Opinions on Simple Tech?

[HotHolly]

It appears that another drive has failed. Same brand as last time. Its actually the drive they sent to replace the one that had the total failure.

Has anyone else had issues with this brand (SimpleTech)? I didn't think they had a horrible reputation, but after this I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

[Ahh!]

SimpleTech - no. I stay with Seagate...because I can't remember the last time I had one fail.

Sorry to hear about the failure.

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by phorn45

Sorry to hear about the failure.

Yea me too. Didn't loose anything, but its gonna totally suck to be down a drive while they trade this out for another one. 2 times in a row in less than 6 months. Do I just have a blackthumb for drives or what?

[HotHolly]

OK, since I have to go buy a new drive anyway (while this one is down) - what brands do you guys trust? I realize there is a % of failure for each co., but any opinions on what brand you use & trust would be great!

Seagate was mentioned...any others?

[Debbi]

Ditto on Seagate. I've never had one fail.

[Mike G]

I've had failures from all drive manufacturers .. more from Seagate then others though

[CobyPhoto]

I am not a big fan of Seagate or Maxtor. Had more failures on those than any other. I prefer Western Digital. I have WD drives in my machines that have been in use for close to 8 years without problem.

CJ

[Redmouse]

Originally Posted by Mike G

I've had failures from all drive manufacturers .. more from Seagate then others though

Same here. To be honest, I didn't know Simple Tech made HD's. Are they re-badged?

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by Redmouse

Same here. To be honest, I didn't know Simple Tech made HD's. Are they re-badged?

I think the guts are made by Toshiba.

[shutterflypro]

you might want to look into one of these:

www.drobo.com

i have two of them in my studio and they are great.

[Ahh!]

Holly, there are some other threads on this subject, but I have over 15 years of experience with Seagate, WD, and Maxtor. A Maxtor happens to be in my recycle bin right now. I have 18 drives spinning right now, not counting laptops. Of all of those, I have had replacements for all brands except Seagate (10 up and running right now). Over the years, I have probably replaced 8 or 9 drives due to failure before the equipment became outdated.

Drives will fail. So you have to have a plan that includes that fact.

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by phorn45

Drives will fail. So you have to have a plan that includes that fact.

Well, I know that...but failing 2x in a 6 month window? Should I expect that to be normal? When you guys are talking about drive failure, isn't it a little less frequent than that?

[Dobick]

I have experienced drive failures of every brand that I have ever used.

When building a system for high use like servers, I almost always purchase seagate.

Hard drives fail...
In the same way that when you go to shoot an assignment (like a wedding) you always have a spare/backup system, I don't think that it is too out of line to expect that other mission critical systems would have a backup plan in place, such as maybe having an extra hard drive readily available. Either in house, or have the name of a good computer shop that you know will have a replacement available at a moments notice.

[adirty1]

Hitachi drives are really IBM drives just with a new owner and are a great price per gig..

Something to think about when you send back a drive. YOU are not getting a NEW drive back but a refurbished one.

Hitachi is my choice of drives mostly unless your talking scsi drives then it's all about seagate cheetahs that are the old quantum Atlas drives.

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by adirty1

Something to think about when you send back a drive. YOU are not getting a NEW drive back but a refurbished one.

That seems to be an issue.

We have several other smaller drives here that have been issue free. Before this, I had a drive go down about every 2 years or so. I bought this big huge drive thinking it would be helpful to have all that extra storage. ha ha ha. Its never here to use it! 30 days after I bought it was the 1st failure - gone for about 2 months - finally got the replacement from the company and now its down again.

Short version, I'm going to replace this one with a new one, and use this one as a Christmas tree stand or something. Bigger is not better.