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Date:      Thu, 27 Sep 2001 20:54:34 -0700
From:      "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com>
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: reliable HDD brand (LONG)
Message-ID:  <F125IHYtLvW0YJV12Dp000096f4@hotmail.com>

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The IBM Deskstar 75GXP has reliability problems, particularly with the 45GB 
model.
The IBM Deskstar 60GXP is new, but doesn't seem to have any problems. Before 
the 75GXP series, IBM was known for making extremely reliableb IDE *AND* 
SCSI drives. There have been a few bumps in the road...
IBM says they have identified the problem with the 75GXP (the fact that they 
were designed for 5 platters) and has fixed it.

Maxtor, well, frankly Maxtor used to be horrible. They were among the worst 
brands of drives. They have a made a full circle, much like Western Digital 
(more on that below) and now make very reliable IDE drives. THey have a new 
model using only 1 of the 2 sides of the platter that is supposed to have 
less than half of the moving parts of their other drives, and is supposed to 
be extra, extra reliable (and also small--max of 20GB)
Maxtors used to be better than IBMs overall because they were so much 
cheaper, but IBM seems to have lowered their prices to about the same level 
(at least on the websites that I shop from)

Western Digital used to be great--probably the best brand of IDE drive, now 
probably one of the worst. I have returned more WD drives per capita since 
the age of 4GB (or so) models than any other brand. They decided to change 
their business model to making pure cheap drives. They have just recently 
reversed that (very recently) and are now getting back into quality, 
performance drives. Their most recent 100GB drive is actually THE fastest 
IDE drive, beating even the 60GXP and the Maxtor Diamondmax + 7200RPM drives 
(though probably not the new 80GB model that will be released in October)


Seagate -- makes great SCSI drives (and FAST!), but in my experience, which 
does not include any of their newest (>12 GB) drives, Seagates aren't as 
good as IBM or Maxtor.



In general, if you want reliability, go SCSI, mirroring IDE or, RAID5 IDE 
and have a hot spare. If you want enterprise reliability (which you probably 
don't if you were considering IDE drives) get a solid state drive. They are 
usually above USD$25,000. Ouch. (These things are also blazing fast as far 
as access time--great for that "special" 5% of files on a big file server)


Charles N Burns

>I had the same experience with a wd ide disk.  Wish there was a way to see
>% of products returned/rmad.
>
>SCSI seems to be higher quality and price..
>
>Brian "Sonic" Whalen
>Success = Preparation + Opportunity
>
>
>On Thu, 27 Sep 2001, Andre` Niel Cameron wrote:
>
> >
> > > past 10 years.  There are no other manufacturers that I can say that
> > about.
> > >
> >
> > I can tell you to watch out for Maxtor.  I had to replace three in 6
> > months:(
> >
> >
> > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> >
>
>
>To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
>with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message


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