Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Reliable harddrives?

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 27, 2006
1,265
0
Canada
I've gone trough a couple in the past ten years or so. Two Maxtors blew up on me, with all my data and vacation photos gone (doh). I also had an interesting incident with some generic harddrive from an Acer Travelmate 220 (Bye bye music, documents, photos).

The only harddrive I've had longer than a year without wigging out on me would be, ironically enough, a 4gb and an 8gb Quantum Bigfoot-both from 1997. These guys keep going and going and going, and I haven't had a problem with them to this day. The only inconvenience would have to be the fact that they are bigger than the average external dvd burner......

So how have you done with HDs? Suggestions, horror stories?
 
Had a Maxtor 80 Gig and it quit about a year after I got it. Fortunately I back up everything to DVD disks as well.

Last year I bought a Firelite 60 Gig HD and it's great. It's very small, fits in the palm of your hand, does not reqiure an external power source, it runs off the firewire. I can fit it in my firesafe. I do a complete backup of my PB's drive every few months. It's perfect for portable laptops. If you're using a desktop you could probably get a larger drive for lest $ than what the Firelite costs.
 
Yeah, I guess backup is the big thing. I've done pretty bad on PC side. I was so used to everything being perfect (I used OS 8.6 for the past 6 years or so :p ).

What kinds of drives do they shuve into macs these days anyway?
 
It varies really. They put Fujis into quite a few of the first aluminum 15" PBs. Mine lasted a little under two years, so I replaced it with a bigger faster Seagate.
From what I've read, and the fact that some of their drives have a long warranty, Seagates are pretty damned reliable.
 
Seagate seems to be a favourite on here (all though I have no direct experience - all my hard drive have come in Dell's, who probably hire chimps to make their drives out of cardboard).
 
LaCie doesn't manufacture drives, they put drives inside (really good) cases.
Some known HD manufacturers: Seagate (which acquired Maxtor late last year), Western Digital, Hitachi (which bought IBM's storage division), and Fujitsu.
 
From what I read last year, don't get a Maxtor, and don't get a Lacie. I know lots of people have reliable Maxtor and LaCie drives, but one good personal experience doesn't mean their products are generally reliable. LaCie puts whatever HD they can get for cheap from a major manufacturer. I'd rather have my choice.

I'd play it safe and go for a Seagate Barracuda, but I guess you can try something like a Western Digital. They were the best, then they were the worst, but I think they're supposed to be good again. ;)
 
Personally I have had very good experiences with WD drives and have put one in every PC I have owned, but YMMV.

As Counterfit implied, the best way to find a reliable hard drive is to find the ones that have 5+ year warranties. For a while there these were few and far between, but they are starting to be more common again. Avoid anything with less than 1 year of warranty!

B
 
so far i only had good experiences with seagate (barracuda)

maxtor/quantum not so ... i guess i still have some broken ones lying at home
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back