Why do people say Toshiba hard drives are bad?

[Lawin]

I have the Toshiba Canvio Basics 4TB hard drive and I have important files, is it true what they say about Toshiba hard drives?

Is Toshiba Canvio Basics reliable?

[Levent]

Reliability and HDDs are not words that should be used together. If your data is important, always follow the 3 2 1 principle.

Keep 3 copies of your data.

Keep 2 copies at different locations.

Keep 1 copy at an offsite location.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Do they? I've not heard people say they're bad. Toshiba are no more or less reliable than any of the other major drive manufacturers.

 

You hear it about Seagate, but that's based on some seriously flawed "reliability" data that was released quite a long time ago.

 

EDIT: Though if you have important files, you should be backing them up. Ideally keeping copies in physically different locations

[Coaxialgamer]

Toshiba is a reputable manufacturers, and their drives are sufficiently reliable to be sold by the truckload. I myself have a 3TB toshiba HDD in my system and have not had any issues in the 5 years I've owned the thing.

 

But that's beside the point: even the most reliable drives on the planets should not be relied on. As long as you don't have a proper backup solution, any and all files stored on your computer are on loan to murphy's law. A drive could fail on you. Ransomware could encrypt your files. You might drop or otherwise damage your drive. Heck, your house could burn down or your PC could be stolen.

 

You need to have proper backup (ideally both onsite and offsite) if you want to ensure you get to keep those files.

[Murasaki]

Ive had Toshiba HDDs for a while and no issues. I've never heard anyone say they're bad but they're not a popular brand of choice these days. I originally used them because they were supposedly rebranded HGST/Hitachi or something I dont quite remember, their history is confusing.

[Takumidesh]

44 minutes ago, Levent said:

Reliability and HDDs are not words that should be used together. If your data is important, always follow the 3 2 1 principle.

Keep 3 copies of your data.

Keep 2 copies at different locations.

Keep 1 copy at an offsite location.

reliability in the sense of 'I don't want to lose my data' sure. reliability in the sense of a cost benefit analysis on the rate of replacement on a 25 drive server is different.

[Dillpickle23422]

I had a Hitachi drive which I think was Toshiba, it was fine till it died. Same with my seagate, same with my WD. The hitachi lived longer (about 7 years) , but that was random luck really. Back your data up like previously mentioned, as you never know with them. Or, get an SSD and still back it up.

[Levent]

2 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

reliability in the sense of 'I don't want to lose my data' sure. reliability in the sense of a cost benefit analysis on the rate of replacement on a 25 drive server is different.

Sure, if you add redundancy, you obviously increase your chances of survival.

[Takumidesh]

@LeventI guess I just meant, if you are going into with the assumption that your drive WILL fail at some point, the question shifts to how long can I reasonably assume this (or this batch of) drive(s) will last. Of course, in practice MTBF ratings don't mean much for single drive systems.

 

Even not considering the redundancy aspect (or assuming it is handled in some way), reliability is still a concern from a pure economic viewpoint and as a singular unit of the system. How long / often will this system be down (and how much will that cost in either personal or commercial value) and how much will I have to spend on replacement drives over a given time period. In large enterprise and data center use cases this can come up to monthly replacement costs.

All that said, I understand that OPs position doesn't fall into that category really.

[Needfuldoer]

18 hours ago, Murasaki said:

I originally used them because they were supposedly rebranded HGST/Hitachi or something I dont quite remember, their history is confusing.

HGST was founded by a merger of Toshiba  Hitachi and IBM's hard drive divisions. Western Digital bought the company and intellectual property about 10 years ago, but Toshiba bought some of their factories.

 

Most of the other historic hard drive brands you've heard of (Quantum, Maxtor, Samsung, etc) wound up under Seagate.

 

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/smartbuyer/visualized/infographic-hard-drive-manufacturer-genealogy/

Edited December 14, 2022 by Needfuldoer
I oopsed

[Murasaki]

2 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

HGST was founded by a merger of Toshiba and IBM's hard drive divisions. Western Digital bought the company and intellectual property about 10 years ago, but Toshiba bought some of their factories.

 

Most of the other historic hard drive brands you've heard of (Quantum, Maxtor, Samsung, etc) wound up under Seagate.

 

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/smartbuyer/visualized/infographic-hard-drive-manufacturer-genealogy/

That clears a lot of things up. I've searched on the topic before but couldn't piece it all together,  thanks for the info!

[Mark Kaine]

toshiba and hitachi are the best drives in my experience.  i avoid seagate like the plague though,  but WD seems kinda ok, but i have no experience with reliability of that brand.