OT: What Do You Recommend For Hard Drives?

[William Bushnell]

My SAW / SAC computer started locking up while playing back an 18 track session today. When playback would lock up, the hard drive light would turn full brightness and stay on and I could hear a drive making noise.

The machine has a system drive and two data drives so at this point I don't know which has the problem but I think it must be the data drive with the session files (if it is a drive problem). I had to power down by holding in the power switch as it was completely locked. After letting the computer cool I started copying the session data files to an external usb hard drive and it locked up again. I am repeating the process to copy all of the files.

If I need to replace a drive what brand do you find is most reliable? For years I have used only Seagate but after reading a number of reviews on newegg it seems their quality is not what it once was. Thanks for your input.
____________
William Bushnell

[905shmick]

In all honesty, you really can't go wrong with any of the major brands of drives these days. All drives will eventually fail. Some will fail after 5 days and some will fail after 25 years. Just be sure to keep a backup of your data.

[RBIngraham]

In all honesty, you really can't go wrong with any of the major brands of drives these days. All drives will eventually fail. Some will fail after 5 days and some will fail after 25 years. Just be sure to keep a backup of your data.

I couldn't agree more. I've used just about every make and model of hard drive out there over the years and I can not say any brand did a particularly better job than any other brand. This is one of those areas just like sound cards. One person will swear by brand X and another person will only swear at brand X because they had 1 or 2 failures at the most inopportune times using that particular brand. Just like some will say they love MOTU interfaces or Presonus and others won't touch them because they couldn't get one to work and wasted their money.

My main thing with both sound cards and just about any computer component is that I will pay a touch extra to do business with a retailer that I trust and has a good return policy. That way, if it doesn't work, I simply return it and get my money back and try something else. For example there is a store called MicroCenter near my home. Except things like software you can take stuff home and bring it back in like 14 days no questions asked. Now hard drives are likely not going to die that quickly, but I've found that most hard drives either do die fairly fast or they last an eon and die when you least expect it.

So long story long.. I would just go buy whatever bulk OEM hard drive (why pay for a fancy cardboard box and a cable you likely don't need) is on sale for the best price this week. That's pretty much how I've always done it.

RBI

[IraSeigel]

.... This is one of those areas just like sound cards. One person will swear by brand X and another person will only swear at brand X because they had 1 or 2 failures at the most inopportune times using that particular brand.

...

Sorry, I don't agree with you on this one. With sound cards, it's not ONLY about the hardware. It's about how well written are the drivers. With drives, the robustness of the components is key.

Ira

[RBIngraham]

Sorry, I don't agree with you on this one. With sound cards, it's not ONLY about the hardware. It's about how well written are the drivers. With drives, the robustness of the components is key.

Ira

Well you're disagreement just proves my point to some extent. :p

I won't argue that some manufacturers have well deserved reputations for creating good drivers. RME is a great example and so is Metric Halo (too bad they are Mac only). But with a few exceptions I stand by my initial statement. I really like Echo's products and have had good experiences with them. But I know some people that won't touch them because they had one or more terrible experiences and won't give them another shot.

Just look around this forum my friend. I won't touch anything from M-Audio as all their units I've used have been less than stellar when it comes to drivers and they don't sound that great either. But I know several others that use them all the time, seem to have no issues and like them. The ProFire LightBridge is a perfect example.

Some people really like MOTU. But again I know some folks that won't touch them because MOTU did a really bad job of customer support and so they lost that person as a customer.

Sorry to disagree but sound people are just a fickle bunch and I put myself fully in that category! :)

When it comes to hard drives now, I can not think of a single drive manufacturer that hasn't had some really outstanding products over the years and some real lemons. Bar none! Throw out some names if you like and I'll bet you it won't be hard to find someone with a chip on their shoulder about that particular manufacturer.

So what drive manufacturer do you recommend then? Models?

Obviously just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions... they are like butts! Everyone has one. :p



Richard

[905shmick]

And there's always the 2009 Desktop Hard Drive Charts on tomshardware.com (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/benchmarks,50.html)

[mloretitsch]

As a full time computer guy I can attest to no major brand drive being any better than another. I am using the cheapest western digital 80gb drives in my sac system and any replacements I do at work.

Lots of these cheap drives are only rated to be on for 8 hours per day, but I have not seen any correlation in failures to these drives. As long as you have strong airflow and keep the drive temperature down they will last.

-Matt

[gdougherty]

I will say that the Western Digital Black series is a better built drive than a lot of the cheap entry level drives, especially for something that gets moved around. You pay a touch more, but I still picked up a 750GB drive for about $80. IMO, any drive that a manufacturer will offer a 5 year warranty on is either better built and/or worth it for the long replacement warranty.

[dbarrow]

Looks good. What enclosures do you recommend?

[RBIngraham]

Looks good. What enclosures do you recommend?

Again I go to my local computer store and pick up whatever USB or eSATA enclosure is on sale that week. I have yet to have any problems unless you go back the very early days of firewire. And just like anything else I will pay a few extra bucks to shop at the local store because they let me return anything in 14 days no questions asked, except software. (for obvious reasons) So you take it home, test it out, if it sucks you take it back.

Richard