[ubuntu-uk] HDD drives... which brand(s)?

[Rob Beard]

Matthew Wild wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> What is the general opinion of the best HDD manufacturer? Over the
> years I have heard bad about each one in one way or another.
> 
> I'm looking to buy an external HDD. I was disappointed to find that
> Maplin only stock Seagate drives, and I have always avoided Seagate
> (even before they released their drives that don't work with Linux).
> 
> So, what are your experiences?
> 
> Matthew.
> 
> PS. Any other alternative for large backups?
> 

Well I have a pair of Maxtor drives in my PC (although Maxtor drives are 
now pretty much rebadged Seagate drives with 3 year warranties rather 
than 5 years).

I've had drives from Seagate, Maxtor, IBM/Hitachi, Samsung and Western 
Digital all fail on me.  An example of one was a Western Digital drive 
in a PC at work.  It failed after 1 DAY (brand new machine, left it 
installing over night, came in to work next morning, drive was dead). 
Saying that I've had other Western Digital drives last for years.

I'm not so sure about Samsung drives, I've had two identical drives (one 
from a branded external hard drive and one I bought from a computer 
fair) both fail with the same fault after about a year.

I've also seen Fujitsu IDE drives fail after about a year too.

I think maybe you might be worth just buying an external hard drive case 
and taking a chance on any old drive.  To be safe, buy two drives from 
different manufacturers and keep two backups.

Rob