Seagate and WD HDD not reliable?

[Joseph22]

from my understanding, cleanroom standards with regards to HDD manufacture are not very hard to meet. i remember it was class 100, 1000 and 10000 and separated with service corridors for contractor access. there are wafer fabs in China making nand (200nm) and also CPUs (90nm and below). if the chinese manufacturing facilities have no problem meeting cleanroom standards for such facilities, HDD manufacturing have little to worry to be honest.

 

for HDD wise, common catastrophic failure result from spindle head failures. In the past, manufacturing was focused on low spin HDDs such as 5400rpm which was the norm. nowadays 7200 and 10000rpm is the norm which heightens wear and tear as well as chances of failure. this fact should not be omitted as well when people complain that HDDs made in thailand and china fail more easily.

 

meeting the cleanroom standard is one thing. the staff maintaining the same standard when no one is watching is another. there are way to increase the yield of the Hard disk by cheating the testing machine.

the reader head can be easily spoilt if there are large particle or (micro) pealing on the surface. and from what i learn as a line engineer there are way to by pass those problem from detected and increasing the yeild.

[Happily1986]

meeting the cleanroom standard is one thing. the staff maintaining the same standard when no one is watching is another. there are way to increase the yield of the Hard disk by cheating the testing machine.

the reader head can be easily spoilt if there are large particle or (micro) pealing on the surface. and from what i learn as a line engineer there are way to by pass those problem from detected and increasing the yeild.

 

actually i am not sure whether Seagate, WD and Maxtor habitually engage OEM contractors to take manufacturing contracts. if thats the case, then what you say could well be true.

[A_nesta84]

Bought a hitachi 500G life studio mobile plus with auto sync 4g USB key free 8 g tumb drive for 99 buck . A good deal?

[GTR78]

actually i am not sure whether Seagate, WD and Maxtor habitually engage OEM contractors to take manufacturing contracts. if thats the case, then what you say could well be true.

 

FYI

 

HDDs assembly is quite a specialised "art", it is not something which can be done by OEM contractors like normal electronic boards (PCBA SMT assembly).

 

There are only 3 HDD makers now, Western Digital, Seagate & Toshiba.

RIP Maxtor and Hitachi.

 

Cheers

[Kiadaw]

FYI

 

HDDs assembly is quite a specialised "art", it is not something which can be done by OEM contractors like normal electronic boards (PCBA SMT assembly).

 

There are only 3 HDD makers now, Western Digital, Seagate & Toshiba.

RIP Maxtor and Hitachi.

 

Cheers

What happen to Maxtor?

 

My Maxtor network drive is still working even after more than 5 years. My WD network HD drive ( about 2 years old) is also doing ok.

 

I had 2 samung ext harddisk drive, all die prematually, so I avoid Samung.

[Babyt]

now Lemon Law applies...anything we buy n spolit can return 1 for 1 within 6mths?

Edited March 11, 2012 by Babyt

[Happily1986]

FYI

 

HDDs assembly is quite a specialised "art", it is not something which can be done by OEM contractors like normal electronic boards (PCBA SMT assembly).

 

There are only 3 HDD makers now, Western Digital, Seagate & Toshiba.

RIP Maxtor and Hitachi.

 

Cheers

 

i believe there is contract manufacturing. During the time when IBM was still making HDDs, there was such a practice existing.

 

Example of a contract manufacturer

[Happily1986]

What happen to Maxtor?

 

My Maxtor network drive is still working even after more than 5 years. My WD network HD drive ( about 2 years old) is also doing ok.

 

I had 2 samung ext harddisk drive, all die prematually, so I avoid Samung.

 

Bought over by Seagate. Days of Maxtor and Quantum are long over.

[Relacklabrudder]

buy SSD lor

[GTR78]

i believe there is contract manufacturing. During the time when IBM was still making HDDs, there was such a practice existing.

 

Example of a contract manufacturer

 

Thanks for the heads up, this is new info for me.

 

Cheers

[VellfireS]

The notebook can't detect the external HDD when plug in, tested it on another notebook, same problem, can't detect the External HDD

 

Performing safe removal is important, even for thumb drives, else data can get corrupted.

I'll be honest.. I never bother to do the safe remove.. damn..

[Happily1986]

Thanks for the heads up, this is new info for me.

 

Cheers

 

you're very much welcome. we are all here to learn from each other.

[Singaporeclubau]

 

if segate and wd not reliable then what is reliable? together they corner more than 61% of world hdd market.

 

if you external desktop hdd, not working most prob the USB/SATA adaptor is the problem. not the hdd itself

 

Remove it from the hdd case and plug it straight into the computer.

 

just google how to disassemble wd elements desktop hdd on google and many intstructions on the internet to teach u how to do

 

good luck.

 

[GTR78]

Yes, agreed, present NAND Flash endurance (read write cycles) still have some way to go before they are on par with spinning disk magnetic HDDs.

But NAND Flash technology (34nm, 25nm, 2x nm?) is developing at a very rapid pace.

Magnetic HDD also have a distinct edge when it comes to cost per megabyte. For now. With better MLC (Multi Level Cell) SSD or even TLC (Triple Level Cell), it is just a matter of time before NAND Flash data density begans to rival spinning magnetic disks.

 

What SSDs can offer now is blistering speed, hence probably tier zero usage in servers (used in Financial markets perhaps.) A properly developed system will still require HDDs for long term data storage.

SSDs are resilent to shock and knocks, there is no head to smash onto the media. They are useful in mobile devices like laptops and tablets.

 

The high price of SSDs is not a problem to some people, especially to those selling it =)

 

Cheers

 

SSD is not just expensive, it also has relative limited no. of writes compared to HDD. Performance yes, continual 24/7 use, limited.

 

[Darkblue]

Assembling more than 300 PCs, Hitachi HDD is the worst lot.

 

Overall, failure rates is the highest, and warranty (RMA) claims is the longest.

[Happily1986]

if segate and wd not reliable then what is reliable? together they corner more than 61% of world hdd market.

 

if you external desktop hdd, not working most prob the USB/SATA adaptor is the problem. not the hdd itself

 

Remove it from the hdd case and plug it straight into the computer.

 

just google how to disassemble wd elements desktop hdd on google and many intstructions on the internet to teach u how to do

 

good luck.

 

market share does not tell you anything about reliability. Truth be told, the vast majority of HDDs sold are OEM, bundled onto pre-assembled systems as opposed to retail versions where you tell the guy at the counter what you want. So you can tell Dell or Alienware what brand of HDD you want?

 

The problem does not lie with the USB adapter/cable. Rather it is the piece of PCB and the enclosure itself which is relatively new when compared to the maturity of HDD technology.