seagate , western digital or toshiba

[postie1392]

hi all, i'm currently looking to buy an external hard drive and am stuck between western digital ultra, seagate expansion or toshiba hdd's
any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

[hech54]

I've lost count how many Toshiba types we have in this house(5, maybe 6?).....never a problem.

[KarMa]

Kind of all over the map, I have like 10 drives, mostly WD and none of them have failed. Some drives going back 10 years.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/01/hard-disk-reliability-examined-o...e-is-alarming/
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-for-q2-2015/
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-q3-2015/

They all seem to fluctuate.

[redwudz]

I haven't had a HDD failure in a year or so, but I trust WDs more than some of the others. The earlier failures were other brands.

[cornemuse]

WD's have always lasted me a goodly period of time.
Toshibas ok, use more power if that might be an issue. (ie 2 1/2" in usb case)
Seagate, always had bad luck with these.

[theewizard]

I have (2) Acomdata that are years.. Old and function perfectly
(1) western digital
(1) Toshiba that developed errors, I had to transfer data to the WD
Then wipe, test, and reformat the Toshiba

[PuzZLeR]

My input is similar to other similar threads - if you back up your data regularly, then there's less emphasis on which brand is best. If one fails rather quickly, then you have a warranty and opportunity to replace it. If it lasts, then it did its job.

So, who cares which brand then if you back up? You can then look into other things, like price, capacity, speed, etc. And for me, personally, since I back up, I watch more for the drives' appearance since I have so many that they've become furniture and decor here.

But if you're still brand-centered, then my opinion is:

WD: After over a decade of buying these, I only had a problem with this brand when I actually dropped one. It still worked for a week, but gave clear warnings it was failing just in case I didn't back up my data. I also notice most recommendations for them from others.

Toshiba: Never tried one, but heard good reviews on these.

Seagate: Had problems with these a few times. Hear this from others too. This is the one I would choose last. However, if you like the price, speed, capacity, appearance, etc, have a warranty, and want to use it as a backup, you'll be fine.

Another good brand if expanding choices: Hitachi.

I've lost count how many Toshiba types we have in this house(5, maybe 6?).....never a problem.

Not only have I lost count of how many HDDs I have here myself, I've also lost count on how many which-HDD-brand-is-best threads...

[ackboo]

Here are some stats from a datacenter :
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-q3-2015/

HGST was the hdd division of Hitachi, bought by Western Digital. If I had to pick an external hdd today I would be a Western Digital or a HGST

[hech54]

I should stop replying to these type of threads....I've still never had a HDD failure....EVER. I've still got two 80GB Maxtors floating around here somewhere from my old Dell.

[lordsmurf]

HGST is noisy as hell. Hitachi was always like that. Hitachi was split up between WD (HGST) and Toshiba. Hitachi is gone. I think Toshiba inherited 3.5, and WD inherited 2.5 (but then made 3.5 as well, and had to drop the name "Hitachi", so HGST). Reminds me of Samsung-Toshiba TSST. There is so much incest between drive companies, that it's getting harder to tell them apart.

Seagate 4tb are the best according to BackBlaze, and are very quiet. I have two in my new system. I went ahead and spent a few bucks extra to get the retail drive from Best Buy. I've never liked OEM bare drives. Too much bad luck there.

WD has a higher fail rate than Seagate, and that's always been my experience as well.

For external drives, WD green is nice and quiet. I prefer Fantom drives, as they use whatever performs best to their higher specs. Fantom is a bit like Lacie. I have quite a few Fantom 2tb eSATA drives, and all are nice. The noisiest ones are Hitachi. The better ones are WD green and Seagate.

All my recent duds were Seagate 1.5tb, and their 1.5tb and 3tb are terrible. Maxtor was the worst, before it was liquidated by Seagate. Western Digital is next worst, with the drives always developing a whine over time. IBM/Hitachi had issues, and was always noisy when writing. Over the years, Seagate is strongest.

[PuzZLeR]

HGST is noisy as hell. Hitachi was always like that. Hitachi was split up between WD (HGST) and Toshiba. Hitachi is gone. I think Toshiba inherited 3.5, and WD inherited 2.5 (but then made 3.5 as well, and had to drop the name "Hitachi", so HGST). Reminds me of Samsung-Toshiba TSST.

Didn't realize till this post, and one just before, that Hitachi drives are no more, or at least, something else now.

My Hitachis are at least 6 years old now, and still working solid. So will recommend them. Yes, they're noisy, but that doesn't bother me (but how quiet a drive is should have been listed in my earlier post regarding attributes. Some may find it more important than speed, price, appearance, or even reliability.)

And speaking of appearance, LaCie was mentioned.

Not only were they super reliable after years of abuse, but nothing beat the look of those shiny black cases. Classic! And they don't make them anymore for years now (which is why I didn't mention them).

Aren't they pretty?

[Bjs]

Many threads with similar quest.

It dose not matter what brand of drive you buy as they will all fail... doa, mileage

Data storage rule 1: never place all eggs in one basket.
Data storage rule 2: Verify drives pre data transfer for issues

If you value data buy 2 drives but never the same brand to avoid plant batch errors ... most platters are manufactured in earthquake prone zones.

[lordsmurf]

Yes, they're noisy, but that doesn't bother me (but how quiet a drive is should have been listed in my earlier post regarding attributes. Some may find it more important than speed, price, appearance, or even reliability.)

I do a lot of audio restoration work. Noisy components are not allowed.

Computers are like kids -- they should be seen, not heard.

[PuzZLeR]

I do a lot of audio restoration work. Noisy components are not allowed.

Computers are like kids -- they should be seen, not heard.

Putting on an audio headset tunes both problems out.

[postie1392]

Thank you all for your input. reading the replies,and any reviews i have read for different hdd's, there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions. i conclude that they must be pretty similar, so i will just go for the one that looks best.

[lordsmurf]

Thank you all for your input. reading the replies,and any reviews i have read for different hdd's, there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions. i conclude that they must be pretty similar, so i will just go for the one that looks best.

Not when you look at Backblaze.
You need to really avoid certain drives (Seagate 1.5tb and 3tb, for example).
It's not so much about brand, but rather the exact drive series.
Certain aspects are unchanged: Hitachi/HGST = noisy, Seagate not noisy, WD in middle

[PuzZLeR]

Thank you all for your input. reading the replies,and any reviews i have read for different hdd's, there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions. i conclude that they must be pretty similar...

You will get different opinions due to different experiences.

But I will repeat: If you back up your data you don't have to worry about brand so much. If it fails early, you should have a warranty. If it doesn't fail early, then the drive was a success. Either way, as long as your data is safe, you win.

Instead, look at other attributes that suit you, like speed, price, capacity, noise, or...

... so i will just go for the one that looks best.

Yes, that too. Little is mentioned of this, especially if you buy lots of them, like I do - they become furniture in your house.

(And if anybody's wondering, no, I'm not. )

You don't want them looking ugly. I would've seriously recommended those LaCie drives in my pic earlier in this thread. They are absolutely gorgeous (and fast, quiet and still reliable). Then, a few years ago, suddenly, they stopped making them. For shame!

Can't find anything that looks like them now.

[p_l]

I would've seriously recommended those LaCie drives in my pic earlier in this thread. They are absolutely gorgeous (and fast, quiet and still reliable). Then, a few years ago, suddenly, they stopped making them. For shame!

Can't find anything that looks like them now.

They were bought up by, and merged into, Seagate in 2014. For shame.

[PuzZLeR]

They were bought up by, and merged into, Seagate in 2014. For shame.

And I wasn't being sarcastic - this is sad to me. I loved these units. And, after nearly 8 or so years later since my first one, they all still work solidly.

I have a couple more I bought when I caught wind of their sudden scarcity - they were the last two the chain had. They told me they were discontinued. (Sometime around 2011-ish.)

I still have these last 2 LaCie drives, brand new, in the box. Haven't decided when to use them just yet.

BUT...

Did a search. Well, lookie here. Could this be a resurrection of a legend?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1110532-REG/seagate_stdt8000100_8tb_backup_plus_desktop.html

[fritzi93]

Further to lordsmurf's observation about particular bad drives:
Yeah I had 2 of those infamous 3 TB Seagate drives. Had. One's dead now.

I had everything backed up, fortunately. Over 2.5 TB of captures.
Takes a good while to copy over that much data to a new drive.

Honestly, if you back up conscientiously and avoid known bad drive models, I wouldn't worry too much.
Drives are gonna fail, any brand, and when will be unpredictable.

[PuzZLeR]

Honestly, not to be repetitive, I would have easily recommended the LaCie drives I've mentioned over any others, and not just for their appearance - if they still made them.

And I did post a link in my last post after p_l mentioned Seagate took over. It looks like Seagate produced something that looks very much like what I was buying with the older LaCie drives.

But it's a Seagate, and it seems that it's the most "negative" one here, including with me. If it's the same architecture under the hood of those older LaCies, I'd say yes. But if there was any reconstructing under the hood since, well, it's a coin flip.

[p_l]

They were bought up by, and merged into, Seagate in 2014. For shame.

And I wasn't being sarcastic - this is sad to me. I loved these units. And, after nearly 8 or so years later since my first one, they all still work solidly.

Did a search. Well, lookie here. Could this be a resurrection of a legend?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1110532-REG/seagate_stdt8000100_8tb_backup_plus_desktop.html

I wasn't being sarcastic either. I'm both leery and dismayed that HDD manufacturers are becoming even more of an oligopoly. My most painful failures have been the aforementioned 1.5 TB and 3 TB Seagates. Friends that run LaCies are, as you are, still very satisfied. I hope Seagate doesn't break them now. I also am saddened by the demise of Hitachi; those were good.

I see that Fantom is still in business, offering some 8 TB drives. I assume they just put whatever seems to be good and available at the time in them, but the ones I've had have been OK, and their usually aluminum casings dissipate heat better that plastic ones.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Capacity_8TB&ci=6543&N=4294542383+4197010970

Oh, and look, there's still a LaCie : http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1113041-REG/lacie_9000604_porsche_design_p_9233_usb.html

[PuzZLeR]

Oh, and look, there's still a LaCie : http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1113041-REG/lacie_9000604_porsche_design_p_9233_usb.html

Yup, seen that one, and other LaCie's still around, but not with the shiny black casings that I liked.

Still pretty in that link, high-end Porsche design, but it would clash my stash.

Still thinking of taking a chance with that shiny black Seagate, hoping it's still very much like the older LaCies of the same look. Maybe I should take my own advice and just buy something I like for attributes other than "what's most reliable" - as long as I regularly back up my data, and I do. (And the warranty for any early breakdown is nice.)

Ok. Buying it.

[SameSelf]

Some thoughts:

1. Stop using Backblaze's data as a guide to which drive to buy or not buy. Their data is a very specific use case that does not translate to the home user.

2. Hard drives are not a form of backup. They fail to meet the criteria for backup on several levels. Rather, they are a form of data storage. That may sound like a subtle difference or that I am being pedantic, but understanding the difference is why some people lose data and others don't.

3. Assuming you do backup your data, then like Puzzler has stressed numerous times in this thread, just buy the drive that fits your fancy whether it is price, warranty, customer service, utilities, noise, color, smell, etc.

[smitbret]

Some thoughts:

1. Stop using Backblaze's data as a guide to which drive to buy or not buy. Their data is a very specific use case that does not translate to the home user.

But it sure gives you some insight into the general durability of the HDD. I don't know how you can simply ignore the data. That's something akin to 2nd and 3rd place television and radio stations that cry out that the Nielsen and Arbitron Ratings are skewed and not an accurate sample.

2. Hard drives are not a form of backup. They fail to meet the criteria for backup on several levels. Rather, they are a form of data storage. That may sound like a subtle difference or that I am being pedantic, but understanding the difference is why some people lose data and others don't.

Yes, that is pedantic. Are you suggesting that every home user switch to a tape backup system?

3. Assuming you do backup your data, then like Puzzler has stressed numerous times in this thread, just buy the drive that fits your fancy whether it is price, warranty, customer service, utilities, noise, color, smell, etc.

This is where you are "Real-World Correct". Two 3TB Seagates (one primary, one backup) are much better than a single 3TB Hitachi. However, given the data that is out there, if the difference between a 3TB Seagate and a 3TB Toshiba is $5-$10 why would you even consider the Seagate unless price is the only thing that matters? But don't forget, what you do with that backup is pretty important, too. If your house burns down and you are storing the backup next to original or you stuck the other drive inside the same case then it was hardly useful.

[SameSelf]

I could care less what people do with data. But, for more insight into my brief post, I recommend reading this thread:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/373991-HDD-reliability

[PuzZLeR]

But don't forget, what you do with that backup is pretty important, too. If your house burns down and you are storing the backup next to original or you stuck the other drive inside the same case then it was hardly useful.

This is important to backup apart from technical particulars.

I personally do keep lots of storage at my parents' place for this very reason. Too bad it takes me 5 hours to drive there at a time, but it doesn't have to be that far - just keep it out of range of what the max parameters of a tornado or earthquake would be and your backup data should be safe.

You can have some sort of "swap" system implemented in your backup workflow.

There are actually companies that provide such a service for business needs. They do actually come to your location, daily (or maybe hourly?), to physically move a backup of your data to a remote location.

[Tom Saurus]

I have had good results so far with seagate portable hard drives. I have had 500gb, 1 TB, I might have a 1.5 TB and for the last few years I have bought 2 TB drives. I have been tempted as of late to go to a 3 TB and higher drive. However I will heed what Lord Smurf has written and avoid a 3 TB hard drive. With the 4 and 5 TB hard drives priced so reasonably as of late they are tempting but maybe I better just stick with 2 TB for awhile longer.

I am making an order soon with the Computer guy I go to. I was thinking of getting one 2 TB Seagate hard drive and maybe a 4 TB Seagate hard drive. The drawback with larger than 2 TB drives is one's Blu Ray player probably wouldn't recognize it or only recognize a portion of it.

[PuzZLeR]

I have had good results so far with seagate portable hard drives. I have had 500gb, 1 TB, I might have a 1.5 TB and for the last few years I have bought 2 TB drives. I have been tempted as of late to go to a 3 TB and higher drive. However I will heed what Lord Smurf has written and avoid a 3 TB hard drive. With the 4 and 5 TB hard drives priced so reasonably as of late they are tempting but maybe I better just stick with 2 TB for awhile longer.

I just took a chance on an 8TB Seagate - very simply because I liked its appearance as it looks very much like an older brand I liked.

I would like to report how good or how bad it is to the Forum, but unfortunately, that could take months when reporting about reliability. And one drive, and my experience only, isn't a final result anyway. Anyways, it's coming soon if anyone has any questions.

I know Seagate has a bit of a reputation in this thread, but, if you are tempted on a 4/5 TB, and you like the price, and you back up your data, and it has a reasonable replacement warranty for any early failures, I'd say go ahead. You really have little to lose in this case.

I am making an order soon with the Computer guy I go to. I was thinking of getting one 2 TB Seagate hard drive and maybe a 4 TB Seagate hard drive. The drawback with larger than 2 TB drives is one's Blu Ray player probably wouldn't recognize it or only recognize a portion of it.

The 2.2TB limitation is annoying with some platforms, and the one thing I don't like about XP (of which I still use very much).

Hopefully mfgs/vendors don't discontinue 2TB for a while yet for such systems, regardless of how much capacity will grow. You could still use more capacity on such systems, but that's such a waste when a chunk of it will remain unused.

(No, I'm not going to look into the hacks, or whatnot, which renders such drives proprietary and unportable and likely problematic.)

[gll99]

The best you can hope for is anecdotal evidence.

I had an Hitachi 1TB internal drive that crapped out in less than a year.

I have a number of Seagate internal drives, not counting the smaller ones which are 500 MB and under, they are:
one 3TB (on xp using the Seagate DiscWizard to split and install),
two 2TB,
two 1.5TB.
All of the above are problem free.

I also own 5 external (USB portable) Seagate drives, two 2TB Expansion drives (1 is USB 2.0 and the other 3.0) and three 3TB Backup Plus (USB 3.0).

2 days ago I lost 1 of the 3TB Backup Plus drives. The computer was on but inactive and the drive was powered and connected to a usb 3.0 port. I had another same type drive connected at the same time but that one is ok. What happened is that I touched the casing of the drives and noticed that one was super hot while the other was cool to the touch. I turned on the monitor and saw that the hot drive was not accessible. Even after a cool down period the drive was not visible by Windows. Using a Seagate tool the drive showed up as "unknown" but then it also didn't show at all when I retried it. The base which contains the usb and power connectors easily pops off these drives so i switched them to see if the problem was that but it still failed to be seen. I tried the base from the drive that failed with a spare sata drive and the enclosure base worked fine with that drive. The problem is obviously the drive itself. I'm not in a rush but my next step will be to open the drive enclosure itself and try the failed 3TB drive internally or with a Nexstar usb 3.0 connector I bought to test internal drives on a usb port. I have a feeling the high heat fried the drive circuitry.

These drives are poorly ventilated to begin with (no fan) but even so something caused the heat to build up like that. The only thing that could have caused activity when I wasn't using the pc would be a virus scan but I find it hard to think that would cause this problem. There must have been a component that stuck or shorted out yet the base seems to work fine with other drives at the moment in short tests. I have very low expectations that I can revive this drive.

BTW) Before someone asks or comments: At various times I tend to leave the usb drives connected for long periods of time as needed, sometimes weeks at a time 24/7. While in use, all are left in an open space with plenty of air space around and above the drive. The heat was self induced and not due to external sources since both drives were roughly 2 feet apart on a tabletop.