Hello all!

I have two WD5000KS drives that failed within a couple weeks of one another. I have backups, but they're out of date and it would be great if I could get that data back. I'm quite handy with hardware, but, obviously, I don't have a clean room to conduct repairs in.

What should I expect to pay to get this fixed? Who do you guys recommend for data recovery?

On a side note, can I do anything to avoid getting lemon hard drives like this that drop dead after a year? Are there specific brands or models that are more reliable?

On yet another side note, after this little fiasco I've decided to put two identical sets of hard drives in my two computers, and have them mirror one another (synchronizing nightly over my network). Is this stupid? Should I be using RAID?

Personally, I wouldn't use two IDENTICAL drives. Otherwise, if you get a dud, you will likely get two duds, that might die in the same way, and close to the same time. It seems this is exactly what happened in your case. I try to use two or more different brands, or at the very least use drives of a different age. Although you might have data a day out of date, I can't argue too much with a nightly mirror, as I do that myself. If you're using a second computer, you can help eliminate a bad power supply destroying both drives. If you're really nutty, you can put the second drive off-site, and will be covered in case of fire or theft.

Specific brands will vary based on personal preference. I tend to like Samsung, and still use Seagates due to the warranty.

Expect one of these to be at least $1500 , depending on the problem. The WD5000KS drives are a nightmare to work on, and the success rate is low.

Agree.
Samsung drives r going on better now a days.
Locate your area, you will probably get a guru near you.

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The WD5000KS/YS have been huge for problems. I don't really see any other WD drives with the same frequency of issues at all.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.