|
Would you feel safe using these HD's?
|
|
Junior Member
|
24. September 2007 @ 19:21 |
Link to this message
|
Ill try to keep it short, but you have to know a little of the story. I purchased a WD 500gb Mybook and for unknown reasons it died 45 days later. WD shipped me out a replacement and the samething happened again. I was told by several people including the Apple forum that the internal board didnt like Mac's very much. WD refused to refund my money and instead sent me out their new "updated firmware" 1tb (2x500). The saga continues. The thing stopped working. WD eventually gave me a refund and I kept the 2 500gb drives. With nothing but nice things to be said from the Apple forum, I picked up a 500gb OWC firewire and love it. No problems at all. Its simple and just works as a "drag and drop" drive. It really is the best. My questions are:
1) What do I do with the 2 WD 500gb drives? I was told to drop them into an OWC enclosure as they will work just fine as it isnt hooked up to anything complicated.
2) I like the idea of having a mirrored drive, but was told that doing anything "extra" to a drive causes it to work more and will eventually fail MUCH quicker. Your thoughts...
3) Would you put confidence in these drives in your honest opinion/gut feelings. Im really 50/50.
4) Please express your views. Ive been thinking over this for like 6 weeks and simply cannot decide. Id hate to waste the drives, but I need to feel confident in these things if they are to be used.
Thank you very much for your time!
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
Moderator
1 product review
|
25. September 2007 @ 06:29 |
Link to this message
|
|
Alot of people have problems with WD drives, I personally use Seagate and haven't had any issues with them.
|
AfterDawn Addict
|
25. September 2007 @ 06:43 |
Link to this message
|
|
LOCOENG
in the last couple of months i had two new seagates go down,
i have wd that have never quit for years.,all my western are still kicking..
i quit buying seagate.
|
|
Phlax
Suspended due to non-functional email address
|
25. September 2007 @ 06:57 |
Link to this message
|
|
I have an external Maxtor 320GB HD and it's working great for me.. had it best part of a year I think.
Phlax - Still kickin'
|
Moderator
1 product review
|
25. September 2007 @ 07:11 |
Link to this message
|
|
@ireland
I've not had any personal experience with WD drives, but when I read something about them it is usually negative. I'm glad you are having success with the drives and as I said I've had no problems with Seagate. I don't think any of these companies are without flaws.
|
AfterDawn Addict
|
25. September 2007 @ 07:19 |
Link to this message
|
|
LOCOENG
i got got this i have a maxtor external thats 2 years old and its been giving me problems..removed all data to another ex-hd..
reformatted the drive and added data to it..tried it on another computer,will work for a while,then quit
to be fair this drive was on 24-7 for 2-years
maxtor is now owned by sea-gate
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25. September 2007 @ 07:22
|
Moderator
1 product review
|
25. September 2007 @ 07:28 |
Link to this message
|
|
Sorry you are having problems with the drive(s).
|
AfterDawn Addict
|
25. September 2007 @ 10:09 |
Link to this message
|
Hard drives, from any manufacturer, can go bad. I prefer Seagate, but I also have a few old Maxtor drives (prior to merger of Maxtor and Seagate) and a Western Digital drive. None have gone belly up, so far.
Life is good!
GrandpaBruce - Vietnam Vet - 1970 - 1971
Computer: Intel Core i7-920 Nehalim;Asus P6T Deluxe V2
|
Moderator
|
25. September 2007 @ 10:21 |
Link to this message
|
i've got some 10+year old Maxtor drives still hanging in there on a few old PC's and a few other makes. For the last few years i've stuck to mainly Western Digital drives but like the others say, any disk from any manufacturer can go bad. It always pays to research hard drives before buying, though that's mainly so you get a decent drive.
Originally posted by soc3558:
1) What do I do with the 2 WD 500gb drives? I was told to drop them into an OWC enclosure as they will work just fine as it isnt hooked up to anything complicated.
i swear by USB2.0 enclosures across many PC's personally
Originally posted by soc3558:
2) I like the idea of having a mirrored drive, but was told that doing anything "extra" to a drive causes it to work more and will eventually fail MUCH quicker. Your thoughts...
i know all about different RAID setups from building stuff like that on huge servers at work, but never used any form of RAID in the PC world. Depends on what form of mirroring you want/what levels of RAID are available to you in the PC world..
Originally posted by soc3558:
3) Would you put confidence in these drives in your honest opinion/gut feelings. Im really 50/50.
depends on the exact model of WD drive, though i can't say i've stumbled across anything in the news re WD drives going bad en masse.. Which reminds me, i've been researching these 500gb WD drives - WD5000AAKB.
Originally posted by soc3558:
4) Please express your views. Ive been thinking over this for like 6 weeks and simply cannot decide. Id hate to waste the drives, but I need to feel confident in these things if they are to be used.
as i say i'd personally drop them in a couple of cheap USB2.0 enclosures (never had a needd to use Firewire enclosures myself)
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules *** |
Junior Member
|
25. September 2007 @ 12:03 |
Link to this message
|
|
Maybe Ill give it a chance. I pretty much knew it was a catch 22 deciding the fate of these things. On one hand I dont want to waste them and on the other hand I dont want to go through another recovery process.
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
26. September 2007 @ 03:55 |
Link to this message
|
|
My input on hard drives:
Maxtor: Cheaper than most, often noisier than most, no major issues with reliability in the latest revision, DM+9 models had a few fire problems if I recall. I've owned one Maxtor, a 40GB DM+8 IDE bought in 2005. Still works today, although hasn't been used in a while.
WD: Solid, reliable drives. The SE16 series is very fast and quiet, although there were some early QC issues (I had two faulty ones), most of the Caviars are strong performers though. I've owned 6 WDs, a 160GB IDE from 2004 (Still works), a 200GB IDE from 2004 (a cheap PSU killed that one, no fault of the drive), two 250GB S-ATAs from 2005 (still working, and in use), and two 500GB SE16s, both faulty, but the second one I didn't care enough to get rid of, the only problem with it is that you can't install an OS.
Seagate: Again, solid performers. The higher capacity models get quite hot, but no major problems. Noise on older models can be off-putting for the sensitive. I've owned two Seagates, a 13GB Medalist IDE from 1999 (still works), and a 250GB Barracuda S-ATA from 2006 (In use).
IBM/Hitachi: Can't say much, I've only had one drive, a 16GB IDE from 2000, it still works, but that's not exactly up to date info.
Samsung: Quiet drives if mounted properly. One of my two drives has gone bad, a 400GB S-ATA. I didn't keep the other 250GB one long enough to tell how good it was.
In truth, there's nobody I really avoid with regard to HDs, but my preferred choices are WD and Seagate.
|
Moderator
1 product review
|
26. September 2007 @ 04:47 |
Link to this message
|
|
Lots of good information Sam, ireland and Creaky. As Bruce said, anyone can get a bum HDD from time to time.
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
26. September 2007 @ 04:51 |
Link to this message
|
Exactly, the other thing to watch for is shipping damage. If there's any evidence the drive might have been badly handled during shipping, don't use it, or don't rely on it. A batch of three drives that came very late once and the box looked mangled - one was DOA, the other failed after a week, the third after a month.
|
Junior Member
|
26. September 2007 @ 15:44 |
Link to this message
|
|
The choice of drives can be debated all day. My personal favorite is the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 tossed in an OWC enclosure and packed with a 5 year warrenty.
The real question is weather or not you think the original drives are "ok". Recall that I have them removed from their original enclosres (the 1TB enclosure from WD). Whats your opinion on the fact that they went bad like all the others? I have conflicting advice. A friend is telling me that the drives are probably fine and it was just WD's enclosures that are giving me trouble...
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
26. September 2007 @ 15:50 |
Link to this message
|
WD's drives are good, I haven't owned a Mybook so I couldn't say, but from what I hear they're not as good as the drives themselves.
I've put 900GB of storage in one of these:
(A samsung 400 and WD 500, you could probably put two TB drives in)
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Component...productId=28593
twin hot-swappable drives on rails, all via one USB cable. Granted it's not fast, but hey it's cheap and easy.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. September 2007 @ 15:52
|
Member
|
26. September 2007 @ 16:14 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by soc3558:
1) What do I do with the 2 WD 500gb drives? I was told to drop them into an OWC enclosure as they will work just fine as it isnt hooked up to anything complicated.
Here is what you do with the dead drives. You go to Target or Best Buy and buy the EXACT same model. Then you return the bricked drives and keep the new ones, you get your money back and you get new working drives.
Might sound a little wrong but you need to stand up as a consumer. Big corporations will take them back, it's a "write off" for them. Just pay with cash when you get the new drives.
|
|
Auslander
AfterDawn Addict
|
26. September 2007 @ 16:20 |
Link to this message
|
|
if there's *any* of my data on the drives, they never get returned. even if i'm eating money. i destroy them myself.
|
Junior Member
|
26. September 2007 @ 16:43 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by c1c:
Originally posted by soc3558:
1) What do I do with the 2 WD 500gb drives? I was told to drop them into an OWC enclosure as they will work just fine as it isnt hooked up to anything complicated.
Here is what you do with the dead drives. You go to Target or Best Buy and buy the EXACT same model. Then you return the bricked drives and keep the new ones, you get your money back and you get new working drives.
Might sound a little wrong but you need to stand up as a consumer. Big corporations will take them back, it's a "write off" for them. Just pay with cash when you get the new drives.
very interesting. i agree about the consumer standing up part. i went through hell with WD customer service and in the end I was out A LOT of time, trouble and money.
|
Junior Member
|
26. September 2007 @ 16:55 |
Link to this message
|
|
Actually, now that I think of it...I registered the original online with WD. What if Target sends the drives back and WD decides to open the drive and run the numbers or whatever? Is there anyway of it getting back to me even if I do pay cash?
|
Moderator
|
26. September 2007 @ 16:59 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by soc3558:
The real question is weather or not you think the original drives are "ok". Whats your opinion on the fact that they went bad like all the others? I have conflicting advice. A friend is telling me that the drives are probably fine and it was just WD's enclosures that are giving me trouble...
the rest of us aren't psychic, you either try them out for yourself by testing them, either in some form of caddy or putting them in a PC. Or chuck (well carefully pass towards) said friend and get him to test them;
..we can't do that part for you...
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
|
Member
|
26. September 2007 @ 17:17 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by soc3558:
Actually, now that I think of it...I registered the original online with WD. What if Target sends the drives back and WD decides to open the drive and run the numbers or whatever? Is there anyway of it getting back to me even if I do pay cash?
Well if you registered them then I wouldn't do it. They will send them back to WD and I'm sure they will run the numbers. But then again, you sold them on ebay for really cheap with the title "WD Mybook broken use for parts" :-)
But I still wouldn't do it.
|
Junior Member
|
26. September 2007 @ 19:19 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by c1c:
Originally posted by soc3558:
Actually, now that I think of it...I registered the original online with WD. What if Target sends the drives back and WD decides to open the drive and run the numbers or whatever? Is there anyway of it getting back to me even if I do pay cash?
Well if you registered them then I wouldn't do it. They will send them back to WD and I'm sure they will run the numbers. But then again, you sold them on ebay for really cheap with the title "WD Mybook broken use for parts" :-)
But I still wouldn't do it.
damn! good call, good call.
still stuck then. I am so 50/50 on this. Screw it. Im going to just buy new drives and put these in a cheap enclosure and use them as a 3rd backup source. If they go...they go and I still have security in other dirves.
Thanks guys!
|
|
pernal
Member
|
30. September 2007 @ 21:04 |
Link to this message
|
soc3558
A lot of cheaply made enclosures are ussually the problem. A good USB enclosure like the Vantec Nexstar 3 ( they come in mirror black, blue and red)for about $30 ( usually at Directron.com). I have bought and used many; the Nexstar DX 5.25 for DVDRW, Nexstar 3 for 2.5 and the (old) Nexstar 3.5 enclosures.
Russell
|
Junior Member
|
30. September 2007 @ 21:16 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by pernal:
soc3558
A lot of cheaply made enclosures are ussually the problem. A good USB enclosure like the Vantec Nexstar 3 ( they come in mirror black, blue and red)for about $30 ( usually at Directron.com). I have bought and used many; the Nexstar DX 5.25 for DVDRW, Nexstar 3 for 2.5 and the (old) Nexstar 3.5 enclosures.
Russell
Thank you. Ill check them out for Firewire 800 enclosures.
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
|
1. October 2007 @ 05:23 |
Link to this message
|
|
The Nexstars certainly look nice, I haven't tried them myself. I usually go with IcyBox enclosures. The build quality varies significantly between them, but I've never had any issues with them, hardware-wise. The old shape IB-351 ones are best, but the new IB-370 is sleek looking, and a solid performer. Just avoid the 360 series, they're very tacky.
|
