Seagate hard drive reliability

[rpstitz]

I have heard that Seagate isn't very reliable, and I've always used Maxtor...until Seagate bought them out, then I switched to WD...until now

I bought a Seagate hard drive to replace my Hitachi that crashed because it was the cheapest 160GB hard drive that TigerDirect had (2.5" SATA). Now I'm less than one week into the new install and Windows is dead...plus Linux takes 10 minutes to start, it shows a bunch of bad sectors and drive not ready errors when it boots...but it does eventually boot Linux. The Windows startup says it can't repair because of bad I/O (check your removable storage devices or contact your system administrator) Raise your hand if you have a system administrator!

I just got an RMA number and will return it...then I guess I'm buying a Western Digital to replace it, and I might just get the 500GB one as well. Talk about buyer's remorse

So I guess what I'm asking is, have others had problems with Seagate, or could this just be a "fluke"?

[CiaW]

Richard,

I've heard the same thing about Seagate and had some issues with their drives long ago; and likewise stuck with Maxtor. Of course that was back in the day when I spent nearly $500 for an 80mb drive? I just got a new system with a WD drive, but my twin bro who's a hardware tech type person says he's used Seagate for years and thinks they're just fine. So it's hard to say...

If they were completely awful they wouldn't have been in business this long, you'd think?

richard

ever since Seagate bought out Maxtor iv'e only ever used Seagate an don't have a problem with them, but as long as you keep the Hard drive firmware up to date there cool.

[JN4OldSchool]

Richard, I believe you have read my tirade on seagate, if not it is here:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showth...hlight=seagate

'nough said.

[rpstitz]

I just got a tweet from a "friend" GeorgeLaw who said "11,508 ... # songs in my old itunes colllection before the segate crash. 0 .. the number after. $%^& me" (I edited it for these forums, but he's fairly upset, and for good reason).

Sean, I just read that post. Funny, I did a "Seagate" search before creating this thread and didn't find it. If I had, I would have just bumped that thread

I am ordering

W10-7312 :: Western Digital WD3200BEVT Scorpio Blue Mobile Hard Drive - 320GB, 2.5", SATA-300, 5400, 8MB, OEM (0.6 lbs)

tonight, so it should be here Wednesday afternoon. Shipping and all, it's just $72...and it's well worth that to keep my Vaio going

500GB drives are so cheap atm. i iknow there around $72 for a Seagate 3.5"

[rpstitz]

Demz, I think it might be the "aura" of my personality or something electromagnetic maybe about me...perhaps it is due to my personal feelings about the name brand (nobody truly understands the extent of the power of suggestion)...but something killed the only Seagate I have ever purchased, and before I bought it I thought that I might be making a big mistake because of what I have heard about the brand. Karma is a "b", I know, but I don't want to push it Call me superstitious, but I'll stick to the "tried and true" WD. I almost ordered the 500GB drive, but 320 is plenty...I have been getting by with 160 with no problems for a year and a half.

i had a mate that used a WD , cant remember any other detail bout it but it was a 3.5" one an it died on him not long after he bought it. i think it may have been a Raptor? something like that,

[Dan]

No, Richard. It's not a fluke. I've been a Maxtor fan for several years myself. I was not pleased when Seagate bought them.

That being said ... I had a pretty impressive WD graveyard in the backyard firing range too.

Like you, I suppose I'll have to start choosing between The WD click of death(TM), and the sound of Seagate silence(TM) soon. But until then, Global has a nice little Hitatchi 320 Gig ...

[ozjd]

I have used mainly seagate for a few years and haven't had a failure. Almost dropped my portable drive, a 3.5" 160gb Seagate, the other day, caught it but it still got a decent bump and it still works fine.

Personally I don't think there's much difference between brands. They all have problems from time to time.

Originally Posted by ozjd

Personally I don't think there's much difference between brands. They all have problems from time to time.

thats so true. i think its just luck that you have a good run with a specific Brand(s)

[stevea]

A slim majority of the dozen disks I spin regularly are seagates. And I haven't found then problematic. Actually WD are the disks I'd avoid.

Recently there was a huge debacle regarding the Seagate 7200.11 series. The original firmware would fail and ruin the disk. The next release of firmware had a more subtle but equally fatal error. Reportedly the 3rd release was fine. Some of the EOM disks had the same firmware problems.

There is apparently no problem w/ the newer 7200.12 series.

I have several 7200.9 and 7200.7 series with more than 41000 hours -4.5 years of continuous spinning. I use a triple of 7200.10 that now have more than 2.5 years of continuous spinning.

The storagereview.com website used to be a great resource however it's rarely updated in recent years. If you read very long there it appears that all disk vendors have had their clunkers. Every name has had disks which really failed extraordinarly badly. At least for the 7200.11's I take some comfort in the fact it was firmware at fault.

====

The OP asks about a 2.5 inch drive - laptop territory. I'd seriously keep in mind that seagate was primarily a server disk vendor - which puts them lower in the list for laptop drives. For laptop drives samsung would be among my first choices. Perhaps Hitachi (despite the hitachi deathstar drives). Hitachi seems to be shipping a lot of older technology in the recent past, but you have to examine the specifics.

[David Batson]

I had (2) 3.5" Maxtor 80GB SATA drives fail in less than a year - about 5 years ago. Have avoided Maxtor ever since. I replaced those Maxtors with Samsung drives, and they are still working fine.

For my laptop, I have a Hitachi that is about 5 years old still running fine. I have had Fujitsus for the same length of time without a problem. I bought a Western Digital about 3 months ago and just a few days ago SMART began reporting 1 bad sector.

[JN4OldSchool]

And I have used mostly WD drives since the mid 90's and I cannot recall even 1 going bad! Whereas every seagate and maxtor I have owned have gone belly up. As I comment in the thread I linked to in my last post I completely understand that this is 100% subjective. I have met many folks that hate WD. Even more than the Ford/Chevy thing I just cannot understand this one. How is it that WD has a perfect track record for me yet others have nothing but problems? How is it even possible that out of at least eight seagates I have owned not one has lasted over six months? I have 3.2GB era WD drives that are still working fine. I almost want to keep buying seagates just to find one that works, surely they are out there. Why do I keep getting bad ones? Naw, at least for me it will be Western Digital from now on, at least as long as I have the choice and it will be a factor in a store bought machine.

[Dan]

Well, CRUD!

I guess Maxtor is indeed slipping. My old DiamondMax 9 120g sounds like a struggling diesel this morning ... and the first 40gig shared FAT data partition is reporting as "unrecognized."

You just can't get anything that lasts any more. This dang thing is only seven or eight years old. And there were at least three weeks during that period in which it was spun down and shut off. <....>

It's like it was designed to fail, or sumthin'! <....>