New HDD

[WMFMS]

I'm looking to buy a new 120gb HDD for somewhere inbetween £100-150. Dabs has got the 120gb Maxtor DiamondMax D540X for £131.60, but I'm not sure whether to go Maxtor, IBM, Seagate etc - and the price doesnt vary that much between them anyway.
My 9 month old 40gb Seagate drive just packed up and I'd like to buy something that will hopefully last a bit longer than that...
Which should I go for?

Thanks WMFMS

[Ram09]

if your looking for a hd, personnally I use Maxtor, I've never had a problem with them and I am very happy with there results. well its your choice, just giving you my opinion.
Ram09:t

[WMFMS]

thanks Ram... I just unearthed the latest issue of PCW and its recommended best HDD is the IBM Deskstar 120GXP for £238... Its £136 on Dabs.com so I might go for that one.. Thanks for your help. WMFMS

[Ram09]

IBM could be an other option, I know they had problems in the past but, I think it was only a certain model... but I'm sure it would work well and do a good job. have fun with your new hd
Ram09:t

[slimbdove]

IBM HDD SUCKS!!!!!!!!! look at all the post here on how bad they are. I would go with the Maxotr.

:x

[effenger101]

When I decided to get a new HDD, I was tossed between Western Digital and Maxtor. Western Digital cuz my geeky kids recomended it, Maxtor cuz thats whats in my machine now. As my machine is very old, I knew I would have problems with the BIOS recognizing the drive. So I sent e-mails to both companys asking for advice. Maxtor sent me a form response telling me to contact the manufacturer of my machine, Western Digital explained what kind of problems I was going to have, how to get around them, and told me about their database of info to help with the instalation. Needless to say I went out and purchased a Western Digital. IMO, when theres not a whole lot of differance between products, customer servive is the deciding factor.

[smelanson]

My fav is Maxtor and WD, they are both great:)

[Kurylo]

IBM really suck as old ***** !!! I had IBM failed, and the newest HDD, IBM Deskstar 120GXP, as you, WMFMS said about, are recommended by a manufacturer to run continuously ONLY for 8 hours maximum !!!. Then they NEED to be turned OFF!!! Who likes this?

But WD or SG and you will be happy !!!

[smelanson]

8hrs, you can't be serious, thats sad:eek:

[WMFMS]

I took my HDD to a friends house to try and salvage some of the data.. and would you believe it, I prized off the case to find that my drive was in fact an IBM 40gb!!! (Just in case you're wondering how I managed to mix up an IBM and a Seagate - my friend built my PC for me, and the original spec sheet said Seagate and I had never actually taken the HDD out before).

I analysed the disk last night and the C: partition is fine, but D: is heavily fragmented. I tried to copy some stuff from D: to C: and got a "I/O Device Error" in Xp explorer, and Nero crashes if I try to burn anything from the D: drive - so I'm gonna try defragging it tonight and see if that fixes it, and if it doesn't, my crappy IBM 40gb is going to hard drive heaven.

So in short, there's absolutely no way I'm buying IBM again. I'm currently looking at a Maxtor 80gb 7200rpm, from what I've heard these are reliable drives so I'll probably settle for that one unless I get enough posts telling me they suck. Thanks for your replies, they've been extremely helpful!! WMFMS