Hmmm, leaves them (http://www.wdc.com/en/company/pressroom/releases.aspx?release=ba433e4b-bff8-4d99-b60f-7f02aa42f444) & Seagate as the big boys club.

Well in all seriousness WD and Seagate were always the big boys on the block. Hitachi were the "new" kids on the block, so this is bad news IMO as there is one less competitor. At least there is still Samsung but they are primarily in the mobile (2.5") market.

WD and Seagate each control 30% of the market. Hitachi has 17%. Apparently WD attempted to buy Seagate last year, but that fizzled due to anti-trust concerns in the US (big surprise...). I don't know if there will be any anti-trust concerns over this merger, as it will give WD close to half the market.

Western Digital shares gain on Hitachi deal - MarketWatch (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/western-digital-shares-gain-on-hitachi-deal-2011-03-07)

At least it's the two companies who I currently tend to buy my drives from that are merging...I don't think I'd be too thrilled if it was WD & Seagate, given Seagate's somewhat uneven reliability of late.

But anything that means less competition is usually not great for consumers.

WD and Seagate each control 30% of the market. Hitachi has 17%. Apparently WD attempted to buy Seagate last year, but that fizzled due to anti-trust concerns in the US (big surprise...). I don't know if there will be any anti-trust concerns over this merger, as it will give WD close to half the market.

Western Digital shares gain on Hitachi deal - MarketWatch (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/western-digital-shares-gain-on-hitachi-deal-2011-03-07)

At least it's the two companies who I currently tend to buy my drives from that are merging...I don't think I'd be too thrilled if it was WD & Seagate, given Seagate's somewhat uneven reliability of late.

But anything that means less competition is usually not great for consumers.

Geesh.... Seagate had one bad consumer series the 7200.11 and suddenly they can't be trusted any more. I'm kinda getting tired of this mantra. Look at the reviews for the 7200.12 and you will see they have gotten back on track.

I have no stock, i.e., personal interest in either WD or Seagate but own about an equal number of drives of each... about 8 or 9 of each and have no higher a failure rate with Seagate over the WDs. They are both solid manufactures.

Every manufacturer makes a lemon from time to time, even Apple... remember the Cube? It is how they come back from that "failure" that matters and with the 7200.12 series from Seagate they seem to be bouncing back very well indeed.

Sorry Paddy to react to your post this way it is just that I have seen other posts here with the same "anti" Seagate vibe and I really don't think it is warranted over all.

If we keep talking down Seagate all we are going to be left with is WD and that would be a very, very bad thing for the consumer. Seagate has/had many many models of drives other than the doomed 7200.11 and have made Enterprise standard drives (SCSI and SAS) for years so lets cut them a little slack and see what they can do. As I said the reviews of the 7200.12 series have been solid. I just bought 2 myself and so far so good.

We need competition in the market place to keep pricing down and innovation up.

Screature, I'm not out to bash Seagate. They used to be the only drive I'd buy - back when WD was going through a bad patch. I just don't think that Seagate have recovered from their bad patch yet! I've bought a number of large drives in the past year, and each time researched them carefully - paying particular attention to ones that had extensive track records, including the Seagate 7200.12 series.

To whit:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433)

23% give it one egg - usually either DOA or died shortly after purchase or had some other really nasty problem. Only 66% are happy enough to give it 4 or 5 eggs - out of 1,242 purchasers.

The 7200.11 1.5TB is worse, of course - in fact, I have no idea what motivates people to buy a drive where a staggering 29% are so unhappy that they give it one egg, and a mere 58% are what I'd call happy to very happy, out of over 2400 reviewers.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337)

And Seagate is still making this drive and selling it - and doesn't seem to have managed to fix whatever is wrong.

The 2TB Barracuda LP ST32000542AS is in the same league:
Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148413)

The 2TB Barracuda XT ST32000641AS fares slightly better, with 12% one egg and 9% 2 eggs and 74% giving it 4 or 5 eggs (out of 106 reviewers)

Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148506)

Compare those reviews to the ones for the 1TB Western Digitals:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284) (9% one egg, 85% happy or very happy)

Or the 500GB WD Caviar Blue:

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073)

On the other hand, WD seem to be having some issues with their drives larger than 1TB:
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136592)

(And there are more with similar ratings)

If I was in the market for a drive larger than 1TB, I'd probably look at the Hitachis, which seem to be doing quite a bit better, though have far fewer reviews to go by:

HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145473) but not this one: HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145298)

Bottom line - when it comes to drives over 1TB, they all seem to have problems producing drives that don't have early failure rates approaching 20% or more. :( For drives 1TB and under - there are quite a few WD that beat the competition handily.

BTW - I'm also aware that people who are unhappy are perhaps more likely to come back and complain about something like a hard drive (I certainly know that I've not bothered reviewing all the drives I've bought, though I should, considering that I regard these reviews as quite useful!). Therefore, the failure rates may in fact be exaggerated - but if so, they're probably exaggerated across the board, not for one particular manufacturer. And the reviews at Amazon.com are pretty consistent with the ones at NewEgg, also with hundreds of reviews for some of the more popular drives.

The seagate 7200 series poisoned the water for me. Lost multiple discs, including one important one (the one that wasn't backed up). Trying them out again in portable, but to be honest, I am waiting to be disappointed. My WD discs have never failed me yet.

All drives have much higher failures than they used too. Between WD and Seagate I wouldn't say one is better than the other. I've sent back tons of both.

However, I would say Hitachi has a much, much higher failure rate. I can't even count the number of them I'd had to throw out (mostly Lacie based externals with only 1 year warranty). Their Deathstar (Deskstar) IBM lineage never really went away...

All drives have much higher failures than they used too. Between WD and Seagate I wouldn't say one is better than the other. I've sent back tons of both.

However, I would say Hitachi has a much, much higher failure rate. I can't even count the number of them I'd had to throw out (mostly Lacie based externals with only 1 year warranty). Their Deathstar (Deskstar) IBM lineage never really went away...

What are you doing to your drives that are causing you to send tons of them back? :eek:

I have had maybe 4 HD failures in the last 15 years or so.

Knock wood, I have never had a hard-drive failure at home. The two WD drives in my G5 dualie are still doing just fine after four years. I do plan to replace them with new larger capacity WDs soon however.

At work, now let's see - maybe six HD failures in the past ten years - all ugly, sudden, and resulting in significant loss of data and work time. I think three of the failed drives were Maxtor and the others were Seagate or IBM. My LaCie Quadra backup drive has been flawless for three years; I'm not sure what kind make of HD it contains.

My LaCie Quadra backup drive has been flawless for three years; I'm not sure what kind make of HD it contains.

its not the drive i would be worried about with that product, its the power supply...

However, I would say Hitachi has a much, much higher failure rate. I can't even count the number of them I'd had to throw out (mostly Lacie based externals with only 1 year warranty). Their Deathstar (Deskstar) IBM lineage never really went away...

Interesting. I have several newer Hitachi high capacity drives and they're fast, quiet and so far reliable.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433)

23% give it one egg - usually either DOA or died shortly after purchase or had some other really nasty problem. Only 66% are happy enough to give it 4 or 5 eggs - out of 1,242 purchasers.

The 7200.11 1.5TB is worse, of course - in fact, I have no idea what motivates people to buy a drive where a staggering 29% are so unhappy that they give it one egg, and a mere 58% are what I'd call happy to very happy, out of over 2400 reviewers.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337)

And Seagate is still making this drive and selling it - and doesn't seem to have managed to fix whatever is wrong.

The 2TB Barracuda LP ST32000542AS is in the same league:
Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148413)

The 2TB Barracuda XT ST32000641AS fares slightly better, with 12% one egg and 9% 2 eggs and 74% giving it 4 or 5 eggs (out of 106 reviewers)

Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148506)

Compare those reviews to the ones for the 1TB Western Digitals:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284) (9% one egg, 85% happy or very happy)

Or the 500GB WD Caviar Blue:

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073)

On the other hand, WD seem to be having some issues with their drives larger than 1TB:
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136592)

(And there are more with similar ratings)

If I was in the market for a drive larger than 1TB, I'd probably look at the Hitachis, which seem to be doing quite a bit better, though have far fewer reviews to go by:

HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145473) but not this one: HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 2TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145298)
s.

the newegg stats are very interesting. but odd. the WD black 1TB and WD blue 500GB both have low one egg numbers overall, at 8-9%, but if you filter for the last two weeks, they go up to 24-26%!
on the other hand, the WD black 1.5TB drops from 17% to 8% (low sample rate, only one).
the seagate 1.5TB stays consistent at 29% one egg.

Yeah, but I consider the short-term reviews highly variable - unless the trend continues, of course, in which case you're going to get an overall change as well. You could probably find a few weeks where everyone was happy too. I don't think it means much in the end.

Overall, I think we've only had 3 HD failures in 20 years of owning multiple Macs. They were all long out of warranty too - probably 4-5 years old.

I like the WD Scorpio Black drives with the 5 year warranties, because I figure by 5 years, I'm not likely to be using them anymore, given the ever-increasing need for data storage and the general lifespan of our Macs. While my husband does have a 7 year old Mac he uses daily, we've upgraded the HD and everything else in daily use is less than 4 years old and generally has an upgraded drive already anyway.

All drives have much higher failures than they used too. Between WD and Seagate I wouldn't say one is better than the other. I've sent back tons of both.

However, I would say Hitachi has a much, much higher failure rate. I can't even count the number of them I'd had to throw out (mostly Lacie based externals with only 1 year warranty). Their Deathstar (Deskstar) IBM lineage never really went away...

Don't blame the drives, blame the enclosure.

The LaCie enclosure I had ran ridiculously hot - I could barely touch the outside of it when the drive was running for a little while.
This was a LaCie external drive. I eventually ripped apart that enclosure and took the drive out to mount it into a MacAlley enclosure I bought - problem solved.
That drive in the LaCie never failed, but I had three other externals fail over the last 10 years or so.
In each case it ended up being the electronics in the enclosure that failed, not the drive itself. I just put the drives in a new enclosure and I was back in business.

[QUOTE=Paddy;1069782]
I like the WD Scorpio Black drives with the 5 year warranties, /QUOTE]

Me too. But had one arrive virtually D.O.A. the other day.

I am perhaps guilty of too predominantly buying WD for the past year. I recognize that I should encourage competition. I do purchase A LOT of drives a year compared to most people, However most of them happen to be 3.5s.

All this being said, if I get any hassles with the RMA on the 2.5 WD scorpio black I'll be sure to let you all know.

I do have to say that Hitachi's drives have been good to me and their RMA process has been top-notch. I hope that WD is as well.

I should add that in years past, I had been guilty of focussing my purchasing on Seagate drives. I have never had to RMA one though, so can't speak for their process (although maybe that speaks volumes for their volumes?).