+1 and x2cwv_8t88 wrote:
I own a small computer manufacturing company in upstate New York and I get asked this question by many people including hard core gamers. About 7-8 years ago if you asked me to rank order the best drives I would have said the following:
IBM Deskstar
Maxtor Diamondmax
Seagate (all)
Hitachi
Fuji
Western Digital
All others
But today the standards of the manufactures have become so high due to massive competition that the differences between the drives are so minimal. The better question is not which hardware is better but which service is better if something does go wrong (i.e. you have questions, need to return a faulty drive, etc.). In my opinion, Maxtor is still at the top of my list. I rarely get calls about faulty Maxtor drives but the same can be said for Seagate.
There are two problem you are facing when looking for a good drive:
1 - Crazy Larry - This is a euphamism for the guy that has one Western Digital drive fail on him and suddenly he is spreading that "Western Digital drives suck". Be wary of a sample of one. It seems everyone wishes they were a computer expert these days.
2 - Popular Press - Somewhere there is an article trashing the reputation of every one of the major hard drive manufacturers. Typically, the "tests" they carried out to arrive at this conclusion were hastily carried out and were nothing close to being scientific. They were carried out by people who are paid to create controversy in their articles to keep their columns/jobs.
Sorry to sound so disparate but there is a lot of crap information out there in the mags and on the Internet. Try to find cold, hard facts from reputable sources. But in the mean time keep in mind that the differences in hard drive quality today are minimal.
Peace Boris
