I have server, where I have many datas and this server is accesible on my network for various users as samba, ftp.. Which hardisk do you recommned. Now I have there WD RE-2GP(WD1000FYPS). But it is full and I need another one. Cost arount 100Eur.

SEAGATE ST31000520AS Barracuda LP 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB cache SATA seems like a good option. I got a couple for a backup server a while back.

If you need 2TB then ST32000542AS is the 2TB version.

I have bad experience with Seagate. Could you recommend something from WD. Propably 1TB will be enough, the price ratio si important for me, but thanks for advice.

What about the WD10EADS or WD15EADS 'green' drives?
They're averaging about AU$100 & AU$140 respectively here in Oz.
Unfortunately the WD20EADS still seems too high on 'cost per Gb' ratio at the moment (AU$260)).

Yes they seems good but I am not sure if they are optimal for server 24/7 use. I have re-2gp and that has better durability recommended for server use. But if that wd-15eads are also good for server use I will buy it. There is just re4-gp but that one has 2TB and is very expensive, I am looking for something cheaper, the capacity can be 1TB.

If you are talking 24/7 power on but sitting idle most of the time you want low power draw not RE (RAID Edition) drives.

If you are writing to it 24/7 you need higher RPM drives and RE makes a little more sense.

In my world no drive gets written to 24/7. The closest I get to that is on a Web server but on that I just need an 80GB ssd to handle the load just fine.

The boxes I use that have TBs of storage aren't being used outside of normal business hours so >75% of the time they are idle.

If you read the forums some people had major problems with Seagate and Western Digital 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB drives. I'm hesitant to buy drives with more than 2 platters and I avoid any drive with known firmware issues.

Making a specific recommendation by model number instead of just brand name and product line requires knowing more about your usage profile.

I can't comment on the experiences of others but my WHS box has WD10EACS, WD10EADS, WD15EADS drives and another WD15EADS soon - no problems so far <fingers crossed>.
Once WD20EADS drop into the same $/Gb ratio I'll move to those instead.

yes you are right it serves as storage, so works propably 40% of time, rest is in idle mode. I dont need raid. The low power consumption is welcome. The most important is reliability of that drive. I have now re2-gp(wd1000fyps) and it is great drive.

It might be worth considering Seagate. One bad drive is not enough to decide that they are all bad. I fix PCs for a living and I see a lot more Maxtor and WD drives fail than Seagates.

The other thing about Seagate drives is that you get a 5 year warranty with them. For 24/7 operation that's something to think about.

Maxtor IS Seagate. I've never had a WD fail on me yet...going on 12 years. I still have a 1.2GB Caviar that works...

True, but Maxtor drives and Seagate drives are not the same. Seagate ones cost £2-3 more but you get a 5 year warranty. Maxtor is a budget brand but it makes little sense for an individual only buying a handful of drives to save a couple of quid for the sake of two years extra warranty.

As for particular brands being good, I'm afraid there is no evidence to support that. Google did a massive study on 100,000+ drives in their server farms and found that no particular brand or model was particularly good or bad. Sometimes they had bad batches of drives but there was no way of predicting which batches they would be.

My experience at work backs that up. We replace 60-70 drives a month and no brand seems to be any better than another. In fact the only thing which seems to affect reliability is the customer - some people just seem to kill HDDs. Maybe it's excessive heat because they keep their PC next to a radiator or maybe it's excessive force because they don't look after it.

I was under the impression that this is no longer the case. Or are you buying retail drives (which may still have the longer warranty?? not sure)?

Edit: According to NewEgg the retail drives are also on a three year warranty.

Interesting, I hadn't read that. Seems like there is no longer much reason to buy them then, since they are basically slightly more expensive than other brands but otherwise more or less the same.

They don't even rank highly in terms of power consumption, vibration, heat generation or noise.