There are some big drives that sell really cheap. e.g external Cavalry
500GB for $80, Maxtor OneTouch 4 750GB for $135, Seagate etc. They're
either unknown brand, e.g. Cavalry or receiving bad user ratings. It
appears that big drives are not as reliable as the smaller HDs. I
wonder which manufacturers have the most reliable HDs nowadays.
Seagate, Maxtor, WD all received bad reports with the least return
rate.
> There are some big drives that sell really cheap. e.g external Cavalry
> 500GB for $80, Maxtor OneTouch 4 750GB for $135, Seagate etc.
> They're either unknown brand, e.g. Cavalry or receiving bad user ratings.
Two of yours are externals which are much less reliable than internals.
> It appears that big drives are not as reliable as the smaller HDs.
There is no evidence for that claim with internal drives.
> I wonder which manufacturers have the most reliable HDs nowadays.
No one knows.
> Seagate, Maxtor, WD all received bad reports with the least return rate.
Previously cpliu <spamfreeliu@yahoo.com> wrote:
> There are some big drives that sell really cheap. e.g external Cavalry
> 500GB for $80, Maxtor OneTouch 4 750GB for $135, Seagate etc. They're
> either unknown brand, e.g. Cavalry or receiving bad user ratings. It
> appears that big drives are not as reliable as the smaller HDs. I
> wonder which manufacturers have the most reliable HDs nowadays.
> Seagate, Maxtor, WD all received bad reports with the least return
> rate.
It seems currently Seagate and Maxtor are definite "stay away"s.
WD still has their compatibility problems with their interfaces
(I posted about that recebntly here), so I would advise against
WD as well. Seems Samsung or Hitachi is the way to go at the
moment.
As to the unknown brands, do not gte them. They likely have
the cheoest drives in there that are available. Get drive
and enclosure separately. With the low-energy Samsungs and
Hitachis cooling becomes a lot less important. Don't know
whether these are available in >500GB at the moment, but at
least Samsung has announced them up to 1TB.
> There are some big drives that sell really cheap. e.g external Cavalry
> 500GB for $80, Maxtor OneTouch 4 750GB for $135, Seagate etc. They're
> either unknown brand, e.g. Cavalry or receiving bad user ratings. It
> appears that big drives are not as reliable as the smaller HDs. I
> wonder which manufacturers have the most reliable HDs nowadays.
> Seagate, Maxtor, WD all received bad reports with the least return
> rate.
>
> Thanks,
>
> liu
That's why my 1TB external is actually 2 500GB Hitachi HDDs in raid array.
cpliu wrote:
> There are some big drives that sell really cheap. e.g external Cavalry
> 500GB for $80, Maxtor OneTouch 4 750GB for $135, Seagate etc. They're
> either unknown brand, e.g. Cavalry or receiving bad user ratings. It
> appears that big drives are not as reliable as the smaller HDs. I
> wonder which manufacturers have the most reliable HDs nowadays.
> Seagate, Maxtor, WD all received bad reports with the least return
> rate.
I just go with the rule of thumb that they are all bad, and don't expect
too much out of them. If they last more than two years, then you lucked
out. But at two years, you're ready for a new drive anyways, so you can
then try your luck again with the latest drives then.
reliable HD above 500GB? 
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