Know a good hard drive make ?

[UKok]

I'm in the process of building my first PC. Got to the hard drive buying bit now: Wetern, Maxtor, Fujitsu, Seagate, ..Watergate, it's all the same to me ?
Any preferences, recommendations, advice ?
Looking for about 10Gb for photography work (is that enough?)

Much appreciated,
Oz, UK

[Stan]

Hi

I have 3 letters for answer : IBM
I love them, they are the best and the fastest !

Do not buy any HD that do not spin at 7200rpm and do not have 2Mb cache.

From IBM, any HD from the 34Gxp series will do (13Gb to 34Gb). More info on www.storage.ibm.com (http://www.storage.ibm.com) .

Stan

[This message has been edited by Stan (edited 02-16-2000).]

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

I'm a devoted Quantum user. Have never had a problem with them. Would I try another brand like IBM? Yeah, only if i had no choice.

Jim

[U-96]

Seagate has always been good to me.
My current 8.4GB Medallist is also happy on an 83MHz PCI bus, so long as DMA is disabled for the drive.

[edit] well to be accurate I mean 41.5MHz PCI bus, 83MHz FSBus. Sorry for the confusion http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by U-96 (edited 02-16-2000).]

[hd581]

I've had nothing but good experiences w/ IBM. Even their 7200 RPM drives don't get hot unlike a lot of 7200 RPM drives. Also had a lot of good Maxtor drives and they're cheaper, too. Heard a lot of good things about Quantum but no first hand experience. Every Western Digital drive I've had has gone bad one way or another with no exceptions. Someone may tell you they're good now or they fixed all they're problems blah blah blah. Don't take a gamble w/ WD. If you wanna go cheap, go Maxtor.

[Biff]

IBM

[jad1097]

Go to http://www.storagereview.com/ You my be surprized. Check out the Western Digital Caviar WD205BA Review. (http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200001/20000120WD205BA.html)

[pickel]

I have a Seagate that came in my computer and it hasn't let me down yet, and I've given it a workout. but I've read alot about the others and the IBM and Western digital would be one I'd consider if I had to lay out my bread.

[plucky duck]

I'd go for ULTRA66 7200rpm drives from either IBM or WD. Just make sure if you're getting a WD don't get the previous line of caviars if they are indeed lying around since they're known to be defective down the road....

Plucky

[awwall]

IBM IBM IBM

[hd581]

Jad1097, No I'm not surprised. I'm sure there's are plenty of good WD drives out there. I've just heard a lot and experienced a lot of bad luck w/ them. Why take a chance?

[socalgal]

I love my IBM 22GXP! (4 months old, first time IBM hdd user)

I've always used WD in the past, just RMA'd a old 2.1G Caviar that gave it up at just the 3yr warranty mark.

I say an 7200rpm, 2mg buffer is the way to go for an general purpose IDE drive.

[CujoRbd]

i most definitely second (or third, or whatever) IBM.... I no longer have one cuz i had to sell due to things beyond control, but when i did, it rocked! i don't remember all the specs but i know it was 7200rpm and maybe 1.5mb cache (i really don't remember)... it was sure faster than my current ones...

i can't profess more how much IBM is like, the best... i guess quantam sunami's are OK cuz they're sooo cheap (inexpensive), but i still prefer IBM for the compatibility, price and speeeed......


anywayz...

[oblivion]

I B M

Yes I know I am the oddball here. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

The new western digitals use IBM parts...what does that tell you.

[Chef Mark]

IBM all the way.

I have used IBM drives for the last 4 years and would recommend them to my mother-in-law (yes, my mother-in-law and I get along great!). Great performance and leading edge technology.

Disclaimer - I went to work for IBM a year ago, but in the software division. Even after the events over the last year I would still recommend buying an IBM drive.

[hd581]

UKok, Never heard of a Watergate Hard drive....That must be what they use to store illegally obtained political documents.

[alpha]

I quiet like Western Digitals, but I love the high piched whine off my 270mb Quantum prodrive http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[RobRich]

For performance and stability, IBM makes an excellent hard drive. Their one of the fastast IDE drive currently available. I also commonly use Western Digital's,and have never had any MAJOR problems. I currently using a 13gig ATA-66 5400rpm IDE WD in my personal system, but I will definitely go IBM next time.

Leave the Fujitsu on the shelve. I've used several because I got them for dirt cheap prices, but I found out why. After about six months of hard core operation, they would most commonly start having disk i/o errors and bad disk clusters. I used to have one as a backup archive drive in my personal system, but it even died after about 18 months of use. I expect a hard drive to last longer than that. I've got an old Seagate 420mb that I bought new several years ago in one of my systems, and it still hasn't caused me a single problem to this day.

Also, if you ever go SCSI, I would have to say Seagate over all others. The Seagate's SCSI drives I worked with are fast and extremely stable. I find their newer model IDE drives are not quite on par with IBM, but I doubt you'll find many large IDE seagate drives anyway.

[Amarok]

Ok with this I have to agree with everyone else..... IBM makes one of the best drives that I have seen. Or I was just damned lucky.

I was working on a computer for a friend. Had taken my HD (the IBM) out of my machine and put it on the bench and put her drive in my machine to do some tests. Well stupid me forgot to put the Drive in a safe spot and fell 4 feet onto a concrete floor OUCH!!!!!!

I thought for sure one dead drive now. Well plugged it back in and could not get back into windows. Formated the drive and then reinstalled. Everything has worked fine since. Lesson learned though.....

[Stan]

IBM ouh ah !
IBM ouh ah !
IBM ouh ah !

[alpha]

I wouldn't touch a seagate, that's for sure - I've had so many fail after a mere 9 years of operation http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif Seriously, the Quantums out of my old 286's still work like a charm.