Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???

Nov 3, 2004 5:42PM PST

I have worked on system after system and spent more time than i care to admit doing research. I am putting together my own system now and have one question. Is there any one out there who can tell me is there a "best" hard drive manufacturer or not. I havent had bad luck with Seagate, Western Digital or Maxtor yet i have heard "horror stories about all 3. Any REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE or KNOWLEDGE would be greatly apreciated.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 19, 2004 6:32AM PST

After reading the 25 responses, the general consensus seems to favor WD, but not by much. I used to work for a delivery package company (brown)and tens of thousands of pc's were ordered (for shiping customers and centers)with Maxtor HD's, and most of them failed. The PC company (big name brand) sent all new HD's to us, WD's, and of the 50 or so I re-installed, there were no failures, and the package company was also happy.

I have my own computer sales and service business now, and have reformatted/replaced hundreds of HD's, the worst were Maxtors, the best were WD's, Seagates in the middle as well as "other" brands. Even with warranties, the time/cost spent 'fixing' is not always recoverable, as well as some data.

Experience is the best teacher, especially when you have red-faced customers at your door with no backups.

bol
royala

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 19, 2004 8:00AM PST

All of our computers at my hospital are Dell. About half of them came with Maxtor. So far I have documented a 65% failure rate. Dell replaces the Maxtors with WD. I have not had a WD fail yet.

I have had only one issue with WD. I put a WD 160 GB in my Dell at home. Their configuration software also could not resolve an issue with not being able to properly show both the new 160 and the older 40. I am not running the 40. It is just a spare in the bay.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 19, 2004 1:26PM PST

I swear by western digital and have tried to stick with them since my first 40 Mbyte harddrive (upgraded at the time). I've had problems with Fujitsu and Quantum drives but have also owned seagates and maxtors with no problems.....just FYI that 40M WDcaviar drive still works fine although it's a tad useless Happy

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 19, 2004 3:08PM PST

You have heard horror storied about all 3 brands because no brand nor piece of hardware is perfect. Any brand can and always will have issues. I personally use one Western Digital and one Seagate and have had no issues with either of them. Generally I have found the problems that people have is their own problem and not the hardware and is usually linked to the individual not looking after them. Hard drives need regular maintenance and need to be cared for to ensure good performance and reliability.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 19, 2004 4:24PM PST

I have never had any problems with Maxtor, but I will NEVER have another WESTERN DIGITAL. I have four of their best hard drives sitting on my desk that have all crashed. It has caused me a lot of grief and many hours of torment trying to recover data.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 19, 2004 4:24PM PST

I have assembled an fixed many computers since 1989.
As you said there can be good and bad from any brand.
From my view I have had the best luck with Western Digital. I have had the worst experiences with Maxtor. I would not take and use one if it were given to me free. I just will not ever trust another Maxtor. In my personal systems and the ones I build for others I use Western digital. Like I said every brand will have problems over time. It's been my experience that using many Western Digital drives I have had one fail. I have had three Maxtors fail me. I guy will withstand only so many hits till he learns. Well I learned. I don't need any more lessons.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 20, 2004 2:58AM PST

I hooked up an 80gb external WD hard drive and 120gb external hard drive to my PC. While copying and pasting from the 80gb to my PC and to the 120gb hard drive and vice versa, the 80gb drive stopped spinning and I cannot get it to work,losing all the back up files on it.There is no manual or instructions for the proper use of the external hard drive.I would not recommend the WD external hard drive.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 20, 2004 12:48AM PST

My personal preference is Maxtor. I have had failures
using drives from WD and Seagate but after 14 years of
using, building, and repairing computers (including 8 years in a LAN environment) I've never had a Maxtor fail.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 20, 2004 9:46AM PST

Ten years or so, 2 dozen hard drives or more, used personally or by family/friends I have had two hard drive failures - one DOA and another that failed to boot after less than a year in operation - both were Maxtors. Of the 6 hard drives in commission in my home right now, only 1 is not WD and one of these WD drives is from an old 486DX/33 (remember those) that is a whopping 1.6GB (about 7 years old or so) that I am using as a page file drive. My experience has been awesome with WD drives but I must say that Maxtor does have a good return policy even if they nitpick about how to pack the drive and what is acceptable and you must pick up the return shipping to them.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 21, 2004 3:24PM PST

In my book Maxtor is way down the line. Have lost two in three years on XP with not a huge amount of work. The last one ten days ago while running NAV2004, the first one whether by coincidence? when downloading updates for NAV2002.
A local IT guy said that he has changed more hard drives running XP than any other Windows program

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 21, 2004 4:03PM PST

I myself have used all three company's HDD. Maxtor's the most and Seagates the least. I would say to go with Western Digital as recentley my month old Maxtor 250GB physically damaged itself beyond repair and as I said I haven't used Seagate much though nothing bad in particular has happended with my Seagates.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 22, 2004 8:28AM PST

At this point, I own 1 WD, 1 IBM and 14 Maxtors. I had good luck with the first 2 but when it came to support ( downloads, specs, tech papers ), I liked Maxtor. I have spare drives in each PC for primary backup, external drives for secondary backup, and formatted drives at the ready to pop in and reinstall stupid XP which is always corrupted. I just lost one of their external 40s after less than a year and a half, stationary, used for backup. Not a happy day. The 2 other externals, 120 GB, are doing fine. So are the other 11 internals, some of which go back > 3 years. Had 2 replaced by Maxtor a few years ago.No hassle.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 22, 2004 12:23PM PST

My first HD was a whopping 10 MB... that's MB... at a cost of $800! It was the size of a flatbed scanner and made more noise than a vacuum cleaner. That was in the 80s.

I've had dozens of HDs since then... all of the "consumer retail" quality. I would rate WD best of the motley bunch but NONE of them are built to last. They're clearly mass produced to cost as little as possible to manufacture and still mostly make it to the 1 year mark in operation (the warranty period).

There should be a LAW passed by the UNITED NATIONS to make it a crime against nature to so shoddily manufacture anything that has become so IMPORTANT... so CRITICAL... to so MANY PEOPLE. I don't know anyone that wouldn't be willing to pay another $50-$100 for a drive with a 10-year warranty... and I'm damned sure any of the manufacturers could do it (they apparently make high quality drives for servers and mission critical applications but they're many times the price).

Wouldn't it be nice if just one of these manufacturers gave a DAMN about MY TIME and MY DATA and decided to cease manufacturing JUNK and sold ONLY reliable, quality drives... even if they were $100 more than the others? There are millions of us out here willing to PAY... how about it Maxtor, WD, Seagate????

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 22, 2004 8:55PM PST

I have read all replies and would like to comment on a couple of brands which no one mentioned so far (I think).

First off, it's Fujitsu. It was the best HD I ever had, lasted for years (still works, actually), has no bad sectors, very fast, and has survived all this time after an incredible amount of punishment.

Second, is Hitachi (aka: IBM). These had a bad rep some years ago because there were some models which, apparently, had lots of problems but I took a chance with them some time ago and don't regret it. Also, reviews I've seen about them confirm that the new Hitachi HDs are surprisingly good.

From the "Big 3", however, I have to go with Seagate simply because they're the cheapest where I live. I build computers for friends and everytime I'm on the market for a HD, Seagates always offer the best value for money. Unfortunately, I had a 60GB PATA go bad on me once, although it was less than 2 years old (just a few bad sectors, but it still works otherwise).

Western Digital, from what I hear, is the best. However, they're also the most expensive where I live so I never tried one, nor do I feel inclined to do so as long as there are better bargains elsewhere.

Maxtor is a mystery to me. Never used them. They're usually priced very close to Seagates, but the stories I hear about how they break down, and the fact that Seagate is known for better "acoustics" always tip the scale away from this brand. But who knows, I may give them a shot someday.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 22, 2004 8:57PM PST

You mentioned, Seagate, Maxtor and WD, only Samsung was left out for you purchase from some store/website. Any other brands usually are from the factory(OEM installed) and still are very few. What does all this mean, with the ones you mentioned and Samsung, overall they deliver the goods and unless you get into a severe heat problem, continue to. Over the years, WD has treated me the best and the warranty wasn't bad and was honored everytime. The others did too, but seemed to fall down in the past alittle(no horror story). As for horror stories, well guess what there'll be some all the time. Just install corrctly, keep system cool and hopefully it runs for years.

good luck Happy -----Willy

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 23, 2004 6:48AM PST

I always liked my maxtors. Western Digitals were also always good.

- Collapse -
Re: Hard Disk Drives: Is there a clear Leader???
Nov 24, 2004 4:41AM PST

This is just my opinion, Western Digital is my preferred drive. Because over the 24 years that I have been using computers Western Digi has been consistant. 20 years ago Segate was crappy and Maxtor was over priced. Now they are about the same. Each one has a drive that is great for the type of application you are using it for. I like Western Digital and Maxtor for my media drives. I edit music and post audio using Digidesign Pro Tools and Fairlight family of editors(MFX, Merlin and Dream Family). But in the end as you said they all a very bad stories about their drives. The number one rule is Backup often use a RAID and in my case run redundant recorders in mulit formats. It is fun when you have a deadline and the master will not play because of a drive error and the client is right their in the studio waiting to hear $50,000 plus string session that was just recorded edited and mixed over the past 24 hours and has to be in the hands of the Mastering Engineer tomarrow morning.

This one is off the subject but Plextor makes the best all around optical drives I have seen. I can plug them in amy where on the planet and they work.

- Collapse -
Slight loyality
Apr 2, 2005 3:03PM PST

Flatly put, there are only 5 HD makers out there excluding laptop models. seagate, Maxtor, WD, Samsung and Hitatchi, maybe TriGen(OK, 6 maybe Samsung anyways).

They all work and do a pretty good job. Sooner or later any one of them can hic-up and get a bad dose of drives. IMHO, WD has been good to me and that's to include thier warranty side as well. However, upon any given day, I'll buy any brand that fits the budget or desires of the customer. In no way do I see a clear leader. I do *feel* comfortable with WD, Maxtor, then Seagate, in that order.
Be wary of resold "refurbed" HDs as new or pulls as sometimes the cost is a good deal but could be an accident waiting to happen from a business view but maybe a great deal to a end-user buyer.

tada Happy -----Willy

- Collapse -
SEAGATE!
Apr 14, 2005 1:43PM PDT
- Collapse -
I believe there is one!
Apr 24, 2005 10:25PM PDT

Hi there,

I run some large IT support contracts and this issue is brought up time and again. I recently spoke to our data recovery suppliers and asked the same question, because I am sick and tired of the hassle of replacing drives and even more sick of telling my customers that they are going to need to pay a few hundred pounds for recovery of their data.

The advice that they gave me was to avoid Maxtor, and IBM/Hitachi drives like the plague, but that the Seagate Barracuda drives are one of the most robust drives on the market with the lowest failure rates of all of the drives out there. I have changed to Seagates recently (thats 360+ hard drive units) and have yet to see a failure!

Our data recovery people are here at http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/ if you want to ring them they will give you free advice on which drives to choose and back-up etc. Number is on the site somewhere!

- Collapse -
Reliable drive....
Apr 26, 2005 6:28PM PDT

I have to agree; of all the drives I get in for recovery, Seagate make up very few indeed.

Drives to avoid at all costs:

IBM / Hitachi
Maxtor
All Western Digital models that aren't JB
Excelstor (normally remanufactured IBM / Hitachi)

Seagate, for me, is the clear leader.

Odiferous
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts

- Collapse -
Western Digital drives work a long time.
Apr 28, 2005 8:39PM PDT

I have 3 computers running all WD drives for the past 5 years (5 total drives) and have not had any failures. I just bought a Maxtor drive and have not been able to get the serial ATA card to boot the bios and install, after 3 tries. So I cannot say anything about the drive. But the ATA card is a Mator that came with it, and it does not work. I am going to take it back, and get a WD.

- Collapse -
have u ever heard of Quantum fireball
Sep 20, 2007 1:41PM PDT

The only thing i can say is that it was the strongest....the best ever created

- Collapse -
Maxtor One Touch III external hard drives failed
Feb 8, 2008 4:51AM PST

My Maxtor One Touch III - 320 GB - external hard drive failed after 4 months of use. I turned my computer system completely off prior to leaving for a vacation and when i got back, the external hard drive would not power on at all. After emailing with technical support and calling the warranty service, they indicate my only option is to send the unit back and they will send me a refurbished unit.

My worries are that:
a. my unit is being sent back with all my hard drive data on it. can someone at warranty return center access my personal info? or when they "refurbish" my unit and sent to the next person - will they be able to get my info?
b. they are sending me a refurbished unit with no additional warranty and that this unit could die in another few months.

I have read on here quite a few threads about Maxtor units failing. Maybe I should just buy a new WD unit instead??? Arrrggghhhh .... don't know... Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
elle

- Collapse -
Clear leader for Hard Drives.....
Feb 9, 2008 4:44AM PST

Seagate and Western Digital seem to go back and forth. One will come out with something new and then the other will top it. Quality-wise, these two are both winners. The last drive I bought was Seagate because it had a really LONG warrantee - five times anyone else's. AF