I am getting a new hard drive...so.......

[scottg26]

WTF do you recommend?

i will never buy anything IBM again, and their tech support ppl are too incompetent to reply to my emails.

Meanwhile i can get a Maxtor or Seagate or Westwrn Digital right?

Im thinking ATA 100/100 and 7,200 RPM and 60GB probably.

Also, i want similar/better performance than my current POS IBM Deskstar 7,200 RPM 20GB.

Thanks all!

[scottg26]

http://www.cybernation.co.nz/section.php?prod=prod1

there is a NZ shop, whatdoyo think of the 60GB 7,200 RPM Maxtor there?

[EvilEngine]

Western Digital 7200RPMs.
IBM and MAXTOR both suck IMHO, both have given me more problems that they were worth. The WD drives I have , have always been the fastest, quietest and most solid drives I have used. Affordable too. Or go scsi with a Seagate 10,000 RPM.

[scottg26]

http://www.tlsystems.co.nz/cgi-bin/stock.pl?code=hdd

Here is another one.

the 60GB seagate is in my price range

so whaddoyou think

[scottg26]

Originally posted by EvilEngine
Western Digital 7200RPMs.
IBM and MAXTOR both suck IMHO, both have given me more problems that they were worth. The WD drives I have , have always been the fastest, quietest and most solid drives I have used. Affordable too. Or go scsi with a Seagate 10,000 RPM.

i can't afford to buy a SCSI card as well at the moment :)

MAXTOR is as bad as IBM you say? what problems did u have specifically? i know with IBM i had bad sectors popping up every month, thus having to run IBM's erase disk tool to get the disk back in working order.........

I know to avoid Fujitsu :D

[EvilEngine]

My maxtors(i have 4 of them) all had the tendency to just stop working while using the pc and before I boot into the os. If I used one as a main drive to boot from I would boot into a BIOS error saying there was no OS installed. And if I used them as a main slave drive they would randomly disapear off of the MY COMPUTER list of drives and would just stop spinning. I still use one on my this pc I'm on now as a temp drive for downloads, and I use XP becuase it never "forgets" a drive becuase once its set as a letter it never changes. So incase that hd ever decides to stop working, well the OS wont have to flip out when its not there.
I only use WD drives as main boot/os and game drives becuase they handle the abuse, even after tons of formats and reinstalls.
Maybe I'm lucky or unlucky with different brands, but the WD drives have been a pleasure to work with and not too hard on the bank account.
As for SCSI cards, you should be able to find a cheap Adaptec card somewhere, its the drive that will cost you. But its worth it since SCSI drives are very robust and super fast.

[MasterBates]

MY maxtors are awesome.

i think evil is just kinda slow :P:P:P:P:P

[EvilEngine]

Originally posted by MasterBates
MY maxtors are awesome.

i think evil is just kinda slow :P:P:P:P:P

Yup I'm just a CYRIX 100 and your just the P4 2.4 :knob:

[Simian]

my new IBM HDD has been fine for the last month and a 1/2... I dont know.. its a 40GB 60GXP... works awesome.

[scottg26]

well i just emailed the store and asked them about Western Digital, Seagate, and Maxtor 60GB 7,200 RPM hard drives.
I hope i get a reply.

Im not really sure what to look for when buying a hard drive, except maybe Cost, size, RPM, data transfer rate and buffer size and Random seek time or whatever it is.

While we are here, What does ATA actually stand for?

[scottg26]

Originally posted by CoolDude365
my new IBM HDD has been fine for the last month and a 1/2... I dont know.. its a 40GB 60GXP... works awesome.

my problems didn't start until 5 - 8 months until after i bought the drive.

Is defraggin/Fdsiking/Formatting bad for a drive? cos i do those things quite often...

[EvilEngine]

Originally posted by scottg26

Is defraggin/Fdsiking/Formatting bad for a drive? cos i do those things quite often...

No thats perfectly fine. Its all magnetism, so it wont "kill" a drive unless your formatting with a hammer and chisel. :P

[scottg26]

Originally posted by EvilEngine


No thats perfectly fine. Its all magnetism, so it wont "kill" a drive unless your formatting with a hammer and chisel. :P

LOL :D

[Nos]

i have a 30gig maxtor, no problems at all.

[scottg26]

Originally posted by Nostradumbass
i have a 30gig maxtor, no problems at all.

What RPM, cache, access time (in ms), transfer speed?

Please :)

[nextbillgates]

I haven't had enough experiences with Seagate to form a valid opinion on them.

Maxtors have ranged from a little loud to pretty quiet, and they are the fastest drives in my house (although that's not saying much ;) ). I have never had a Maxtor fail on me.

Western Digital's reliability has continually underwhelmed me. At school, I work for the System administrator, and I see a lot of broken equipment come and go. Of the dozens of bad hard drives that I've seen, I can count the ones that were NOT WD on one hand.

I've been pleased with Maxtor, and haven't had any problems (yet) with Seagate, so I'd recommend those brands. OTOH, I have seen so many WD drives fail (including my own previous drive) that it will take a lot to get me to buy their drives again.

[Nos]

MAXTOR EIDE HARD DRIVE 30GB 7200RPM MODEL # 5T030H3 - OEM, DRIVE ONLY DiamondMax Plus Ultra ATA /100 2mb Cache Buffer <8.7ms Seek Time - 3 Years Manufacturer Warranty - 30.0 gb 7200 rpm Model#: 5T030H3

[lala]

Originally posted by EvilEngine
My maxtors(i have 4 of them) all had the tendency to just stop working while using the pc and before I boot into the os. If I used one as a main drive to boot from I would boot into a BIOS error saying there was no OS installed. And if I used them as a main slave drive they would randomly disapear off of the MY COMPUTER list of drives and would just stop spinning. I still use one on my this pc I'm on now as a temp drive for downloads, and I use XP becuase it never "forgets" a drive becuase once its set as a letter it never changes. So incase that hd ever decides to stop working, well the OS wont have to flip out when its not there.

Which Maxtor drives have you gotten this with? I can attest that my Maxtor drive (40 gig 7200 RPM IDE) drive does the same thing with the BIOS error stating no OS is installed after turning on the comp. Almost as if the drive doesn't spin up fast enough for the BIOS to recognize it time. Rebooting the comp almost always fixes it, but it sure does get annoying.

[EvilEngine]

Originally posted by lala


Which Maxtor drives have you gotten this with? I can attest that my Maxtor drive (40 gig 7200 RPM IDE) drive does the same thing with the BIOS error stating no OS is installed after turning on the comp. Almost as if the drive doesn't spin up fast enough for the BIOS to recognize it time. Rebooting the comp almost always fixes it, but it sure does get annoying.

I don't remember the exact model, but it was at least a few months before MAXTOR bought out QUANTUM(another excellent manufacturer, especially the SCSI Fireball drives)
Maybe Maxtor quality has been improved since then, I dont know.
I also heard rumours of people purchasing Maxtors and finding out the names were labled as Quantum.
So maybe they incorporated thier quality, I dont know. I wont ever buy a Maxtor again though, simply becuase of the amount of money I already have invested in them.
But as with any company I guess you get your share of bad apples, like with Maxtor or as nextbillgates claimed, WD too.

[MasterBates]

Originally posted by EvilEngine



I also heard rumours of people purchasing Maxtors and finding out the names were labled as Quantum.
So maybe they incorporated thier quality, I dont know.


oh, yeah, maxtor has said many times that they DO box some quantum drives in maxtor boxes... but the serial number on the boxes is different than standard maxtor drives (although i forget how its different)...

i honestly couldnt care less.. at least the company is standup enough to admit they are doing that.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by scottg26
well i just emailed the store and asked them about Western Digital, Seagate, and Maxtor 60GB 7,200 RPM hard drives.
I hope i get a reply.

Im not really sure what to look for when buying a hard drive, except maybe Cost, size, RPM, data transfer rate and buffer size and Random seek time or whatever it is.

While we are here, What does ATA actually stand for?

ATA: AT Attachment. When IBM introduced the AT standard for PC's they incorporated the drive electronics into the motherboard BIOS from the older ST-506 interface developed by Seagate. Became the ATA or IDE interface.

scott, you will get as many opinions about HDs as you will about video cards or CPUs. One great site to check out is Storage Review (http://www.storagereview.com).

My experience? Quantums have been wonderful. Had two Maxtors, three WDs and one IBM drive. Only one of the WDs is still running - a 20GB drive in my mother in law's PC. The others are all dead. Except the four Quantums - all of them are running in one PC or another, and they all run fabulously.

Another thing about your drive - go to IBM's site and download their disk diagnostic tool - might breathe some life into your old "POS" Deskstar.

[Pier]

Sorry about that - previous post was mine.

Just realized you already used IBM's tools...sounds like the drive is failing fast, get a new one, or backup your drive, quickly....

[pauly]

my .02

I have a Maxtor 45G 7,200 ATA100 and its always worked perfectly for me. Fast, quiet, no problems at all. I've reformatted a bunch ofl times, but only because I went from Win98 to Win2k to Win98 and finally to Win98SE.

I have also own an IBM and Quantum, and a few others that I dont know what they are (bought used and cheap). Of all of them, the Quantum is they only one that has ever failed on me (so far).

-pauly

[scottg26]

thanks for the input all,
it seems as though most people all have different experiences with drives, maybe some are just 'bad' out of the box, like mine :(

well here is the link to the drive:
http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/DiamondMaxPlus/QuickSpecs/42093.htm

looks like a beast, with a lower acess time than my current drive.

Still waiting for the prices on the westwern digital, and i will check out storage review.com

Seagate Barracuda IV 60GB 7200rpm ATA100 $285+GST $320.63Incl. Thats a decent price for $NZ. i dunno what that drive is in terms of access time etc.

It will probably come down to either Maxtor or Western Digital.
However if i can get a 80GB drive for a decent price ie less than $100 extra i may get that.......... :D

[scottg26]

would it be better (assuming maxtor is better), to get a 60GB maxtor or a 80GB seagate?

[scottg26]

would it be better (assuming maxtor is better), to get a 60GB maxtor or a 80GB seagate?

[scottg26]

errrr maybe not

[scottg26]

It seems the Seagate has a higher seek time for a lower price. but it is only $30 NZ difference. And i want performance.

screw the seagate methinks.

I think i will try and find out the Western Digital specs and Price now.............

[Blackadder]

:stupid: unfortunately

[scottg26]

Strange

Seek Times:
Maxtor: <8
Western Digital: 8.9
Seagate: 9.5

So it seems that Seagate is the worst here?

Tough Decision.
Just gotta wait for the western digital.
although the 3 drives im looking at all seem to have 2MB buffers

[Priceless_Dabson!~]

Originally posted by scottg26
WTF do you recommend?

i will never buy anything IBM again, and their tech support ppl are too incompetent to reply to my emails.

Meanwhile i can get a Maxtor or Seagate or Westwrn Digital right?

Im thinking ATA 100/100 and 7,200 RPM and 60GB probably.

Also, i want similar/better performance than my current POS IBM Deskstar 7,200 RPM 20GB.

Thanks all!

This is the best hardrive to date! Maxtor! second Westur Digital....then comes Qyantium because of speed!! This one rocks but it's load!

[scottg26]

Originally posted by Priceless_Dabson!~


This is the best hardrive to date! Maxtor! second Westur Digital....then comes Qyantium because of speed!! This one rocks but it's load!

So what you is you recommend i get a Maxtor 80GB 7,200 RPM?

The Seagate is probably $100 NZ cheaper, but its seek time is slower (according to the site anyway...)........Im not sure what to do.

save money with seagate or maybe get better performance with the maxtor? Or will i not notice a difference anyway?

[fatmoocow]

The prices your guys are looking at are insane. Go to googlegear.com. They have 60 gb 7200 rpm maxtors for $104.

Many people say some of the seagates are quieter. Not sure which models.

For insane speed get a hd with a 8 mb buffer. They are performing like scsi. WD has a special edition right now: 100gb for $200.


Don't buy ibm (been said many times): What actually happens is when you shut down your computer, there are many things floating around and in ram. Some of this stuff needs to be saved to the harddrive. The ibm drives don't get everything saved intime, before the power is shut off. So you hard drive is slowly corrupted. One day it will magicly fail, 6 months to two years(when the important files get corrupted), and it will tell you to reformat the drive. If your lucky and willing to lick ibm's ass you may be able to get a refurbished one from them if you pay for shipping(6 months later), which will fail as well.

This happened to me. I didn't reformat. I bought a new drive installed everthing, and used the ibm as a slave. I could then move most of my important files over to the new drive (mp3's, documents, etc). But, the drive is worthless. There is a class action lawsuit in california right now.

If you have a ibm hd, there is a software fix (sort of) that adds more time to your shutdown. I think it's for win98. This will delay the inevitable for a little while longer.

Make sure you defrag, scandisc, and back shit up often.

edit: I have a 2 gb maxtor that was installed on a pentium 166 when I bought it, and it still runs fine.

edit2: I see your not in america--> higher prices, look around at pricewatch.com you may find someone that will ship internationally.

[scottg26]

The prices are quoted in New Zealand dollars, and i think they are quite good. The Western Digital Special edition with 8MB cache is a tad out of my price range (im at my limit with the 80GB Maxtor 7,200 RPM)

Still gotta decide between Seagate and Maxtor. the seagate is actually a Seagate Barracuda IV 60GB 7200rpm ATA100 $285+GST $320.63Incl.

Although it will be 80GB i have decided.

the Maxtor 80GB is about $450 NZ. but will it have more performance? or last longer? or should i just STFU and buy either?

[Priceless_Dabson!~]

Originally posted by scottg26


So what you is you recommend i get a Maxtor 80GB 7,200 RPM?

The Seagate is probably $100 NZ cheaper, but its seek time is slower (according to the site anyway...)........Im not sure what to do.

save money with seagate or maybe get better performance with the maxtor? Or will i not notice a difference anyway?

Actually I would go for the Maxtor with a faster seek time!! Mkaes a difference! and if you can get the 8meg buffer version that would be great!

[Perpetualis]

Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB is the current champ.

120 gigs on 3 40 gig platters. EIGHT meg buffer. :D

Its noise output is average for a drive of its type, and its temperature is better then average.

Its performance has a nasty habbit of putting 10k SCSI drives to shame. :D


I see em on pricewatch for bout 200$ US. 3 year warrenty.

[Priceless_Dabson!~]

Originally posted by Livecoma
Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB is the current champ.

120 gigs on 3 40 gig platters. EIGHT meg buffer. :D

Its noise output is average for a drive of its type, and its temperature is better then average.

Its performance has a nasty habbit of putting 10k SCSI drives to shame. :D


I see em on pricewatch for bout 200$ US. 3 year warrenty. just buy american.......lol

[EvilEngine]

Originally posted by Priceless_Dabson!~
just buy american.......lol

I'll remember that when I get that little urge to buy an ATI card.


j/k :P :P

[scottg26]

well what im really asking is it better to spend the extra on the Maxtor instead of the Seagate? when all thats wrong with the seagate is a higher seek time. and only ATA 100.