Which hard drive is most reliable as the 2nd unit in HP Pavilion?

[Mat]

Hi,

Which hard drive unit you recommend as a 2nd hard drive unit for HP
Pavilion model A240, which has as 1st drive 80 GB Western Digital
EIDE WD Caviar P/N=WD800AB-22CBA1.

My wish is to have very reliable hard drive.

Which of these is the most reliable? WesterDigital, Seagate or
Samsung.
The capacity should be about 160 - 200 GB with EIDE.
Is Western Digital Caviar 200GB EIDE 7200rpm reliable?

The OS is WinXP

Regards,
Mat

 

[Jan Alter]

The manufacturers you've mentioned are all reliable and have been in the
business for years. What you're asking is for a fortune teller to tell you
that one particular manufacturer is mountains over the other, and it simply
isn't so. If you'd like to base your decision on warranty then Seagate has
the longest of the three, five years.
The real best advice I can offer you is to back up your data. Get an
external drive and Acronis True Image and you can happily not worry about
one drive going to heaven and you being left screaming ,"Why didn't I get
the other drive instead!"

 

[John McGaw]

Hi,

Which hard drive unit you recommend as a 2nd hard drive unit for HP
Pavilion model A240, which has as 1st drive 80 GB Western Digital
EIDE WD Caviar P/N=WD800AB-22CBA1.

My wish is to have very reliable hard drive.

Which of these is the most reliable? WesterDigital, Seagate or
Samsung.
The capacity should be about 160 - 200 GB with EIDE.
Is Western Digital Caviar 200GB EIDE 7200rpm reliable?

The OS is WinXP

Regards,
Mat

I am partial to the Seagates and have never had a problem with one of
their drives -- well, at least not for decades since 20mB was
state-of-the-art. I've got five Seagates (4 X 200gB + 1 X 300gB) in two
different machines and they are quiet and reliable. You just missed out
on a deal where you could have had a boxed retail 200gB Seagate for
$49.99 (after rebate). The best deal I can find now is a 250gB OEM drive
for $79.99 (after rebate).

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1265028&sku=THD-250A

That link will probably wrap badly but I'm sure you can figure out how
to unwrap it if you want to take a look.

 

[BlastUK]

not sure about samsung but wd and seagate have very good reputations in
being reliable drives.. i can tell you to stay away from maxtor,
hitachi and possibly ibm though

 

[philo]

The manufacturers you've mentioned are all reliable and have been in the
business for years. What you're asking is for a fortune teller to tell you
that one particular manufacturer is mountains over the other, and it
simply isn't so. If you'd like to base your decision on warranty then
Seagate has the longest of the three, five years.
The real best advice I can offer you is to back up your data. Get an
external drive and Acronis True Image and you can happily not worry about
one drive going to heaven and you being left screaming ,"Why didn't I get
the other drive instead!"

Excellent advice...
In addition to what was said...
it's a good idea to burn cd's or DVD's too!

 

[RBM]

I too have had excellent results with Seagate drives and currently have nine
of them running in six PC's I've had other brands fail on me, but so far
I've never lost a Seagate. Having said that, I also do what Jan Alter
recommends, that's your best insurance

 

[Mat]

Hi,
Thank for your advice!
I do back up part of my data on USB disk regurlarly.
Regards,
Mat

 

[Mat]

Hi,
Thanks for your advice!
I will start again burning CD:s as well.
But how you can get rid of the old CDs safely?
Regards,
Mat

 

[Mat]

Hi,
Thanks for your advice!
I have heard good things said about Seagate from elswhere too.
Regards,
Mat

 

[Mat]

Hi,
Thanks! This info I was looking for!
Regards,
Mat

 

[Mat]

Hi,
Thanks! I've heard good things said about Seagate from elsewhere too.
Regards,
Mat

 

[kony]

Hi,
Thanks for your advice!
I will start again burning CD:s as well.
But how you can get rid of the old CDs safely?

Is the data a matter of national security or will any lazy
method of destruction suffice? Scratch a nail across the
surface, or put them in the microwave for a few seconds. I
like mine more with cheese and salsa on the side.

 

[kony]

Hi,

Which hard drive unit you recommend as a 2nd hard drive unit for HP
Pavilion model A240, which has as 1st drive 80 GB Western Digital
EIDE WD Caviar P/N=WD800AB-22CBA1.

My wish is to have very reliable hard drive.

Which of these is the most reliable? WesterDigital, Seagate or
Samsung.
The capacity should be about 160 - 200 GB with EIDE.
Is Western Digital Caviar 200GB EIDE 7200rpm reliable?

The OS is WinXP

Primarily, avoid rough handling of any make of drive. That
not only includes your handling, but that of the shipper...
if UPS plays soccer with your boxes then buy one locally.

There is no significant difference in reliablility of modern
name brands. Anecdotal evidence of random past-generation
drives cannot be used to generalize about current models.
IF there is any problem areas on current generations, we
will not be able to pinpoint them except in retrospect, at
least a couple years from now.

Your primary concern (beyond pre-installation handling)
should be the amount of cooling your HP case provides. Some
of them have a pair of vertically oriented rack frames
attached to the front wall of the case, and only do a
passible job of cooling one drive, but cannot cool a 2nd
(inner) drive very well. Thus, the best strategy for 2nd
drive cooling may be installation in a 5 1/4" bay with
adapter/frame, but not one with intake pusher fans.

Intake fans in this location will reduce the already-low
passive intake past the bottom drive. Your case might not
have this design problem, but many of the HP cases do- they
simply aren't good for more than one drive.

 

[Paul Murphy]

not sure about samsung but wd and seagate have very good reputations in
being reliable drives.. i can tell you to stay away from maxtor,
hitachi and possibly ibm though

As a person who has used Samsung HDDs for a couple of years now, they have a
reputation for being very quiet (on the whole the best in this regard from
what I've read) and although they dont have the 5 year warranty that Seagate
provide with some drives, here in the UK their retail models come with 3
year warranties and represent good value. I have 4 in a RAID 10 setup in the
machine I'm using to create this post and they are hardly audible. The only
possible "problem" is that current models max out at 250 GB so aren't
available in the huge sizes that the others offer. If 250 GB is enough for
this HP Pavilion though then Samsung is worth considering.

Paul

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

Which hard drive unit you recommend as a 2nd hard drive unit

The $20 (after $60 in rebates) 120GB one from Fry's/Outpost.com

Or the $40 AR one from Best Buy, if your mobo BIOS supports > 137GB
(it's 160GB), or buy a $10-20 PCI IDE card (see www.pricewatch.com) to
handle it.

www.salescircular.com lists local store sales but usually leaves out
Fry's deals, which you can see at www.myoc.com or
http://newspaperads.dfw.com (exact ad varies by city).

Whatever you get is going to be a lot cheaper than the cheapest data
recovery.

Mount the second drive at least 0.5" away from anything else to keep it
cool, and either blow air over its electronics or mount it vertically.