[Ham-Computers] Looking for a Reliable 500 GB Hard Drive

[Jim Hill]

As the subject says, I’m looking for a reliable hard drive.

I currently use external hard drives, one for 
each computer, to back up data.  A pair of USB 
flash drives is used for sensitive personal data.

I have read many comments about not relying on 
one external hard drive for backups; back up the 
first with a second drive.  Although I have not 
had any hard drive failures using about 10 
drives, these comments made sense.  I decided to 
purchase a single 500 GB external hard drive for 
a master backup of all important files.

After looking for a reliable drive, I can see the 
reason for these suggestions.  I can’t find a 
reliable drive, at least when using my criteria. 
I looked for a reliable 500 GB SATA hard drive by 
checking ratings at Newegg and 
Amazon.com.  First, I thought I would select hard 
drives with many purchasers for better 
statistical data, count the number of one and two 
ball ratings, divide by total number who supplied 
ratings, and multiply by 100 and get an approximate failure rate.

I figured some poor ratings may have been caused 
by not honoring rebates, bad experiences with 
customer support, etc., so I read many 
reviews.  Many people received replacement drives 
and these failed, too – sometimes they went 
through five or more drives.  There were plenty 
of comments such as  - I have used Western 
Digital for years with excellent success but 
after returning two and having a doubtful third 
drive, I’ll use Seagate in the future.  If I 
review Seagate drives, I see the same type 
comment with the words Seagate and Western 
Digital reversed.  I probably need to find a 
drive manufactured in Japan or Taiwan, but how can I find one?

I originally looked for an external drive, but 
with the reliability issues.  I decided to buy an 
external drive enclosure and drive 
separately.  That approach has its problems, as 
most enclosures are for EIDE drives and current 
drives are SATA.  I finally decided to buy an 
Antec MX-100 enclosure, but am ready to give up 
on finding a suitable drive. I am beginning to 
think the best approach is to buy two enclosures 
and use a 160 and 200 GB drive I have in a drawer.

I would appreciate any suggestions, particularly 
from those of you who purchase many drives.  My 
first choice of a vendor is Newegg, due to their 
30 day return policy, and generally good comments from the reviewers.


I’ll end with two other questions, where do you 
find SMART?  A number of those supplying ratings 
used it to evaluate a drive.  Googling, I found 
it is supplied by some computer vendors as part 
of a computer purchase, a third party selling the 
program, and a command line statement, 
unfortunately for UNIX.  I use Dell computers and Win XP.

One reviewer said a drive wouldn’t run 
VISTA.  Does VISTA have special requirements?

Jim