Hard drive preferences

I've noticed a couple of posts on here where people say they prefer IBM travelstar drives for their empeg. Is this a general consensus? What are the real arguments for/against? Also, what is the good manufacturer for desktop drives now? It's been a couple of years since I was buying drives on a regular basis. Back then, I really liked Seagate SCSI drives. What's good in SCSI or IDE drives now?

I build about 2 computers per month. I only use IBM Deskstar drives (with the occasional Maxtor because they're cheap). My 12GB empeg came with an IBM Travelstar and it worked like a charm. My 60GB Rio came with Fujitsu drives. The Fujitsu drives seem to have cold weather problems. I have replaced them with Travelstars and all is well again. For SCSI I use Seagate (Cheetah in particular).

I find Fujitsu drives (desktop or laptop) to be intolerably poor performers speedwise. IBM rules the laptop market, and their desktop drives are welcome in any of my machines anytime.

Quantum desktop drives are awesome performers, cool and reliable compared to the other extreme: Western Digicrap.

Maxtor have almost always been good solid performers, and Seagate lost my business forever due to flaws on two generations of their drives.

Cheers

I have about a dozen IBM Deskstars and now a 30GB Travelstar. I decided to standardize on OEM packaging IBMs about a year ago. It lets me use the same diagnostic and DMA config utilities on all my drives, and I like their warranty and on-line RMA process (run diagnostic, get error code, go to web page, plug in S/N and err code and ...RMA number appears). I recently RMA'd 2 30GB drives* that were reporting non-fatal, but unfixable bad sectors and IBM returned 2 40GB drives (Hmmm. I should have them fail on a regularschedule!)

This is not to say that Maxtor or others don't have warranty/RMA that is as good. I never researched it. I kind of fell into IBMs but liked what I found.

One note: A local computer shop told me that he did have problems with some white box and retail box IBM drives -- warranty terms were not the same -- so he stopped using them. I've gotten bulk/OEM drives, though, and no problems with that so far.

*Yes, two drives that were part of the same mirror with bad sectors at almost the exact same locations. Did Jim perhaps whack the box with his knee during a disk read?? Regardless, they are both replaced. The computer kept running, but the controller reported errors, so I removed them one at a time and sent them in.

Jim

I have done successful RMAs with every drive manufacturer but Samsung and Fujitsu (I just RMA's two drives, didn't come back yet). I have never had to RMA a Samsung drive, but that's not to say they're good (rebadged Maxtor IIRC). And this is the first time with Fujitsu.

As for all the rest, they all have roughly the same response time and they simply replace the busted drive with a new or refurbed one. I have never gotten the same serial number back from anyone.

I had to RMA a Fujitsu drive a while back -- the manufacturer warranty on it was 2 years, and it failed after just over a year. The retailer's warranty was only a year, but they took the drive from me and sent it on to Fujitsu, anyway.

It took about 2 months for them to send me a replacement, which was a little long, but I didn't actually need the disk for anything. They also sent me a 30Gb disk to replace the 20Gb disk I'd sent them. Which was nice.

I've had very little bother with IBM disks, although there was a bit of a problem with the Deskstar 75GXP range a while back -- one of mine (a 30Gb) went crunch, but I've yet to actually RMA it.

Essentially, I'd choose IBM disks for most things, although I did buy a pair of 80Gb Seagate disks for my Linux box at home a couple of months ago.

You're talking solely IDE drives here, right, Mark?

It took about 2 months for them to send me a replacement, which was a little long

FWIW, I got each of the 2 IBMs back within 2 weeks (and I was thinking *that* might be a little long!!)

Jim

I have never gotten the same serial number back from anyone.

No, I can't imagine that you ever would. I'd guess that IBM probably does its refurb work in Thailand and other spots where they are made originally. Not sure what there is to salvage out of a bad drive other than the case and top plate (maybe drive electronics can be updated?)

Anyhow, they're out of 30s to my benefit. With a three-year warranty, if they would have just failed at 35 months, I might have gotten 120s!!

Jim

I strictly used Maxtor (I've had bad experiences with seagate and western digital) then I bought two 7200 RPM 60gig IBM deskstars.... I love em, quiet and fast!

Yup.

I've also always thought (AND exprienced) that Western Digital drives are crap. But now they seem to have one helluva drive out (see here)
I must say I'm intrigued, but my good sense and memory (of former experiences with them) prevents me from trying it out. Anybody here has experience with this drive?

The only good thing about that drive is it's size. But WD specializes in cutting corners big time, in design, standards, and manufacturing. I just don't trust them at all any more.

The last WD drive that ever graced my offices was an "Ultra ATA-33" drive, that did not correctly implement the UDMA CRC (necessary for reliable operation). Never again.

Cheers

-ml

I think that WD's crap is a fairly recent thing. I have a 212MB and a 740MB drive, both of which are WD. I'm currently using both of them. I got them both new, one in a prebuilt system and one retail and they are about ten years old.

OTOH, I got a WD drive just over a year ago and it's already toast.

Their SCSI drives seem to be a lot better, though; I used them a lot in a job a while back. Except that they don't make them anymore. Oh, well.

I've pretty much had good experiences with Western Digital drives. I've owned several from 540 megs up to my current 40 gig in the linux box. Guess I've been lucky with the way everyone else seems to have problems with them. *knocks on DLT drive*

I'm trying to remember the brand of drive that I did have some odd sector 0 errors with. It was a smaller one, so it hasn't been important to try and fix.

You definitely want Rodime and Conner drives. Yeah.

SCSI = Seagate and IBM

ATA Desktop = Maxtor & IBM

ATA Mobile = IBM

Quantum was bought/merged by/with Maxtor a little while back.

I have an 18GB SCSI Seagate Cheetah and a pair of Maxtor ATAs (60GB & 20GB) in my desktop right now. IBM and Toshiba 30GB drives in my empeg. Sitting in a currently un-used desktop are a 4GB SCSI Seagate Barracuda and a 1GB SCSI Quantum Pro Drive.

Bruno

I'd guess that IBM probably does its refurb work in Thailand

Just following up to myself here on 2 points:

- I just got my 2nd RMA IBM 30GB back (bummer, it's just a 30!) and enclosed in the box was a customs declaration originating at the "Teleplan Malaysia Repair Center". So that's why it took 12 days to get here! I would have guessed that IBM would have consolidated shipments in and out of NA, but I guess not.

- On avsforum.com, I saw a reference to a class-action suit against IBM for claiming 75GXP reliability figures that were too high (something like that). I found the lawyer's web page and that's about it. No idea whether there's any merit. Just a data point.