ATA Reliability: Seagate, WD, Maxtor

_R wrote:

I don't put myself in the 'SCSI-only, or server' school, but I have
terabytes of storage (I would be broke if it were SCSI). Much of it
is for archive purposes. Some of it is on mirrored systems--sort of
non-realtime pseudo raid that's refreshed across a gigabit net.

Again, you get what you pay for. Most reasonable and sensible people value
their data and time when it comes to disaster prevention and recovery.

As much as I hate to say it, I've probably had more trouble with
Maxtor as well. I was archiving on 250g in USB 2 cases. The
surprising thing is that most have been 5400rpm, which I was
deliberately spec'ing to keep heat down. I like Maxtor the
company, but I'm moving toward Seagate until I figure out
what's up with the Maxtor failures.

Using anything other than an external SCSI solution is pure nonsense!

I believe Seagate's warranty is 5 years. That shows some
confidence in their product. I feel lucky if I get 5 years out
of a WD or Max.

Using anything other than Seagate is totally and utterly foolish!

As for 10 years ago, I was probably using IBM drives. Then
they went downhill and I wouldn't touch them. There's still
some stigma attached for me, even tho they're Hitachi now.

IBM drives were never on top of the hill.

WD has had firmware problems (1993 we had to reflash tons
of drives that were spontaneously powering down). Their tech
support initially denied problems, but later issued new BIOS.
Not a confidence-booster. And I've found their tech support
relatively rude, especially in regard to their own design flaws.

Again, using anything other than Seagate is totally and utterly foolish when
you consider the 5-year warranty and on-line RMA process.

There is an interesting somewhat anecdotal project over at
storagereview.com- their reliability database. I try to mention it
when I can because the more ppl that contribute the better chance we
have of it yielding accurate results.

Storagereview.com can be a valuable site when you learn how to differentiate
between fact and their biased bull****.



Rita