On Saturday, December 19, 2015 10:12:22 AM Thomas Mueller wrote: > > I've got 16 3TB WD Reds running 24/7 for a little over 3 years. > > Only had 1 failure (Smart complaining) in that time. > > > > I find that decent odds. > > > > Joost > > I bought a WD Green 3 TB hard drive in May 2011, warranty was then 3 years. > It went bad with errors after 34 months.
My experience with the WD Greens is similar. I don't trust them for important stuff. They don't seem to manage 24/7 usage. > I was able to get a warranty replacement after much hassle, with the > warranty on such drives down to 2 years. > > That replacement hard drive went bad in about seven months, strange sounds > reminiscent of a dialup modem, drive was no longer recognized by the > computer. > > At nearly the same time as the WD Green failure, a 3 TB My Book Essential 3 > TB USB 3.0 hard drive, ordered at the same time as the WD Green drive, went > somewhat bad with errors, but the warranty on that was 2 years. I use the small 2.5" usb-drives from WD succesfully. Only had 1 out of 8 die in the past 5 years. (Didn't bother with usb harddrives before then) > Needing a hard drive for another computer (May 2013), and not trusting WD or > "Green", I ordered a Seagate NAS 4 TB hard drive, figuring increased > reliability compared to Barracuda or Desktop was worth the modest > additional cost. > > That drive is still good as far as I can tell. Most manufacturers have good and bad drives. Just make sure you pick the ones designed for your usage. RAID setups don't like the aggressive powersaving implemented in "green" drives of any brand. > Now I am considering an external hard drive with eSATA, more suitable for OS > installation (Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Haiku?) than USB 3.0. Only brand I > find is Micronet Fantom (GForce), or use Seagate NAS hard drive in an > enclosure with eSATA. > > I really can't see why USB 3.0 is so more widely available than eSATA when > eSATA seems superior as far as I can tell. I think USB 3.0 is cheaper and more common. Only seen the occasional eSATA port on laptops and afaik, eSATA requires a seperate powersupply. USB can supply the power for the drive as well. -- Joost
