Hello, ALL.
This seems topical, since a few folk here are talking about buying new
drives soon.  After reading this, I'm not sure I want any new ones.
They surely don't seem to last as long as they used to.
- - -  JimH.
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 Drive Service Company's Best and Worst Hard Drive List
Drive Service Company's Top and Bottom list of Hard Drives
as of 06-19-02
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Here is the current list of top brands, and worst drive models. This is based
on the models we see the most, and conversely the drives we see the
least. We are in no way paid to recommend any particular brand or
another. This is merely a statistical analysis based on the numbers of
drives we see come through our doors for drive failure and data
recovery. In no way does this guarantee that the top listed drive won't
fail tomorrow or that what we feel is the worst one won't last you many
years. This is really just a very simple guide for you to use in making
a good decision about what drive to buy or to stay away from! If you
continue reading, you will find my own diatribe about the latest in the
industry and a few things you may or may not be aware of. Top brands: 1
being best
1. Seagate (models since 1998 only) Cheaply made, but getting
much better. I never thought I would be putting Seagate back on the top
of the list but.... Seagate now has the fewest failures of all the
drives made now. They do make cheap consumer models, but they also have
a much better line of drives that cost a little more. Your drive, is not
  the item you want to try to save a buc on!
2. IBM - Notebook and
  desktop drives. There are issues with electro-mechanica failures and
  or head crash on their high speed IDE drives 40GB or greater. Th 40,
  45, 60 and 75 gb drives are really starting to go bad now, especially
  the drives manufactured in late 2000 and all of 2001. These can go
  without warning, so please keep them backed up! We have been seeing a
  lot of the 75gb drives come in now as well as the 45's and 60's. There
  is a class action lawsuit ongoing about the 75gb drives. A new
  development.. Hitachi has recently purchased 70% of the IBM hard drive
  division. I can't wait to see ho many of these we get in the future! (
  Hitachi is known for failures). Yet another thorn in the side of the
  consumer! I should mention that their SCSI line of drives is a good
  product still.
3. Fujitsu (Desktop drives only) Their 10, 15, 20 and
  30gb desktop models hav been failing left and right with either servo
  loss or electronic failure. Notebook drives are only so-so but are no
  longer manufactured. They have had so many returned drives, that they
  have stopped making drives all together.
4. Maxtor (We are seeing more
  and more of these as failed) see below. You get what you pay for. Do
  not use these in server or business applications! If you do, keep them
  backed up like there is no tomorrow! These are consumer drives only!
5. Toshiba (notebook drives only). Good engineering! Generally good
  all the way around, but can develop bad heads in some models. As
  always, just keep it backed up.
6. Quantum. Has had a bad batch of
  drives with a defective chip incl. the Fireball™ CX,LA,LB,LC and KX
  series. Maxtor now owns Quantum (got them at a good price too!). We
  have been seeing a large number of the Quantum ASxxxx series drives
  come in with missing outer servo, especially the 40gb drives, similar
  to the problem Fujitsu has. This is an unrecoverable situation!
Beware.
8. Samsung also known as Trigem in E-machines (Inexpensive, you
  get what you pay for!) Cheaply made, consumer use only but do a
  religious backup!
7. Western Digital (They still haven't learned,
  their drives are still failin left and right). Cheaply made.
  Especially the 'EB' series. The 20gb AB and EB series are horrible.
  Again, I urge you not to use these in business applications. These
  have servo problems too which are starting to surface.
Worst Models  Ever: 1 being worst
1. Western Digital AC1XXX, AC2XXX and
AC3XXX series except AC31000 (Prone to severe head crash).
2. Quantum
Bigfoot Series (any model) Prone to many severe failures. Cheap drives
that never should have been made. These were used heavily by Compaq, t
keep their costs down!
3. Quantum Fireball CX,CR,LA,LB,LC,KX All have
  defective spin chips and will fail without warning! Quantum was bought
  by Maxtor 07-01.
4. Conner CFS850A and CFS1275A (Some of the most
  RMA'd drives of all time).
5. Hitachi Notebook drives of any kind
  (Almost always head crash or lose serv or suffer from misalignment)
  Don't use them! If you have to, backup! Used exclusively (because they
  got a good deal) by Dell! If you order a Dell, request a different
  drive or go elsewhere.
6. Fujitsu Notebook drives of any kind are
  prone to head crash, desktop drive are bad now too, sorry. Again, they
  have stopped making drives and now barely support what is left out
  there.
7. Samsung drives of any kind (Either head crash, or stiction
  (heads stick to the platters)) Cheaply manufactured.
8. Toshiba
  MK2103MAV and MK2101MAN 2.5" drives (Prone to severe head crash,
  heavily RMA'd)
9. NEC drives of any kind (Poor engineering causes many
  failures, no longer making desktop drives)
10. JTS any model (Prone to
  head crash, cheap drives, now out of business)
11. Maxtor 7850, 71336,
  71260, 72004 (All had defective head stops, heads fly off platters and
  break off)
12. Maxtor 10GB, 20GB, 30GB any model are crashing at an
  alarming rate! Sever electrical problems as well. These are consumer
  drives at best. Back them up now! Do not use for business
  applications.
13. Seagate Elite 9GB SCSI (Poor engineering promotes
  severe head crash).
14. Seagate 32140A (Prone to severe head crash,
  heavily RMA'd drive).
15. Seagate 5xxx series (Prone to head crash and
  or broken head wires).
16. Micropolis (Almost always head crash, what
  else is new? They have been ou of business now for 5 years).

Compiling this list was not easy, as there are problems with many other
drives as well, but this will indicate the worst and most commonly
failed ones. Many very old drives were not included in this list, as
these are mostly out of use now, but you will find several that are
mostly out of use. I suspect that over the next few years, we will be
down to one drive manufacturer!

For a long time, I was a big supporter
of IBM drives and recommended them at every turn, but now not so. They
too have had enormous numbers of drives returned to them recently, and I
am sure that is what spawned the Hitachi buyout. I have noticed over the
last couple of years that manufacturers have stopped putting little mini
in-lin fuses on the electronics of the drives. I often asked myself why
they were doin this, as the fuses could not cost 1/2 cent each. I have
since found out! This i a little known fact that is not limited to hard
drives alone unfortunately, but also incorporated into cars, electronics
of all sorts, and everyday things that we the consumer use. This little
known fact is called "built-in obsolescence"! This is a very little
discussed problem in today's society, but we all face it at some point
or another.

There have been known problems with ATX power supplie over
the last 2 years and on up to today. The power supplies have been
shorting out, due to lousy cheap parts, and in the process, burn out the
motherboard, an just about any and all other devices attached to it
including the hard drive. I am sure you know someone this has happened
to. The problem would not be so bad if the same model drive could be
used to take the printed circuit board from an get the fried drive up
and running long enough to get the data off. Here is the problem: For a
given model of drive, there can be 20 different revision lev all of
which have different codes and other things that differ. Getti drive
matched exactly to the tee is a big challenge, and believe me,
manufacturers are of no help at all in the effort. You will have to ca
get the data from the drive for you. So, you see that if they l they
would sell fewer drives over time! The concept of built-in o not a new
one. It is what drives our economy. It really upsets me to kno an
electrical engineer can and does make chips and components that fai
specifically on a given date or thereabouts, that a chemical engine does
make plastics for your car for instance that disintegrate just a
warranty is up! I understand that if they did not do this, people wou of
work... but, give me a break, not in our hard drives too!

This is th
important part of the computer! Whatever you do keep a good backup! Make
believe that tomorrow when you turn your computer on, it is not going to
come up. If that were the case what is it you would want off the drive
today while you still have access to it? Back it up! Whatever you do,
never use a second drive as a backup device, unless you have your data
on yet a third media as well. If the power supply blows, you los them
both, and then what? I usually suggest backup of data only, no pro
material, to CD-R (not CD-RW..too unreliable). A product called 'NTI Bac
is a great tool for this. If you keep most all of your data beneath a
data directory using sub-folders to keep it all separate, it is easy

Youmay ask why the same models are on the best and worst list? Si only
so many brands out there and of the ones sold today, it was nece list
them in this way. Other tidbits include: Quantum has sold it's entire
drive line to Maxtor (mostly owned by Hyundai). Western Digital has
discontinued their SCSI line, an is looking to get out of the drive
business all together.

There is one more very important item I need to
mention to you all. Very recently, an IBM engineer let slip, a white
paper on one of their drives that actually told the truth about how long
an IDE drive should last and under what conditions. In this paper, it
said that current IDE drives are really only designed to be in operation
from 6-8 hours per day! I have always known this to be true! IBM very
quickly changed the white paper, and also stated that they stand behind
their drives whether it is on for 8 hours or 24 hours per day. Do you
want to take the chance? Most if not all of the current large capacit
drives, no matter who makes it, are not meant to be left on 24 hours
sure that none of you reading this are aware of that and may be quite
sho hear this. These drives should not be put into servers, or be
assigned a industrial use duty!

But, you might ask, "What am I supposed
to use for duty business use?". The answer is, use what we have used for
years in applications and that is SCSI! SCSI drives are meant to run and
run an without a hiccup. They are made much better than IDE, using
better liqu motors, better parts, and usually better everything! So, the
next deciding what to use in a server that you are building, think twice
abo

These days, IDE drives are consumer drives at best, and should be
used f other reason. If this list helps one person avoid troubles, I am
happy for you. Thank You, Mark Cooper, President Drive Service Company
The Data Recovery Specialists! E-mail: mark{at}driveservice.com If you want
to use this list in your newspaper, radio show, or publication, please
tell them where you got it. If you have any questions, comments or want
to set up a phone interview, call us at 714-549-3475. Last updated on
06-19-02 © 2002 Drive Service Company
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