Any HDDs I find have a ton of complaints about them - is it really that bad?

[Belgarionbg]

 

10 minutes ago, WWicket said:

Rarely see any drives fail in a 'consumer-use' type setting

Then you have not been working with enough computers. I have seen fails from about every brand out there. This is why I only care about useful warranty.

For example I got two WD Green 500GB back in the days and they failed in about a month before the end of their warranty. WD surprised me with replacement in two WD Blue drives. I sold them afterwards because I needed larger space.

At one point in time I had over 6TB in my pc. (yep, there are people with way, way more drives, but I had over 5TB filled with porn... xD)

[WWicket]

Just now, Belgarionbg said:

 

Then you have not been working with enough computers. I have seen fails from about every brand out there. This is why I only care about useful warranty.

 

I've been working in IT for over 10 years. The company I work with supports somewhere around 100,000 systems. We typically see failure rates of around 1%-2% per year for all mainstream drive manufacturers in desktop systems (which to me, is pretty rare... eg., for a given computer with a single drive and 5 year lifespan you only have a 1-in-20 to 1-in-10 chance of drive failure).

[FIXXX]

4 minutes ago, Belgarionbg said:

 

(yep, there are people with way, way more drives, but I had over 5TB filled with porn... xD)

Collusion of HDD makers and porn industry - CONFIRMED

[Belgarionbg]

14 minutes ago, WWicket said:

I've been working in IT for over 10 years.

Me too, for about 12, but this is not the point. You should realize how big the world is and stats from somewhere are not valid for everywhere else. For example In my country with usually unstable main AC power in just about every home (the grid is old af) and people getting cheap power supplies en masse often result in f* up drives, mobos and even cpu`s. UPS is unknown word for the most of the people.

 

p.s. Excuse my english as I use it way to rarely. My grammar is probably on the google translate level...

[FIXXX]

Looks like there's nothing clear-cut to avoid. Well, maybe just refurbished stuff because I cannot really return.

[WWicket]

Just now, Belgarionbg said:

Me too, for about 12, but this is not the point. You should realize how big the world is and stats from somewhere is not valid for everywhere else. For example In my country with usually unstable main AC power in just about every home...

Running drives over with a truck will also typically cause failure, but that isn't an issue with a specific manufacturer or drive. No drive that we've ordered over a 1000 of (smallest amount I'd consider a reasonable sampling) has had a failure rate over 3%/year in normal US office environments. 

[Belgarionbg]

10 minutes ago, WWicket said:

in normal US office environments

Now think what if they are in a country about 9000 kilometers away from there... In uncontrolled environment, working in delta 46*C in the summer and under 15*C in the winter. Under a power supply for ~30$. Within various humidity levels up to the point of random condensation.

 

We can talk fudge all day long. But the only relevant thing that is of interest is what brand is good enough for its money.

I say mostly WD. Using the proper variety for the purposes ofc.

[kirashi]

3 hours ago, FIXXX said:

Can anyone show me a success story of a model or line of HDDs I can get and not have crippling doubts about? 

No. All hard drives should be assumed to be failing the minute they're powered on. I don't say this to scare you - I say it because it's true. All mechanical goods, be it hard drives, lawnmowers, cars, or even can-openers, have a limited life span. This life span is continuously wearing out as long as they're in motion, and in the case of computer hard drives, even when they're not because magnetic media only lasts so long.

 

That being said, Backblaze writes about hard drive failure rates because they have the widest range of experience with consumer drives. Their storage pods were originally filled with consumer grade hard drives shucked from external units you'd purchase from the local BestBuy, Fry's, Costco, etc. so I'd check with their blog. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/

3 hours ago, MysticalRainXIV said:

Seagate has one of the best warranties in the business if that means anything, 5 years AFAIK, but I've ran both WD drives and Seagate drives for almost a decade and they havent failed yet

Consumer Seagate drives definitely don't come with a 5 year warranty anymore - not since the 2012 flooding over in Thailand. Most manufacturers reduced their 3 -5 year warranties down to just 1-2 years, unless you're buying a NAS or Enterprise drive.

[MysticalRainXIV]

13 hours ago, kirashi said:

 

Consumer Seagate drives definitely don't come with a 5 year warranty anymore - not since the 2012 flooding over in Thailand. Most manufacturers reduced their 3 -5 year warranties down to just 1-2 years, unless you're buying a NAS or Enterprise drive.

My FireCuda drives have a 5 year warranty on them so, I dunno

[kirashi]

4 hours ago, MysticalRainXIV said:

My FireCuda drives have a 5 year warranty on them so, I dunno

That's good to know, although Firecuda drives are just regular Barracuda drives with an SSD cache for frequently used files. I'm guessing they bank on the flash NAND being accessed more frequently, which means less wear and tear on the drive, hence they can tell us it has a longer warranty.

[SilicateWielder]

On 6/11/2017 at 2:51 PM, Belgarionbg said:

Now think what if they are in a country about 9000 kilometers away from there... In uncontrolled environment, working in delta 46*C in the summer and under 15*C in the winter. Under a power supply for ~30$. Within various humidity levels up to the point of random condensation.

 

We can talk fudge all day long. But the only relevant thing that is of interest is what brand is good enough for its money.

I say mostly WD. Using the proper variety for the purposes ofc.

Everytime I hear someone talk about WD I'm reminded of how my sister ruined a brand new $50 drive by knocking the laptop I had installed it into off my table. WHILE IT WAS RUNNING (Please don't ask why I let her be around it.)

 

Nonetheless they're good drives when people aren't throwing laptops around. I've had an obsoleted 1TB Enterprise class HDD in my system for about 2 1/2 years now. It's a nice reliable drive, albeit loud.