Which drive sould I get?

[Torchizard]

I've recently been looking for a high-capacity 3.5" external drive for use as both backup and 'casual' storage for use in a USB3 case. I've been looking at different manufacturers' websites and I can't decide which drive I should get. Does anyone have any suggestions about which drive would be good?

Also, with the amount of Seagate drive failure-related topics on this forum, have their drives dropped in quality or something?

[jaclaz]

I've recently been looking for a high-capacity 3.5" external drive for use as both backup and 'casual' storage for use in a USB3 case. I've been looking at different manufacturers' websites and I can't decide which drive I should get. Does anyone have any suggestions about which drive would be good?

Also, with the amount of Seagate drive failure-related topics on this forum, have their drives dropped in quality or something?

Easy.

Get TWO of the cheapest ones you can find.

You are not looking for "top performers" in speed, cache, access times or whatever, actually the slower they are the lower is the probability they will break, also, the smaller they are the more chances you have they won't break soon.

The issue with Seagate drives (the one that "made the numbers") was/is limited to a specific model, the 7200.11, and similar issues affected only a much smaller amount of the later 7200.12 model.

Seagate did a terrible job, both in the engineering/firmware AND in the support (particularly this latter), but no disk manufacturer is immune from this.

Since the 2011 "big merge":

http://www.seagate.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/seagate-completes-aquisition-samsungs-hdd-business-pr/

it is not like you have that many choices:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163189-hard-drive-controller-errors-abound-atapi-event-11/

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163189-hard-drive-controller-errors-abound-atapi-event-11/?p=1041845

If you set aside Toshiba, you can use flippism alright (an approach that has proved being very accurate whenever a hard disk is involved):

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/153191-does-copying-several-giga-bytes-on-a-daily-base-screw-the-hard-drive/

to choose between Seagate and Western Digital.

Redundancy is the only solution.

Redundancy is the only solution.

Redundancy is the only solution.

jaclaz

[Torchizard]

What do you mean by "flippism"? Do you mean having an extra drive handy if the other fails?

[Ponch]

He means flipping a coin to take the decision, as the expression is used in the linked thread. The problem with Jaclaz is that his links lead to threads that contain posts he wrote, that contain links that lead to threads that contain links that... well, you know.

He means no one can really tell you which brand is best because the fail rate according to people owning a small amount of drives are irrelevant but according to people owning a lot of drives, they are *really* unpredictable. Only which method is best can be advised.

[jaclaz]

BTW flippism is a term duly registered (and explained) in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipism

Seriously, whenever chances near (like in 40% or 60%) the 50% mark, i.e. there is not a definite or reliable enough answer, flipping a coin is as accurate as actually choosing, with the not-so-trifling advantage that on average (i.e. roughly 50% of times ) when you get what reveals itself as the "wrong" choice, you don't have to blame yourself , but you can blame bad luck, or the Devil for it.

This helps in living a better life .

@Ponch

If you choose the RED PILL (coincidentally a 50% probability ), you should be aware that the rabbit hole may be deeper than expected:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pill_and_blue_pill

jaclaz

Edited November 6, 2013 by jaclaz

[Ponch]

How is this red-pill-blue-pillism a 50% probability ? Said who ?...The Matrix....1999? It seems to me that William laid the concept 376 years sooner.

[jaclaz]

How is this red-pill-blue-pillism a 50% probability ? Said who ?...The Matrix....1999? It seems to me that William laid the concept 376 years sooner.

Actually Julius Cesar did the same some 2000 years earlier, the alea iacta est is not that much different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alea_iacta_est

by crossing the Rubicon he (and all his army) had a 50% probability of winning (and surviving) and a 50% of losing (and thus dying) the battle to gain the control of Rome.

And I suspect it wasn't even then much original, as long before that it had been already stated, Ecclesiastes 1:9:

That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun..

jaclaz

[Ponch]

I'm not sure what you try to say here, "crossing the Rubicon" is an expression that indicates taking a decision from which you can't go back and that could potentially have important consequences. It has nothing to do with a 50% probability of being right or wrong nor with the "blue pill / red pill" or the "to be or not to be" concepts (which I linked). I'm sure this won't stop you though.

[jaclaz]

I'm not sure what you try to say here, "crossing the Rubicon" is an expression that indicates taking a decision from which you can't go back and that could potentially have important consequences. It has nothing to do with a 50% probability of being right or wrong nor with the "blue pill / red pill" or the "to be or not to be" concepts (which I linked). I'm sure this won't stop you though.

The accent was not on "crossing the Rubicon" it was on what was said while doing it.

Alea jacta esto has many points in common with "to be or not to be", the latter is a doubt, the former is the plain declaration that what will happen (which is "to be or not to be" or "to win or loose" or "live or die") largely depends on the Fates, and the probabilities were actually very near 50%.

There are two meanings of that sentence, one is "once you have thrown the dice, you are playing" or "no way back", but this comes from the common translation "The die is cast", coming from the elision of the o in Alea jacta esto, the other comes from the more correct philological translation from the original greek (yes, in Cesar's times they spoke mainly Greek and not yet Latin) that translates more correctly as "Let the die be cast!", or "Let the game be ventured!".

Flippism is about randomness and probabilities, as the cast of the die is.

Hamlet's doubts as well as the Matrix's RED pill are about choosing between two options (and the decision is made without the intervention of probabilities).

jaclaz

[dencorso]

A more colloquial translation of alea jacta esto is simply "game on!" (which keeps the probabilistic aspect undertone quite nicely)...