Bigfoot... good? bad? ugly?

[DanU]

I saw some Quantum Bigfoots at fire-sale prices... you know... the 5 1/4" hard drives that OEMs like to use to boost their margins. I was really tempted to pick up one for use in a computer that I am planning on giving away to some relatives. I already know that they're slow... but performance is a non issue when the computer will be used mostly for web surfing, office apps, and storing MP3s. The only reservation I have is that the first Bigfoots had a terrible reputation for being noisy and unreliable. It was so bad that it spawned a shareholder lawsuit.

If you've had a Bigfoot drive I'd like to know what you think of them.

[Richard_Cranium72]

Slow is NOT the word, petrified wood moves quicker, Diamonds are formed faster, Quartz crystals grow,, well you get the idea.

My name is Mister Cheapskate;

Here's the deal. I would NOT use Quantum Bigfoot 3800rpm drives if they were FREE.
I'm totally serious.

MY HP 6350 had one, when it contracted a virus and died I replaced it with a 5400rpm IBM ata/66 20.5gb drive.

The old pitiful 333mhz HP came to life after that, programs opened much, much faster.
Surfing was not a issue on this one.
Boot times were reduced a good margin.

Don't waste the money,, well if you plan to SELL the things to people who don't have ANYTHING at all and cannot afford anything better, well let your conscience be your guide.

DrVette

[Nighthawk]

Friend of mine had his bigfoot die on him at a LAN party in the middle of a Jedi Knight game. He was quite ticked off, especially because it was his parents' computer.

Probably a good thing you didn't purchase one. A bigfoot would probably be OK with a 133 or 166, but anything above that I'd really suggest something better (especially since good hard drives are so cheap lately)

[DanU]

Hahah... well put richard. I think the newest Bigfoots got a speed boost to 4000RPM... so instead of moving like petrified wood... it's more like frozen molasses.

The system I'm building will be given away, not sold, to my cousins. That's why I don't want to spend a lot. But I also don't want to buy parts that will break down after a month or two cause then they'll be calling me constantly for tech support.

BTW, it's a K6-2 366 system. I just need a HD to make it complete.

[Chiguy]

I had a Bigfoot before it was accidently fried. I was pissed at first but the Western Digital that replaced it was much faster and quiter. Needless to say, I think Bigfoots suck. Personally, I would not buy a Quantum drive, I would rater go with IBM.

[Barney]

Bigfoots are just as reliable as any other hard drive (they're not). Internet Explorer takes very long to start if you haven't got a lot of memory and a fast hard drive. Unless you're planning to put 512mb memory in that machine, you'll be using a lot of swapfiles. If you haven't got a fast hard drive, it'll take ages to even load notepad.

Back when my K6-2 333@400 was a nice gaming rig, I had a Bigfoot. Games that were supposed to run fine on it, didn't. The game would just hang every 10 seconds because something had to be loaded from slowfoot.

Don't buy a Bigfoot, you wouldn't even give your worst enemy a computer with a Slowfoot in it.

[Spook]

Am currently running a 1.2 gig Bigfoot in my daughters p233 and are having no problems with it, in fact am running Quantums in all my computers and think they are fabulous.
Cheers Spook.

[elroy]

Even today I won't buy Quantum products because of my experience with Bigfoots. I figure any company that would build that kind of junk I want no part of their stuff. You especially don't want to dump one on a family member. Catch a real drive on special at CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City etc. One of them had a 15gb for $49.99 after rebate this past week.

[Timbob505]

I don't have anything against quantum hard drives in general, but I would like to see a UT mod where one team was all bigfoot drives so I could pulverize them all day long! Every time I have fixed a computer with a bigfoot drive, I have had to replace it. No matter what else was wrong, the drive also had to go. They just don't seem to work for very long. Plus they are S L O W
Slower than anything else you will ever use...seriously, you could hand write, proof read, re-write and then type on a typewriter a thesis paper before the computer would finish booting! Please don't punish your relatives with such a component. They might try and get you back for it! Spend 60-70 on a 10-20GB, 5400rpm if you have to, it will be much, much, much better than any bigfoot. That's just my opinion though, your results may vary slightly from everyone else's!
(hehehehe....I guess that was my first rant)

Good Luck, let us know what you end up with!


Timbob

[DanU]

Don't buy a Bigfoot, you wouldn't even give your worst enemy a computer with a Slowfoot in it.

I guess that sums it up! After hearing all the bad things about this drive, I think I'll wait a bit for a CompUsa $50 special to come around.

Hmmm... now that I think about it... replacing my not-so-favorite co-worker's drive with a Badfoot could prove to be VERY amusing.. muahahaha.