Who makes the most reliable hard drive

[curtains]

I'm looking to buy a hard drive for a ps3 but who makes the most reliable hard drive.

[kellys_eye]

Those that offer the longest warranty!!!

Seriously - they don't WANT you claiming on your warranty so anyone offering 5 years will be sturdy enough to last at least that long and probably a lot longer.

Well after you've dumped the old gaming machine for the latest model - naturally

[chrrris]

In my previous life, I wrote software for digital CCTV systems (yes, it really was as exciting and interesting as it sounds ) for use on buses, train carriages, bin lorries, fire engines, and such like (so fairly harsh environments compared to a typical home or office).

I wasn't involved with the hardware spec in any way at all, but the hardware designers used Hitachi hard drives (both 3.5" and 2.5", depending on the application) and always said they'd proved to be the most reliable over the years. They bought thousands at a time, so I guess their opinion counts for something.
Although I s'pose they might have just been getting freebies or backhanders from suppliers for all I know!

[kellys_eye]

Normal faith in Japanese technology is probably well placed (shame the Germans don't make HDDs....) but in this day and age I suspect even Hitachi HDDs are made in China

[BillyGoat]

I don't know why China gets such a bad rep when it comes to manufacturing. I'm sure you can get utter dog crap made in Germany if you pay little enough or have a plant that doesn't care or have investment.

I was talking to a WD guy a little while back and he was talking (or not - wink wink) about WD and HGST - they are the same company....well, owners, but actually run separate lines of competing business due to the current anti-competitive/merger stuff going on. Crazy.

Anyhow, depends on what you are looking for, but WD should have a drive for you - they are helpfully colour coded too to help you pick the right one. If it's for a games console, might be worth checking it's compatible first though - some have specific firmware requirements or needs.

BG

[kellys_eye]

Yeah, I'm repeating a meme that doesn't really fit with actuality ( ) as even I buy lots of stuff straight from China and in other threads have encouraged others to do so too!

I'd place less faith on individual compnent reliability and more on the methods used to increase such (like RAID) but in the OPs requirement RAID isn't an option.

I must say that whenever I purchase HDDs I go for Hitachi too. I avoid WD after too many occasions of failure. Might have been bad luck but.... meh. They had their chance.

[BillyGoat]

Yeah, I'm repeating a meme that doesn't really fit with actuality ( ) as even I buy lots of stuff straight from China and in other threads have encouraged others to do so too!

I'd place less faith on individual compnent reliability and more on the methods used to increase such (like RAID) but in the OPs requirement RAID isn't an option.

I must say that whenever I purchase HDDs I go for Hitachi too. I avoid WD after too many occasions of failure. Might have been bad luck but.... meh. They had their chance.

Can't argue with logic and experience.

In my previous life, it was quite nice to have access to a countries worth of return and failure data for both appliances and individual components for computer based stuff. Made shopping that little bit nicer.

The thing that's lost from people sharing anecdotal evidence of failures is the minute sample rate. Used to have people saying "brand X is utter crap, I'm always seeing them back - buy brand Y".

When looking at the data Brand X had sold 100,000 units had a 2% failure rate, whereas brand Y had sold 2000 and had a 30% failure rate spread over the country

Good times.

[thescruff]

Bit like the boiler trade KE, boiler manu good product for years then complete rubbish for years. Having a market reputation doesn't mean a lot in today's environment.

[Bob225]

this is a can of worms, I started out with Maxtor back in the mid 1990's, the last 10+ I moved over to Western Digital (WD) I use blue, black or red drives, 2 of my NAS units run WD reds the 3rd nas runs WD Yellows (aka RE) and that's for my IP cameras

now I had no end of issues with Hitachi deathstars and seagates that crap out at around the 2-3 year mark (10 drives - 6 drives died with in 2 years

Pc's and notebook's run blue's or red's

SSD

Corsair MX100
Sandisk (for the budget systems)
Samsung 840 nice drives but not cheap

Major issues with OCZ vertex drives DOA or die with in 2 months I have 2 replacements sitting in the dray but I wont use them

As above you need to check compatibility with the ps3 first, as they can be very picky not done one in quite a while iirc there 2.5" drives in the slim and 3.5" in the full fat early versions

[BillyGoat]

... Hitachi deathstars...

Made me giggle. Not seen that name for a while!

[curtains]

I was thinking of buying a 2.5 inch 500gb seagate barracuda spinpoint but after seeing so many faulty Seagate on ebay it has put me off.

[BillyGoat]

I was thinking of buying a 2.5 inch 500gb seagate barracuda spinpoint but after seeing so many faulty Seagate on ebay it has put me off.

Isn't ebay about selling crap?

Why don't you search for working products? People sell faulty ones because idiots buy them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BG

[Bob225]

I have just recovered a Seagate 3tb at great cost to the owner - 2nd drive to replace the heads and control board plus sending it off to be done in a clean room - managed to recover just over 65% of the data

I have a few 60-120gb wd drives well over 10 years old still going strong

[BillyGoat]

I have just recovered a Seagate 3tb at great cost to the owner - 2nd drive to replace the heads and control board plus sending it off to be done in a clean room - managed to recover just over 65% of the data

I have a few 60-120gb wd drives well over 10 years old still going strong

Weird you mention recovery, I was just talking about this to someone about 20 minutes ago.

Imagine a family lifetime of pictures, babies being born and all sorts of other stuff on a drive that died that the wife's friend had failed. This woman rang the wife in tears asking if I could help them out somehow.

Drive utterly goosed (sounded like a bag of spanners, so quickly powered it off. Was in the process of work sorting out a massive deal (from the technical side) working with a data recovery place for serious stuff - perfect example.

It got the FULL treatment and took an epic amount of work, but they were willing to do anything to impress - cost: free!

They even gave a replacement drive with all the stuff on it.

I took it round and had a drink while they told us about their latest exploits and some offer at a local supermarket where they had managed to get about 5 car loads of lager/beer for their little club hut at practically give away prices.

When it came to the drive, I explained what they had done (and the cost would have been well into the high thousands, as it was pretty much highest level of retrieval). They were obviously incredibly overwhelmed at getting it all back, promised to backup, etc and shown me their new £1000 laptop where it was all going back.

I got three cans of fosters as "thanks" from their haul and for my "trouble".

I put them in the bin outside as I left.

Never again.

BG

[Bob225]

she was quoted £1200 flat rate - I sorted it out - parts come to £65, £150 plus vat for it to be done in a clean room and my time what was free

you need a backup, of a backup, then back it up again if you want piece of mind