Best (most robust) notebook disk?

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tucansam
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Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:04 pm

Best (most robust) notebook disk?

Post by tucansam » Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:16 pm

I've been a laptop owner for years and have decided to upgrade an existing Dell that I have while I save money for a small desktop PC later on.

I've had miserable success with Toshiba disks dying at very young ages. IBM Travelstars seemed to do OK until I started using notebooks in a lab environment and was walking around with them all the time, then they started to click and clack and eventually die, probably from the movement.

While my notebooks spends most of its life on a desk these days, I'd still like to find the "strongest" notebook drives around, something I can rely on that won't give up the ghost the first time the notebook gets bumped or walked around the room.

Can anyone suggest a (large, modern) notebook disk for such a purpose?

Thanks.

ddrueding1
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Location: Palo Alto, CA

Post by ddrueding1 » Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:18 pm

If you want a drive that is durable, get an SSD. They are completely solid state, and don't care if you slam them around.

tucansam
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Post by tucansam » Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:25 pm

Thanks. I guess I should have mentioned that I can't afford to spend $300 on a 30GB disk :)

Seriously, I've heard certain brands are generally stronger and more robust than other, and am simply wondering if anyone has had overwhelmingly positive experiences with one or two in particular.

Aris
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Post by Aris » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:14 pm

seagate is gernally considered one of the best (quality wise) hard drives on the market.

ddrueding1
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Post by ddrueding1 » Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:38 pm

The general impressions I receive for 3.5" drives from people who should know, and my own experience (800-1000 drives in 10 years) gives me this impression:

Samsung > Seagate > Hitachi > everyone > Western Digital

Of course, these "track records" move more slowly than actual quality control, but I tend to stick with it* and haven't been disappointed.


*the exception was the WD Raptor. I bought perhaps a hundred of these, and had a >50% failure rate over 3 years.

oneleaf
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Post by oneleaf » Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:38 pm

ddrueding1 wrote:The general impressions I receive for 3.5" drives from people who should know, and my own experience (800-1000 drives in 10 years) gives me this impression:

Samsung > Seagate > Hitachi > everyone > Western Digital
Were your bad experiences with WD recent? Because I'd heard a few years ago, there seemed to be a lot of people complaining about WD's. But nowadays, people seem to be happy with them again. I just bought a 320G WD SATA drive, so I hope it will last!

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