tony.lambert@??? wrote:
> I have a failing hard drive, and I am going to
> replace it, but I am at a loss as to which brand
> to choose from.
>
> Does anyone have any horror stories about
> certain brands of hard drive, and would avoid at
> all costs ?
Two sources of information I've used:
1. http://www.storagereview.com/ and follow the
link to "Reliability Survey". You have to
provide one data point yourself to see the
other results, but you can do that with your
current drive.
2. Search uk.adverts.computer for the postings
of Odie Ferrous <odie_ferrous@???>,
who runs a data recovery business and
reports on the balance of failed drives he
receives.
I have a theory - but don't have hard data - that
there's a bathtub curve of failure rate vs
capacity for each model of drive. When a
manufacturer introduces a new drive type, there's
an initial we-haven't-quite-ironed-the-bugs-out
period which mainly affects the lower capacity
drives. They then get the line producing
relatively reliable drives for a while, in
increasing capacities, until the limit of that
model's technology is reached, and failure rates
start increasing again.
So, the Acme Whizzyspin 4657Gd9 might have
problems at its initial capacity of 120GB, be
reliable at 200GB to 400GB, then fail absurdly
quickly at 500GB... which is when they introduce
the 4657Gd10. :-)
> Can anyone recommend any good SATA models,
> specifically ones that are quite fast ?
I've not been looking recently, but Samsung and
Seagate have good names. Odie Ferrous did report
problems with certain Seagate models a few months
back, I seem to remember.
Storage Review will give you good performance
data.
Of course, if you want something that's going to
be _really_ reliable, I'd recommend LSI Logic SCSI
controllers, with Fujitsu or Maxtor (nee Quantum)
SCSI drives. :-)
Nick.
--
Nick Chalk ................. once a Radio Designer
Confidence is failing to understand the problem.
