Seagate Vs. Western Digital?

[Mopee]

Ok I am finally ready to join the EHD world. I see that Dish offers the
Seagate Showcase 1TB USB 2.0 DVR Storage Expander ($175 at Newegg) and many of you all seem to like the Western Digital My Book external hard drives (Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive) .

Other than the extra $65 for the Seagate is there really any differences?

moe

 

[KAB]

Stay away from Seagate if you don't want to have to mess around with disabling sleep mode. A normal EHD offers no less than the over-priced DVR expanders. WD MyBooks are the most common choice around here.

 

[SandFarmer]

I have sworn by both Seagate and WD for years. But lately Seagate's quality is dropping in its home and industrial products. I have started to swap out all my Seagate drives in everything to Western Digitals. I have seen others here say the same. Plus the sleep problems. I have a FreeAgent and it is always dumping right in the middle of use. I can not use it to do back ups, they end up corrupt. One minute it's there and the next gone . . . .

Avoid Seagate.

 

[SlyFerret]

Seagate has had some problems with their 1.5TB drives, but as far as I know, the 1TB drives have been OK.

Personally, I have consistently used Western Digital drives since the mid 1990's and have not been disappointed. I have a number of the WD MyBook drives in service at the office connected to servers for performing regular backups.

If it were me, I'd go with the WD MyBook.

-SF

 

[8bitbytes]

4 of my 5 ehds are Seagate. The secret to success? Don't buy the ready made ehds, make your own with better quality components. Buy a good enclosure and then get the drives made for streaming video from hot non-ventilated cabinets.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I've had 3 diff WD My Books, and they work great.

I too have lost a little faith in Seagate.

 

[ncted]

My 750GB WD MyBook is loud thanks to a bad case design. I picked up a Lacie drive with a 750GB Seagate mechanism which is much quieter, and looks better next to my 722, PS3, and Roku box as well.

LaCie - Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton - Hi-Speed USB 2.0

 

[gadgtfreek]

Something must have been wrong with it, because my My Books and My DVR Expander were all quiet. I have them sitting out next to my tv.

 

[Mopee]

Thanks for all your input.

Moe

 

[dfergie]

I have Seagates, Maxtors and WD My Books and have only had 1 problem drive a Maxtor that my 622 would recognize all the time...

 

[sremick]

From building and repairing PCs for the last 20+ years (used to do it at a large local company that sold custom PCs, still do it for myself, family and friends) I've had exponentially better results longterm with Seagate drives than Western Digital. Yes, WD drives can be significantly cheaper, and yes not every WD drive is going to fail horribly and prematurely. I am going by cumulative experience across hundreds and hundreds of drives. Whenever our shop tried again to dabble with WD drives and give them another chance, the average failure/return rate increased significantly.

Do I still buy WD drives? Sure, sometimes for little projects where I don't care so much. I'll take the gamble. But for anything important, it's 100% Seagate.

And yes, this is based upon raw drives. A bad enclosure can kill a quality drive.

 

[patmurphey]

My WDs have one year warranties. My Seagate Freeagent has a five year warranty. What does that tell you?

 

[sremick]

Some WD drives are available w/ 5y warranties, while there are Seagates with 3y warranties. It depends on the model.

If I remember correctly, it was Seagate to first start offering 5y warranties though which was an important factor back when they were the only ones.

 

[allargon]

Skip the Seagates unnless you get a really good deal. My 1.5TB drive is less than stellar. I have to transfer the programming back to the 622's drive to replay a program without skips. My 500GB Seagate playsback without issues.

WD and Seagate aren't the only ones in the game. Buffalo has decent, inexpensive stuff. The only obscure brand I would avoid like the plague is Acom Data.

LaCie will make you pay for it. However, they make great drives.

LaCie and Buffalo don't make the drives. They make enclosures and put someone else's drive inside of it. Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung, etc.

Good point. I essentially meant external drive which is, of course, an internal drive inside of an enclosure.

 

[sremick]

LaCie and Buffalo don't make the drives. They make enclosures and put someone else's drive inside of it. Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung, etc.

 

[navychop]

If you want to get a better grade drive and are willing to pay a bit more, go with the WD Black series. Blues are the base level, Greens fall between the two. Or if you're REALLY willing to pay extra for better, look at the WD RE drives.

 

[gadgtfreek]

My WD My books have more than a year warranty, so that statement tells me nothing.

Hyundai has a 100k mile powertrain, does not mean the quality is better than toyota.

 

[ncted]

Warranty doesn't mean a whole lot with hard drives any more. Quality has gotten so good, that paying extra for a longer warranty isn't really worth it. Either they are going to die early, or last a really long time under normal usage.

Ted

 

[navychop]

Unless it's the type of drive Dish puts into the ViP series.

15 months is not good.

 

[sremick]

Warranty doesn't mean a whole lot with hard drives any more. Quality has gotten so good, that paying extra for a longer warranty isn't really worth it. Either they are going to die early, or last a really long time under normal usage.

As someone who replaces hard drives monthly for customers (replacing originals, not the ones bought from and installed by me), I have to disagree with the above. Especially laptops, but desktops too.

There's still plenty of middle-ground... unless by "early" you mean 2-3 years.

Often the price is almost the same... paying another +$10 or so for 5y instead of 3y seems worth it to me.