[ale] OT: HW failure

[Calvin Harrigan]

>
> Not to start an OT 'get down on Maxtor' thread (yeah, sure ;), I get
> the impression that they haven't changed much in QC over the yrs. Back
> when they made 540MB hds, when that was the latest cat's meow by
> pushing the DOS/BIOS/etc limit, I went through three exchanges of those
> myself. Haven't bought one since and never will (albeit freebies of any
> size I have never turned down ;). I still to this day read a lot of
> anectodal negative stuff per their perceived failure rates. I have to
> wonder if even part of what I read is true, what kinds of failure rates
> does Maxtor actually have, and if they really suck, how are they are
> still in business with all the bad 'press'? (Answer: cheap?) Is there a
> non-commercially affiliated site that quantifies brands of hds as to
> MTBF etc?
>
> Seems I've personally had pretty good luck with Quantum, and Seagate in
> general hasn't been too bad.
> -fgz
>
Funny you should mention that, I've had similar experiences with WD.  Returned 
a 1.6 Gig 6 times!  Sold it the last time.  This was all within 1 year.  I 
have sworn off WD's.  I'm sure someone can bring a similar argument for just 
about any other brand.  In drives that I have used I would rate them in the 
following order from most reliable to least.

Quantum (Conner?)
Seagate
IBM
Samsung
Maxtor
Fujitsu
Western Digital


One last note, heat seems to kill a lot of drives.  Make sure that your drives 
are properly ventilated, you know, not stacked one top of each other in a 
regular Mid-Tower case.  I've measure 130 degrees in that space between the 
drives.

Calvin...