Favorite Hard Drive?

Poseidon · February 18, 2007

Okay, I switched to Mac, and love it...BUT I guess I can still expect to have drive failures. My "Perfect Pix" or business drive is in the process of failing. I have all my wedding pictures and senior pictures on DVD, and most are uploaded to Smugmug where I can get at them no problem. So data loss is not that big of an issue, aside from the 1 folder that holds an album in process.

Anyway, I have always bought WD drives, but i have now had 3 fail over the years. 2 of those failed drives have come in the last 18 months. I think I am in need of a new brand!

My choices seem to be:

Seagate
Hitachi
Maxtor

The drive is currently in a MacPro, and of course the replacement will go in its bay when I can get the data off this one that I need.... Current estimate for 4GB is 20 HOURS!....

Which do I choose?

Thanks for all the help, I don't know if I would still be sane without DGrin! :bow

Charlie Brown · February 18, 2007

set up a raid system. my brother relys on his HD for work. if he looses his files he is screwed. well he had a total failure of his hard drive, nothing was salvagable. so he set up a new system. he does design more so than photography so he had basically nothing online other than existing sites he had built for clients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

Art Scott · February 18, 2007

I had always used maxtor....until I went thru 3 in less than 6 months....they jsut came to a screeching halt...totally unrecoverable...lost everything...so I got a grat deal off ebay for a 120gb seagate...ran it for 2yrs straight with no incidents....then one day I could not upload anything to it, but was able to operate computer and go online?????>>>>>>.....yeah it was full

so I got another off ebay...a 300gb they hav been up and going now for over 3yrs on the 300 & 5yrs on the 120gb....quietest drives I have ever owned and have the longest warranties I have found so far....

For me I will always go with SEAGATE......

Mr. 2H2O · February 19, 2007

Mike,
I am a huge fan of Seagate. I owned a 2GB (yep, WIN98SE) for over 5 years with no problems at all - even installed it in my new computer two years ago and it still rocks.

I put a Seagate 40GB serial drive in my new rig (WINXPSP2) and it spins strong with no problems. I also added a Maxtor that I've been running now for 4 years without incident.

The guys I work with that build computers trust Seagate and Maxtor only.

- Mike

ivar · February 19, 2007

Charlie Brown wrote:

set up a raid system. my brother relys on his HD for work. if he looses his files he is screwed. well he had a total failure of his hard drive, nothing was salvagable. so he set up a new system. he does design more so than photography so he had basically nothing online other than existing sites he had built for clients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

I've got a 4x500GB Raid 6 system because i was working with sensitive and time-consuming data, but honestly, I'm thinking about giving it up. I've had one drive fail which was the boot-drive, and I have everything backed up on DVD as well. I need a server to run it, so it's slower as opposed to internal/external FW drives. Plus it's expensive as well, as you need to have multiple discs, but you don't get the storage out of it.

I think i will go to backup on external, on dvd and online.

Pupator · February 19, 2007

I think with the brands you mentioned they're all about the same. You'll find people who've had success with one and failure with another - only to find 5 other people with the opposite story.

No matter what brand you get: backup, backup, backup! There are free programs out there (for PC anyway, probably for MAC) that will allow you to schedule automatic backups every night.

Also, pay attention! When drives start making new or loud noises, get ready to make a switch.

And just FYI: My system has a maxtor, a seagate, and a hitatchi. My laptops have WD.

Poseidon · February 19, 2007

Thanks for all the input so far, and Charlie, thanks for the link to RAID on Wiki....

If I did decide to do a RAID system for my business drive, is that even possible in the MacPro? Or would it have to be external?

Poseidon · February 19, 2007

Pupator wrote:

No matter what brand you get: backup, backup, backup! There are free programs out there (for PC anyway, probably for MAC) that will allow you to schedule automatic backups every night.

I was happy to have all my DVD's and the smugmug back up as well. This failure sure could have been a lot more stressful.

Pupator wrote:

Also, pay attention! When drives start making new or loud noises, get ready to make a switch.

This one surprised me, as everything was A OK, no noises or hiccups at all.

Pupator wrote:

And just FYI: My system has a maxtor, a seagate, and a hitatchi. My laptops have WD.

I kinda figured that.... I was hoping one drive may be marginally better then the others though, and so far that looks like Seagate may be the ticket... Who knows though....

Pupator · February 19, 2007

Poseidon wrote:

If I did decide to do a RAID system for my business drive, is that even possible in the MacPro? Or would it have to be external?

Does the MacPro have room for two seperate hard drives (internal)?

wxwax · February 19, 2007

Pupator wrote:

Does the MacPro have room for two seperate hard drives (internal)?

Yes. And more. It will take 4.

Pupator · February 19, 2007

Poseidon wrote:

If I did decide to do a RAID system for my business drive, is that even possible in the MacPro? Or would it have to be external?

wxwax wrote:

Yes. And more. It will take 4.

Then you're good to go. What you want is a RAID 1 array, so you'll need 2 identical hard drives (you can do Raid 10 if you want - but you'll need four identical drives).

This'll give you your instant data backup.

I don't use RAID myself (just do nightly backups instead) - but if you've got the $ and the desire, your computer is able to do it.

Poseidon · February 19, 2007

Alrighty!

I am the proud new owner of 2 320GB SeaGate 3G drives. Now I am trying to put them into RAID1, which sounds so easy..... BUT I can't drag the drives onto the "list at the right"... Can someone please walk me thru this?

ivar · February 19, 2007

Poseidon wrote:

Alrighty!

I am the proud new owner of 2 320GB SeaGate 3G drives. Now I am trying to put them into RAID1, which sounds so easy..... BUT I can't drag the drives onto the "list at the right"... Can someone please walk me thru this?

Having multiple hard drives doesn't mean you can use a RAID setup. You need to have a RAID controller as well. Some motherboards come with it, some don't.

If your motherboard comes with it, you probably need to change some settings in your BIOS. If you are using a separate RAID controller, you probably need to run some installation software. (and sometimes physically set switches on the controller, although the newer ones don't seem to have them)

ivar · February 19, 2007

Pupator wrote:

Then you're good to go. What you want is a RAID 1 array, so you'll need 2 identical hard drives

Be careful that some machines can't boot from RAID drives. So you would need your RAID disks plus a boot disk. I don't know if the mac can do that or not.

I'm pretty sure that mac osx can only do RAID 0/1. If you want a different RAID config, you need mac server.

Pupator · February 19, 2007

ivar wrote:

Be careful...

I checked on what his computer was able to do before I advocated his buying new drives. No worries.

Poseidon · February 19, 2007

Thanks for the concern Ivar, but I am all set! You are correct that the Mac Pro can only do RAID 1 or 0. For some reason I had difficulty getting the RAID to work using the Disk utility, I needed to reboot the computer is all. ( I am not used to having to do that with a Mac.) I turned the Mac off so I could swap the monitor cables around, turned it back on, then tried again to follow the simple instructions included on my Mac.... This time it worked flawlessly! I now have all 4 HD bays full, and I have 3 seperate drives listed on my desktop. I have my system drive, my "misc stuff" drive, and my RAID "Perfeect Pix" drive. To my wife or anyone else the Perfect Pix drive looks like a single drive, just the way I wanted it to look.

Thanks for all the help Pupator!

Hopefully I won't be having anymore HD issues.

wxwax · February 19, 2007

Cool!

Pupator · February 20, 2007

Glad to hear you got it running so easily!

cletus · February 21, 2007

Seagate 320s... you picked good! I just got four of them for a new machine at the office.

cmason · February 21, 2007

I just suffered thru a motherboard failure, which somehow ruined the partitions of my large main harddrive, wiping all my data, from all my partitions. Now, luckily I have a backup, on a different drive (havent accessed it yet, crossing fingers) as well as a DVD burn done 6 mons ago, so it wasnt a complete loss.

But, the lesson here is not to rely on internal storage only. I have had controller cards go bad, and ruin harddrives. So my action plan is to have plenty of external, offline storage, ie network or USB attached. As a result of this, I have purchased a harddrive and enclosure, to do offline backups immediately.

But I think the best solution is the new 'home servers' .
These are the NAS devices sorta reborn, and really affordable. Network Attached Storage was a new thing about 5 yrs ago, but expensive, as were hard drives. Now, these things are full appliances, with file servers,etc built in. No server to maintain, just a box. For example, this Buffalo Terrastation is around $600, but for that $$ you get 1TB of storage, across 4 drives, and the ability to add 4 more drives via USB. It offers RAID 0,1-5, so your options are unlimited. It even includes a USB print server. It sits self-contained on the network, for all PCs to access. Even includes backup software.

So, rather than building a RAID solution in my PC, and working to configure the thing (nightmare), I think it makes sense to just buy a box like this and problem solved.

Pupator · February 21, 2007

This is actually a great use for an old PC you've got laying around. Make it a weekend project to clear it out - install a few 250GB (or 120, or 500, depending on your needs), then install Linux or BSD. It's easier than you think and for a fraction of the NAS device (if you've got an old PC laying around) you get the same functionality.

cmason · February 21, 2007

Pupator wrote:

This is actually a great use for an old PC you've got laying around. Make it a weekend project to clear it out - install a few 250GB (or 120, or 500, depending on your needs), then install Linux or BSD. It's easier than you think and for a fraction of the NAS device (if you've got an old PC laying around) you get the same functionality.

I agree completely, this is indeed a far cheaper solution...but I really dont have time to enjoy my Photography hobby, let alone expanding to a network and system adminstrator to store my photos

Just hope these appliances come down a bit more, so I can really justify over the DIY/MAKE solution you mention....

Pupator · February 22, 2007

cmason wrote:

I agree completely, this is indeed a far cheaper solution...but I really dont have time to enjoy my Photography hobby, let alone expanding to a network and system adminstrator to store my photos

Heh - I certainly understand that. Really though, it should just be a 1 Saturday project. After you get the box set up you can disconnect the monitor and keyboard, leave it in a corner somewhere and forget its there.

claudermilk · February 22, 2007

Pupator wrote:

Heh - I certainly understand that. Really though, it should just be a 1 Saturday project. After you get the box set up you can disconnect the monitor and keyboard, leave it in a corner somewhere and forget its there.

Pretty much. I have an ANCIENT old PC running FC2 as a small web server. It's tucked ina corner running headless (no monitor, keyboard, mouse). It's all of a 300MHz P2 with 192MB RAM and a small drive. Enough to run that & serve the pages and it cost all of $200 10 years ago.

cletus · February 23, 2007

Pupator wrote:

Heh - I certainly understand that. Really though, it should just be a 1 Saturday project. After you get the box set up you can disconnect the monitor and keyboard, leave it in a corner somewhere and forget its there.

I just finished setting up a backup system at the office. The system uses Bacula running on Linux. It has all kinds of features and is probably overkill for what we need but it was still relatively simple to set up.

I want to give FreeNAS a spin. I've read some good things about it and from what I've read it sounds like a good fit for my home backup needs.

Favorite Hard Drive?

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