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Oh my god. This isn’t true. There was one type of seagate drives that had a reliability issue and backblaze happened to have a bunch of them. Do you realize ho

Oh my god. This isn’t true. There was one type of seagate drives that had a reliability issue and backblaze happened to have a bunch of them. Do you realize how many different models there are, customized for different workloads? Do you realize how many different sets of firmware there are? It’s like saying Honda has shit cars because one model year had a problem.

AlexandrB 7y ago
Of the last 4 Seagate drives I purchased[1] 2 failed in less than 1 year - one failing after a week(!) of use. This is pure anecdote, but I don't have a lot of confidence in Seagate's quality. [1] These were bought from 3 different retailers at slightly different times, so it's not a "bad batch" either.
lallysingh 7y ago
For a brand: P(problem | brand A) is the question. If Brand A has one product that's garbage, then selecting Brand A is now more risky.
Felger 7y ago
I've been selling and doing DR on HDD for 20 years now, and frankly speaking, Seagate drives reliability isn't the best. Numerous new technologies led to severe issues like : 5400.6/7200.4 platter dust issues killing heads the more they heat, the infamous LBA 0 fw issue on desktop drives, motor bearing seizure on 7200.10/12, lots of bad batchs on 7200.14 ST DM001/002/003, more than WD or even Hitachi. On SAS drives, the Cheetah 15K.x are not very reliable (replaced LOTS of ST3600057SS), but the Fujitsu and Hitachi are not very either. Toshiba drives are not great either. The 2.5" MK series had an important return rate, more than the competitors. The MQ01ABD is better, but faces platters demagnetization that leads to bad sectors. The 3.5" ACA drives are a Hitachi prod line that was "given" to Toshiba when WD acquired HGST. They are quite basically Hitachi drives with a Toshiba firmware. Edit : and now DR on Seagate drives like the Rosewood family (like the ST1000LM035) is the absolute worst nighmare for any data recovery guy. Ultra brittle head stack, easy platter damage when shocked, self encrypted firmware and SMR. If those disks makes some motor noise or head clicking, we don't even bother to open them anymore.
- wolfhumble 7y ago
  What would you buy for your own NAS? :-)
  - Felger 7y ago
    A mixed set of PMR drives ready for 24/24 usage. And f*cking reliable, frequent backups. Customers here often mistake redondancy for backups. Had to save a 8 years-work worth excel file on a failed Kingston USB key today.
    - wolfhumble 7y ago
      Okay, thanks.
- effie 7y ago
  Thanks for lots of valuable information, finally someone who has some data not just a story. Could you please share more? Any source on Toshiba ACA being made using HGST tech? What do you think about reliability of helium drives? On paper they should fare much better than air drives.

AlexandrB 7y ago

Of the last 4 Seagate drives I purchased[1] 2 failed in less than 1 year - one failing after a week(!) of use. This is pure anecdote, but I don't have a lot of confidence in Seagate's quality. [1] These were bought from 3 different retailers at slightly different times, so it's not a "bad batch" either.

lallysingh 7y ago

For a brand: P(problem | brand A) is the question. If Brand A has one product that's garbage, then selecting Brand A is now more risky.

Felger 7y ago

I've been selling and doing DR on HDD for 20 years now, and frankly speaking, Seagate drives reliability isn't the best. Numerous new technologies led to severe issues like : 5400.6/7200.4 platter dust issues killing heads the more they heat, the infamous LBA 0 fw issue on desktop drives, motor bearing seizure on 7200.10/12, lots of bad batchs on 7200.14 ST DM001/002/003, more than WD or even Hitachi. On SAS drives, the Cheetah 15K.x are not very reliable (replaced LOTS of ST3600057SS), but the Fujitsu and Hitachi are not very either. Toshiba drives are not great either. The 2.5" MK series had an important return rate, more than the competitors. The MQ01ABD is better, but faces platters demagnetization that leads to bad sectors. The 3.5" ACA drives are a Hitachi prod line that was "given" to Toshiba when WD acquired HGST. They are quite basically Hitachi drives with a Toshiba firmware. Edit : and now DR on Seagate drives like the Rosewood family (like the ST1000LM035) is the absolute worst nighmare for any data recovery guy. Ultra brittle head stack, easy platter damage when shocked, self encrypted firmware and SMR. If those disks makes some motor noise or head clicking, we don't even bother to open them anymore.

wolfhumble 7y ago
What would you buy for your own NAS? :-)
- Felger 7y ago
  A mixed set of PMR drives ready for 24/24 usage. And f*cking reliable, frequent backups. Customers here often mistake redondancy for backups. Had to save a 8 years-work worth excel file on a failed Kingston USB key today.
  - wolfhumble 7y ago
    Okay, thanks.
effie 7y ago
Thanks for lots of valuable information, finally someone who has some data not just a story. Could you please share more? Any source on Toshiba ACA being made using HGST tech? What do you think about reliability of helium drives? On paper they should fare much better than air drives.