovery. It's also a lot better than saying "But I got the best Hard Drive available! Why did it fail?"

One more addition... If you're getting an external drive, look for one that doesn't tip over easily. A simple tip can ruin a drive. Also, look for one that has a nice big and loud cooling fan. Heat kills a drive, but most have small or no fans, mostly because consumers complain about the noise...

If your needs are important, you might consider a NAS with a RAID. NAS is basically an external hard drive that connects directly to the network instead of a USB port. That means more than one computer can back up to it as well. RAID in simple terms basically means more than one Hard Drive. It's best to configure it so one backs up the other. Some daredevils configure them instead to make two small drives look like one big drive. Not a good idea for you!

Keep your external drives horizontal.

Thanks very much, really appreciate it!
So after some research Im thinking of buying this hard drive,two of them, what do you guys thinks about it?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136218
also, whats better, a raid 1 or an instant backup like time machine?

thanks very much again.
penny

I love Newegg. That drive has pretty good reviews but keep in mind that those reviews are only valid for thirty to sixty days. They really do not give you any long term reviews. They are a good indication that most did not fail right away. When a new model replaces that one the reviews start all over again. A Raid 1 on a good UPS would be highly recommended if the data is important. A one click instant backup is another good method of backing up your data but its only good up to the point you made the backup. With a Raid 1 your always backing up your data. Most of the external raid drives are set up as a raid 0 stripe at factory and would need to be changed over to a raid 1 mirror. It really depends on how much money you want to spend and how valuable your data is.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

most hard drive are crap and they do have bad sectors from new.

seagate is ok but you got a 3 year return to factory

western digital not bad dont see many of them for recovery

maxtor which is now own by seagate CRAP dont touch any of them

ibm aka Hitachi aka death star (CRAP)

me personel seagate and then western digital.

I have a shelf with several 10's of drives, in our operation I have tried all different brands, both in workstations & rackmount servers.( i get to keep scrapped off equipment & dead drives.)

Bad sectors are normal on a new drive.

Seagate give 5 years replacement, if you know how to do it.

order:
1. Seagate (will generally take more abuse, just watch out for re-start problems after V. long runs.)
2. WD (can run VERY hot)
3. IBM,Maxor =SHITE

Final advice do not buy a seagate diskdrive in China, or if possible ANY diskdrive. nearly ALL diskdrives sold on the open market in china are re-manufactured. (don't believe me, get one and enter it's serial number on seagates website)


The REAL secret to getting good life from your hard drive is VERY GOOD air flow, the more the better
even in a computer case, go buy an extra cooling fan to strap onto the hard-drive, the cooler it runs the better it runs.(I.E 25 deg. c, is the 'ideal' temp most electronics is speced at)
Anyone tells you a fan is not needed , find better advice.

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