Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

[nijel]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Well, more or less the source is similar, but the data is more trustworthy b/c it is not based on user opinion. It is based on real failed products:

The first question we must answer is of course behind these statistics. They come from a large e-retailer French, with whom we have direct access to databases. We were therefore able to extract directly the statistics we needed. Of course, they are limited to products sold through this e-shopping, and customer returns made directly from the merchant, which is not always the case since it is possible to return directly from the manufacturer : however, this represents a minority in the first year. Unfortunately there is no other means of reliable statistics. Who would believe such failure rates given directly by the manufacturer of a product?
The failure rate reported is that the pieces sold between 1 April 2010 and 1 October 2010, for returns created before April 2011, six months to 1 year of operation. The statistics are based on mark by a minimum sample of 500 sales, those models with a minimum sample of 100 sales.

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Ace,this is the drive I'd go for,3 platters,read the reviews there are issues with firmware being older but once updated if needed they are fine,this is the non ecogreen f4

Samsung HD204UI Spinpoint F4 2TB Hard Drive SATA.. | Ebuyer.com

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

I was looking at that drive. Looks nice. Is this what you are talking about the firmware?

Product Description
FOR USE WITH NAS DRIVES, WE RECOMMEND INSTALLING THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE BEFORE USING:
http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...bbs_msg_id=386

I am guessing "For use with Nas Drives" would be the same for raid in desktop... Dont most nas servers use raid?

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

well I decided to start pulling my data off drives while I decide what to do. Bad news not looking good. Might not get all my data back.

You guys know any good software that might help pull the data off? I have the whole drive mapped as a network drive to my computer.

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Rev b of the drive has updated firmware,not sure about issues with it but firmware can be easily downloaded and updated from samsungs site,as for hdd data tried acronis true image?

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Ok I think I am close to making up my mind.

I am thinking about going with this drive Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive.

I am thinking of raid5. If I understand it, 3 of these 2tb drives in raid5 would give me 4tb total storage? If I fill this I guess I am a digital hoarder?

But if 1 drive goes down I should still have my data. Till I get a spare drive.

Or should I just get the WD drives as they will be around longer then the Samsung drives?

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Samsung get my vote,you've already had one wd die,I can vouch for the f3 drives,havnt tried f4

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

well I ended up ordering 3 samsung 2tb drives. going to set up for raid5.

As for my data I think thats gone. I shut the computer down out of frustration as it keep giving errors while trying to copy a couple of files. Went to start it up later and raid bios showing 1 of the drives has a problem. I let it boot and while booting windows wanted to check the raid array and that took about 10-20 min of the just flying on the screen then came to a halt with some unexpected error.

I guess I could try the old freezer trick maybe? Ideas or data gone?

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Post some benchmarks when you get them,im about to buy some of those drives too,as for data recovery idk,maybe try cloning the drive and recovering it that way?

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Post some benchmarks when you get them,im about to buy some of those drives too,as for data recovery idk,maybe try cloning the drive and recovering it that way?

Ok drives should be here by end of day tomorrow. Usually by 5:30-6:00pm at night. Damn UPS

What kind of benchmarks you interested in seeing? Which computer would you like them from? X58 or P45? They will be installed in the P45 but before I do I can test them in the other system.

Ohh and I ended up ordering the drives from Tiger Direct. Only because they were cheaper only because I dont have to pay tax from them unlike I do from Newegg.

Forgot I ordered my i7-920 from them and its just about 1yr old. Still running strong no signs of degradation. Guess I will have to push it more

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Atto if you can,just do a bench with one bare drive in x58,then once your raid is up and running post an atto bench of that too,im waiting for a price deal to come along and ill get me one

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Well the drives showed up. Little unhappy with the way the box looks







The drives were on the bottom of the box with nothing underneath of them. The only thing that was on top of them was long brown paper crumbled up over top of them. Hope they are ok.

It appears the drives are Rev A.


I will post back will some bench marks for you.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Here is some bench mark before upgrading firmware on the drives.

Single drive Write-back cache enabled.


Two Drives Raid0 write-back cache enabled.

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

I would visit samsungs site and download/update the firmware,it might improve performance,up to you though,pretty poor packaging but aslong as they arn't damaged

[wazza300]

Re: Hard Drives and opinions and suggestions.

Those figures arn't bad at all for a 2tb drive,are they better than your old drives? And are they quiet? My f1 and f3 are