Thread: HD recommendation

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    83

    HD recommendation

    hi, can anyone recommend a good 1.5 TB drive to get? i'm done with WD (had 4 drives go bad on me over 3 years).

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    California
    Posts
    3,268
    Which WD drives did you use? I've been a pretty big fan of the WD Caviar Green drives. They don't have as good of performance as other drives, but they use less power and run cooler. This leads to less wear and tear, and a longer life of the drive.
    bit∙hub [bit-huhb] n. A source and destination for information.

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    83
    i had two WD4000KD go bad. RMAd with WD. and a year later...one of the two replaces went bad.

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    California
    Posts
    3,268
    Yeah, that's one of their Blue drives which is their standard model. Faster than the Green drives, but (in my opinion) less reliable.
    bit∙hub [bit-huhb] n. A source and destination for information.

  5. #5
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    segmentation fault
    Posts
    8,300
    Quote Originally Posted by bithub View Post
    I've been a pretty big fan of the WD Caviar Green drives. They don't have as good of performance as other drives, but they use less power and run cooler. This leads to less wear and tear, and a longer life of the drive.
    Wish I had known about those that before I bought my seagate barracuda -- it's been fine, but for my purposes (leaving the box on half the day while programming) I don't need high performance and might as well have gone for lower consumption.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,229
    And the Green drives are cheaper, too.

    I use a Black, though .

  7. #7
    Deprecated Dae's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,034
    Ahem, sorry, WD Caviar Black all the way.
    Warning: Have doubt in anything I post.

    GCC 4.5, Boost 1.40, Code::Blocks 8.02, Ubuntu 9.10 010001000110000101100101

  8. #8
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    Excessive drive failure could be an indicator of installation defects. How are they mounted (vertical/horizontal) are they getting enough airflow to the cooling fans? Are you even using cooling fans? What is the nature of the failure (head crashes, interface failure, bearing failure)? Are you using proper ESD protocol?

  9. #9
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    83
    they were both mounted horizontal and in a (5.25" to 3.5") bay adapter with a 120mm fan in front of them. both hd's separated by enough space to fit another hd in between them.

    i don't know what the failure is. the RMA'd ones started clicking and eventually wouldn't load. these...just aren't viewable even in the bios.

  10. #10
    Deprecated Dae's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,034
    Quote Originally Posted by barneygumble742 View Post
    i had two WD4000KD go bad. RMAd with WD. and a year later...one of the two replaces went bad.
    Always helps to buy a harddrive with good standing. Look at the difference between the ratings/reviews of your WD harddrives, and my WD harddrives:

    Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000KD 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

    Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
    Warning: Have doubt in anything I post.

    GCC 4.5, Boost 1.40, Code::Blocks 8.02, Ubuntu 9.10 010001000110000101100101

  11. #11
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    83

    and raid controller?

    i wasn't thinking about the 2TB but now i think i'm going to go with the WD 2TB green from newegg. they have a sale this weekend (15% off).

    i have the dell vostro 410 and it has onboard raid.

    my thinking is (and i heard a long time ago) that when you use on-board raid, the CPU does all the work whereas with a pci raid card, you're not using the CPU and the pci card does the work.

    so...is it good to go with the on-board raid or pci?

    thanks

  12. #12
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    Quote Originally Posted by barneygumble742 View Post
    they were both mounted horizontal and in a (5.25" to 3.5") bay adapter with a 120mm fan in front of them. both hd's separated by enough space to fit another hd in between them.

    i don't know what the failure is. the RMA'd ones started clicking and eventually wouldn't load. these...just aren't viewable even in the bios.
    clicking makes it sound like a head crash or an off platter head. This is usually caused by being dropped. Its not the 1G it experiences for 0.1 second, its the 1000G it experiences for 0.1ms that kills it.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Laptop HD Help
    By ober in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 08-04-2004, 06:47 PM
  2. Replies: 19
    Last Post: 02-25-2003, 10:53 PM
  3. problem with maxtor 120 GB extern HD
    By *ClownPimp* in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 07-09-2002, 05:51 AM
  4. Revive a HD?
    By Dual-Catfish in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-13-2002, 08:25 AM
  5. ARGH! (argc and argv too!) HD Space!!!
    By DavidP in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 12-05-2001, 04:05 AM