Crwiwy Loc: Devon UK

There has been a lot of discussions on the importance of backing up the computers HDD - which I fully agree with.
However, there has also been several topics posted on HDD's failing.

As my Seagate backup drive is getting near full I am looking for a larger replacement and am inclined towards another Seagate - perhaps 2Tb.

Looking at Amazon reviews I see a lot of people dissatisfied with Seagate due to failures - but there are an equal number dissatisfied with other makes as well for the same reason! :roll:

What then - I ask - are the experiences of other UHH members who regularly use back up drives?

Perhaps between us we may get a better idea whether some are truly better than others. :?:

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I've had four XT HD's and one failure. It failed because it got too full, the guy said. He was able to recover the data, but it was costly. I use Seagate now. The one that failed was a Western Digital.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Get two (different manufacturers), they're cheap enough! A terabyte drive costs me less than a fill-up in Sonoyta on the way into my field area.

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

I have four 4Tb drives, C for programs, F for current work, G for backups of F done automatically daily and H a backup of F done weekly.

I and my son also use this, attached, when we upgrade to larger drives the older ones are used as monthly backups.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dual-2-5-3-5-IDE-SATA-HDD-HARD-DRIVE-DISK-DOCK-DOCKING-STATION-USB-2-0-HUB-/171127840684?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item27d8039fac

Crwiwy Loc: Devon UK

What make(s)?
Any failures?

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

Yes, sorry.

Basic, no frills

The newest is

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4tb-wd-red-wd40efrx-red-sata-6gb-sec-64mb-cache-intellipower-rpm-8ms-ncq-oem-24x7-use

The others are

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4tb-seagate-st4000dm000-desktop-hdd15-35-hdd-sata-iii-6gb-s-5900rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Everything fails, eventually, and occasionally all at once. The prudent photographer covers all the bases. Redundant file saves (to a mirror drive), periodic dumps to a drive kept at your mother-in-law's, cloud storage. Don't count on the NSA to be able to find their copies of your files if you lose them.

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

Ok, Perhaps I am lucky, I have built about 30 PCs in my time, for myself and my sons, and to this day I can tell you that in 20 years all I have had fail is one motherboard.

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

100% you are so right, hence, 4 drives

The system advised is

Backup daily, weekly, and monthly

And YES I have learnt the hard way and still don't do it myself which is why it is now auto.

Also have surge protection, and a UPS where possible.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

Don't buy gas in Sonoita....lol

Crwiwy Loc: Devon UK

That goes without saying. I worked at development in the Aircraft industry for many years and we tested intensively - but aircraft have still had failures.

The question here was - 'what experiences have you had with makes of HDD and any failures?'

Crwiwy Loc: Devon UK

Similarly to yourself I have built several PC's and used them since Windows 2. The only drive I have had fail - to date - was a Weston Digital in my previous machine after about 6 years.

If you are lucky there are warning signs - if you can spot them!

Researching makes certainly helps but naturally is no guarantee.

doduce Loc: Holly Springs NC

[quote=Crwiwy]There has been a lot of discussions on the importance of backing up the computers HDD - which I fully agree with.
However, there has also been several topics posted on HDD's failing.

As my Seagate backup drive is getting near full I am looking for a larger replacement and am inclined towards another Seagate - perhaps 2Tb.

Looking at Amazon reviews I see a lot of people dissatisfied with Seagate due to failures - but there are an equal number dissatisfied with other makes as well for the same reason! :roll:

What then - I ask - are the experiences of other UHH members who regularly use back up drives?

Perhaps between us we may get a better idea whether some are truly better than others. :?:[/ ]

I have 4 Seagates ranging from 500GB to 4TB. All work GREAT.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I use western Digital and had one start to fail Recovered all the photos then Western Digital replaced it free under warranty

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

ANY hard drive will fail eventually - it is a mechanical device. Failure has nothing to do with how much data is stored on it. The drive itself spins at 5200 RPM or faster whenever it is powered up (unless it has a "sleep" mode) and the drive arm goes back and forth rapidly whenever you store or request data. So - it's like an airplane - it's not how many hours in the air that matter for wear and tear as much as how many take-offs and landings. I have had many hard-drives fail, both in-machine and back-up. I find that at 3-4 years you need to be prepared for hard drive failure. So backing up is always important. I installed a Blu-Ray burner ($80) in the computer I just built, and now back-up to BluRay discs, which hold 25GB each. I also have a regular 1TB external drive which I use for automatic backup, plus, I have a mirrored (RAID) drive in the machine itself. The good news is that solid-state drives (SSD), which act much like a thumb-drive, are coming down in price ($180 for 250GB) so soon we will see better in-computer storage with fewer failures (although surge protection will be even more important!).