Hard Drive Life

[jcs83md]

I've been running 2 drives for many years, both ATA-33, one is an 8 gig IBM from '95 and a 16 gig Western Digital from about '97. My question is, are these drives in danger of failing sometime soon?? If I had to guess I'd say the 8 gig has about 20,000-25,000 hours on it, perhaps more. I don't get any errors, the age of the drives are my main concern. Obviously, they are obsolete.. however I guess I am one to upgrade once something fails...

 

[Friend of Bill]

Sometimes you get lucky with certain appliances. I got a blender that is 35 years old and still runs like a charm! On the downside, my Maytag bowed-out after 10 months.

 

[DeepBlade]

hhhhmmmm..... well, my older comp, and IBM, i bought from futureshop, and the HD died out b4 the 1 year warranty was up, same with my cousin's compaq HD, both HDs were replaced with the 1 year warranty.

 

[Jz1397-5]

67K, all you will ever need.

 

[Goatman]

THe way I see things, is nowadays they don't build things to last, they build them to last until you want to upgrade. and even seomtimes that fails. They are building new cars the same way, once they hit 5 ys, everything on them starts falling apart. It's the same with computer parts, only it's a year.

I think it's a sad state of affairs when anything will die after a year of use....

 

[Cosmin]

Quantum Fireball 15GB here , works great , pretty noisy . Life of the HDD depends also by it's temperature !

 

[allan]

jcs - I believe snook gave you the right answer.....who knows? I've seen drives last 10 or more years (truly) and some die in 3 months. Just practice safe computing - you know, back up regularly and be prepared - and hope you get another 25,000 hours. It could happen.

As for that silly statement about WD's - well, that's all it is, a silly statement. I'm not looking for a fight here - just don't want any readers of this post who are relative novices to put any credence in that post.

 

[jcs83md]

Thats true, I've never had problems with Western Digital drives... or IBM for that matter... Actually Seagates are the hard drives I've had the most problems with.

 

[allan]

Fine - you've had a problem with something. That does not mean someone else will. To say it will die before any other brand because of your bad experience is just silly. It so happens that WD is probably the most reliable. Seagate is up there too. But so be it.

 

[shorty420]

I've had the same 2 WD HD's in 3 different computers for 3 years now. A 20 Gig and a 10 Gig. Never had any problem at all with them.

 

[gonaads]

Originally posted by catch23
Never had a problem with any drive except Western Digital...

I got a Western Digital in one of my Daughter's "Puters. I've had that drive for 5yrs, it's a frickin Timex.
I have an IBM HD in my 'Puter it died after 4 months, had to get it replaced (warranty). Bought new IBM HD and is in my Box now, put the replacement IBM HD they sent in my other Daughter's 'Puter. All doin fine.

I've got 80 and 120 MB HDs floating around that still function. (Conner... now that's old.)

I got a 1.6 GIG HD (Western Digital) that I used as a backup when my IBM took a shi... It's got a full install of XP on it right now.

It all depends on the HD you get (not brand just luck) and how hot they run, plus a little luck.

 

[frothymilkshake]

What about Matrox?

 

[frothymilkshake]

The shop lady told me Maxtor is better than Seagate.

 

[allan]

Originally posted by catch23
You can't tell me they're the most stable when I've had that many problems...

I like Maxtor because they've bought Quantum...and Quantums last forever.

Catch23 - I've been working with computers since 1985 - how about you?

 

[open_source]

Here is my two cents.

Quantum: World loudest drives. Remenber the Bigfoot drives?

Maxtor: Everyone I have owned has been RMA'd. Even had to RMA a replacement drive within four hours of receiving it.

WD: Had a stint where they made lower quality drives but are making good drives at the moment.

IBM: Deskstar=Deathstar. Is a reason why they sold off their HD Division.

Seagate: Best SCSI drives you can buy.

Fujitsu, Hitachi, Samsung: OK drives but would not buy one for personal use.

There really is no right answer on which drive is the best. It is all personal opinion.

 

[Gary Pandher]

personal opinion...very tru

 

[gonaads]

Yep, It's a crap shoot.

Ya take yer chance and hope for a solid HD.


To bad they don't make 'em like the old Conner drives They were pretty good in their day. Seagate bought them and that's that.

 

[Cosmin]

Originally posted by catch23
I've never uses Seagate...I've had experience with a couple OLD ones that have been laying around and probably knocked around...so most of them were dead (expectedly)

usually Seagate drives are very quiet ' , good memories with a seagate 3.2GB ..

 

[jonocainuk]

i used to have a 2.5gb WD (from '97) - still goin strong. also I had a 408mb seagate (from '93 or '94) - that still works (not in use though lol too small). theres an old 1gb seagate me mum used to have (from '94) which is in use in same system as the 2.5WD

also, Ive got a 4gb quantum and a 4gb seagate in a half built comp next to me which both work perfect.

like SnookBooger said - sometimes u get lucky.

I had an IBM which lasted about 8 months... so i dont think it'd be easy to say how long a hdd would last

 

[jonocainuk]

Originally posted by open_source
Quantum: World loudest drives. Remenber the Bigfoot drives?

how do you figure that out?

http://www.iamnotageek.com/cgi-bin/reviews.cgi?name=quantumAS&p=5

read that page - they say the quantum is very quiet

One thing I really have to credit Quantum on is the HBD Technology. The second I fired up the drive, I could easily tell that it was almost dead quiet! I did some last minutes testing of the sound of each of the drives during the testing... heres what I found.
IBM Deskstar - 3.2 bell
Seagte Medalist - 3.6 bell. Crunched like a pig!
Quantum Fireball Plus AS - 2.9 bell !! Yep. It was quiet!

i realise its personal opinion though... just had to make a point