On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 02:51:06 -0400, _R wrote:

Not to start any heated disputes here, but I'd like to get general
feedback re reliability of the three major brands. I run a few Raid
arrays...Actually Raid 0, so reliability is important.

WD was the first to feature larger buffers, and many started using
them as a result of the p.r. surge. I'm not sure if their quality has
dropped, but I started having reliability problems with them about
a year ago. That was compounded by my experience with WD
tech support. Difficult to reach. Difficult to deal with. Your
experience may vary, of course, but if there *is* a problem it's
nice to have a smooth path to fixing it. So I started using Maxtor.

With regard to support, Maxtor has been much easier to deal with.
Their techs usually take time to track down problems, and they're
not hesitant to escalate to level 2 support when warranted.
But...I've had a few Maxtor failures recently, so... g

I've bought some Seagates in the hope that they're back near
the top (Seagate was *the* name once upon a time). I don't
have any experience with their support yet. I have no idea
how they stack up to WD and Maxtor yet. So I'm hesitant to
invest in a lot of drives until they're proven out.

Any opinions appreciated, especially with regard to Seagate.

_R


As Charles pointed out, raid 0 is "zero raid". So if you've already
started and you're really using raid 0 you're in trouble.

As to ATA reliability, they aren't. That's why most reputable vendors
have maximum raid group sizes or use special parity when usng ATA
drives. Not to say they can't work well for you, just that burning
time and effort on ATA reliability is fruitless IMO. Just buy some
and make sure you've built your raid properly.

~F