One problem is that as an individual<div>it's hard to get a sense of the quality</div><div>of a drive unless you read about it.</div><div>For one single drive, if it fails you just</div><div>conclude you were unlucky.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But I remember years ago getting in</div><div>a box of drives at work. Maybe 20.</div><div>And was astounded at how fast they</div><div>died. Maybe half after one year.</div><div><br></div><div>In general, it's hard to get a look at</div>
<div>the bigger picture. Of 10,000 drives,</div><div>what fraction dies after the first year?</div><div>The place selling them probably has</div><div>a good idea, but I suspect that data</div><div>is held close to the vest. No reason</div>
<div>to give the consumer a tip off that the</div><div>particular model of drive is junk - they'll</div><div>want their money back. On a one-by-one</div><div>basis you can play games.</div><div><br></div><div>Fortunately, drives are cheap today,</div>
<div>and the quality does seem to be</div><div>increasing on the whole. </div><div><br></div><div> -- Bob</div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Ben DeMott <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ben.demott@gmail.com">ben.demott@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">When I worked in the bowels of a corporate office and did IT work...<br>It was just about guaranteed that the hard drives in the Dell Mini-Towers would fail every 1.5 - 2 years consistently.<br>
I would say about 50% of them did.<br>
<br>Not one replaced drive - (retail purchased) off the shelf ever failed in my time...(except for server 15k rpm drives) -> they failed fairly regularly.<br><br>When I was a young lad, I worked for Geek Squad for awhile... and I noticed that If you inspect OEM drives vs Retail drives you will find that they actually have different Manufacturer origins for most of the HDD Suppliers.<br>
We had to dispose of bad customer drives or give them back... so I've physically taken apart probably 200 drives... The size or fitness of the parts doesn't appear to be different on similar models of similar sizes but they were usually manufactured in a different plant... In fact with Western Digital this is how you determine warranty fitness. The serial number (used to) inform you of the Plant the drive was manufactured in. If the serial number had an 03, 04, 05 in it.. it meant it was OEM -> In the key to the serial number these same digits referenced "MFG Origin" <br>
I'm convinced the drives made for OEM Computer manufacturers are somehow more cheaply built as a whole than drives that come off the retail shelf for consumers.<br><br>Just my conspiratorial thoughts on the topic...<div>
<div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 4:03 PM, John J. Foerch <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jjfoerch@earthlink.net" target="_blank">jjfoerch@earthlink.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex">
<div>On Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 03:43:52PM -0500, Bob Kline wrote:<br>
> What's your favorite drive manufacturer?<br>
><br>
> These things float around. Right now I<br>
> prefer WD.<br>
><br>
> -- Bob<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>WD all the way.<br>
<br>
--<br>
<font color="#888888">John Foerch<br>
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