Recommend a Hard Drive please?

[Gagnescores]

Hey everyone,
I recently filled my hard drive and I was wondering if someone could recommend me a brand, specific type, etc. that they use or like. Also, while I know that all drives fail, what is the best to ensure that all files are backed up? RAID??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[saltman]

For most people, RAID is more potential trouble than it is worth. Making backups is probably the best thing to do. Hard drives are so cheap nowadays that is the way I back stuff up now. on xtra drives.

I think Seagate and Western Digital are great drives. If I remember right Seagate has a 1 year warranty and WD a 3 year but I may have that reversed. Chances are you won't have to use either.

[dcbullet]

I like those brands as well.

[VRMan]

Are you talking internal, external, portable, or what? I'd say Seagate and WD are the best but I've used some cheapie Maxtor 500GB externals that were half the price of the others so I got 2 and had double backups (I keep each at different locations). Since neither are my MAIN drives and I rarely access them anyway I feel pretty safe. Of course, now that I've SAID that....

[paddington]

For most people, RAID is more potential trouble than it is worth. Making backups is probably the best thing to do. Hard drives are so cheap nowadays that is the way I back stuff up now. on xtra drives.

I think Seagate and Western Digital are great drives. If I remember right Seagate has a 1 year warranty and WD a 3 year but I may have that reversed. Chances are you won't have to use either.

I agree. It is, now. A few years ago, RAID5 was still the best way to go, imo.. but with the advent of cheap, giant drives, a single storage drive with occassional backups are easier and better now. Also imo.

I use a Seagate 2TB drive for all my storage. I have a second one that I spin up once a month or so and use SecondCopy to match it up to the main one.
This way, I only have the OS drive (80GB or so) and the single 2TB Seagate running... much less heat and noise.. and just about as secure as RAID. If I do some massive organizing or something, I just fire up the other one and back it all up.. then spin it down for a few weeks.

easy, cheap, quiet, cool, etc...

[shmidy]

Avoid Seagate at all cost, especially their 1tb range.:down:

My 800gig of Queen ROIO is on one of their drives right
now in their lab in Holland. It's being recovered after a firmware issue.
Read their own forum here http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board?board.id=ata_drives, its crazy.

[Jerm]

www.drobo.com
Scalable...not RAID but redundant.
Mines been running non stop for several months with no issue.
(4) 1.5 TB Seagates...as you said all HD's are prone to failure but I've had a few Seagates and had no prior to upgrading them or replacing anyway.

Sorry to shmidy...thats sucks man.
If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost to you for them to recover your data.
(just in case :) My life is on this device and I don't have the time to burn backups that are also subject to failure via 'rot' even though I always use Ty Yu media.

[beeerlover]

I tend to favor Seagate after having failed hardrives from Maxtor , Western Digital *2, Acom Data, Calgary (in the period of 10 years).

The last seagate I bought was 1tb with 5 yr warranty for about 80 USD, but I think you might find 1.5tb for less now.

As far as in backup, hell buy 2, lol they're cheap nowadays.

:)

[shmidy]

Sorry to shmidy...thats sucks man.
If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost to you for them to recover your data.
(just in case :) My life is on this device and I don't have the time to burn backups that are also subject to failure via 'rot' even though I always use Ty Yu media.[/QUOTE]


If you have a Seagate drive you should check to see if it needs the firmware upgrade straight away. http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931

That will fix any problem. My drive failed before I knew about the problem, and once it fails Bios will not see it or give you any access to upgrade the FW. I had it 3 weeks and it failed on 7th of january. I have been this long trying to get free restoration. They do provide it, because it is their firmware that causes the issue, but it is very hard to get them to help. They have the drive only a week now, but they have mailed me to say it's been FW upgraded and my data has been restored. Im expecting it back soon. But it has been a very long and drawn out process.

[chinajoe]

also use western digital. but before i transfer masters, i burn them to dvds.

[MRACHLIN]

I just bought two WD 640 GB dirives for 50.00 USD ea.

I think they may have been used because on the sticker it says RECERTIFIED.

The only trouble I am having is transferring data to them beacuse there SATA and my PC does not have a SATA controller I am using SATA to USB 2.0 adapters.
To my knowledge the PC only has USB 1.1 so it will take a while

I need a new PC

[dude87]

I've got four 1 TB Western Digital "Green" drives in my media PC - two are primary, two are backups. I don't run RAID, I simply run a backup whenever I change the contents of a drive (if I add a bunch of shows I back up after the bunch). The WD Green drives run quiet and are more than fast enough to serve up audio, and they can be had for under $90 if you check Newegg.com, etc. for deals.

My biggest problem is my media PC only has five internal drive slots (one for the OS drive, four for the primary and backup). I've got about a 1/2 TB left on my second primary drive, I'm hoping WD Green 2 TB drives come down in price fairly soon....

[direwolf-pgh]

If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost to you for them to recover your data.
(just in case :) My life is on this device and I don't have the time to burn backups that are also subject to failure via 'rot' even though I always use Ty Yu media.standard pricing for professional data recovery:
single drive: $1500'ish
RAID5: $5000'ish

there are only a handful of data recovery centers in N. America.

[1zeppelin2]

I agree. It is, now. A few years ago, RAID5 was still the best way to go, imo.. but with the advent of cheap, giant drives, a single storage drive with occassional backups are easier and better now. Also imo.

I use a Seagate 2TB drive for all my storage. I have a second one that I spin up once a month or so and use SecondCopy to match it up to the main one.
This way, I only have the OS drive (80GB or so) and the single 2TB Seagate running... much less heat and noise.. and just about as secure as RAID. If I do some massive organizing or something, I just fire up the other one and back it all up.. then spin it down for a few weeks.

easy, cheap, quiet, cool, etc...

Smart way to do it James.....:thumbsup

[juxtiphi]

standard pricing for professional data recovery:
single drive: $1500'ish
RAID5: $5000'ish

there are only a handful of data recovery centers in N. America.



interesting discussion


2 years ago I thought I had lost all the info on my HD after making a mistake while tweaking windows. I was told by more than one person that all the data was unrecoverable because of what I did. Now these were supposed knowledgeable people and a friend with experience in computers.

I thought I had lost about a T byte of stuff, I was about to throw the HD away and start over when my mom suggested her friends husband so I called him and he told me that for 400 hundred he would recover my lost files and reinstall windows.

this is the important part!
basically he ripped me off, as he charged me 3 hundred for file recovery and 100 to install windows :mad: but I learned something very important, your files are never gone unless you've formatted (and even then stuff may still be recoverable) or destroyed the HD completely.

All my files were still intact and all that was needed was to hook up the drive to a functional computer which fixed the problem which was a missing NT header or something like that. (I cannot remember the exact terminology) how did I figure this out? well I ended up making the same mistake again and my hard drive became inaccessible same as before so I bought another HD installed windows myself then hooked up my other HD as a slave and what do you know my files were right there ready for use. so this guy charged me 4 hundred for nothing.


my point is never think your files are gone and if you need to have them recovered do so by someone who you really trust to know something about computers (not just the most common aspects) and that wont soak you for a few minutes work

[1zeppelin2]

standard pricing for professional data recovery:
single drive: $1500'ish
RAID5: $5000'ish

there are only a handful of data recovery centers in N. America.

It's true, the cost is outrageous...

[Gagnescores]

Thanks everyone for your answers.

Does anyone know about LaCie external hard drives? Are they reliable?

[Jerm]

Thanks everyone for your answers.

Does anyone know about LaCie external hard drives? Are they reliable?


I've had 2 of the Porsche 250GB before I upgraded...never a problem after about 3 years and sold em to a guy who has had no issue either.
I think any of the major brands would be comparable, depends on the deal you can score.

Thanks Wolf for the quotes...ouch, indeedio.

[paddington]

[basically he ripped me off, as he charged me 3 hundred for file recovery and 100 to install windows :mad:

All my files were still intact and all that was needed was to hook up the drive to a functional computer which fixed the problem which was a missing NT header or something like that.


But you didn't know that and he did.

[saltman]

That doesn't make it right. That's like a mechanic charging you to overhaul the engine when the spark plugs are dirty. That is illegal.

The costs for recovery noted here are way out of line from what I have seen. About 5 times over.

[direwolf-pgh]

The costs for recovery noted here are way out of line from what I have seen. About 5 times over.
*sigh* I can assure you those $$$$ are very dead-balls-on accurate.

http://ocdatarecovery.com/pricing.shtml <-average joe
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com.sg/data-recovery-quote/ <-joe pro

[juxtiphi]

But you didn't know that and he did.

no no james, he told me that it would take his computer like 30 hours to recover all my files when all it really took him 2 minutes because my files didnt need to be recovered at all. thats why he ripped me off

[paddington]

I still say if he named a price and you agreed he's in the clear. Not a nice guy, but a good businessman.
You got someting for your money... knowledge.

[juxtiphi]

I still say if he named a price and you agreed he's in the clear. Not a nice guy, but a good businessman.
You got someting for your money... knowledge.

so he made a good deal at 400 bucks and did nothing and I found out on my own what needed to be done. he played me for a sucker all he had to do is reinstall windows! he knew that and at 100 bucks its still steep but not a rip off but he specifically played on my fear of loosing the files thats not good bussiness thats rotten business.


If i were a vindictive person I would talk shit about him a post his name every where to ruin his rep as a viable repair service but I dont I just posted this story cause it reminded me of how I felt when I thought my zep collection was gone .

[RacerX]

Have you ever driven at Monaco? That's a good hard drive.

[juxtiphi]

Have you ever driven at Monaco? That's a good hard drive.

somebody slap chim chim for me ! will ya :wave:

[lintoni]

Have you ever driven at Monaco? That's a good hard drive.

:lol4:

[saltman]

The costs for recovery noted here are way out of line from what I have seen. About 5 times over.turns out this was misinformation. The numbers quoted before are accurate.