[Mighty Hetfield]

I ordered an IBM 75GXP 75 GB a few days ago, when about a week later, I was informed my order was canceled because the product was discontinued. Although I initially thought IBM would be replacing this model with a new line, I found out they're taking the drive out of the market. A class action suit was filed as apparently an enormous number of drives apparently just died out. CheckTech Report .I really think the stuff hit the fan now.
So here's the question: Since IBM might be under heat for a while (and since there's no 60GXP bigger than 60GB) I wonder which drive you think is the best ? Western Digital (7200rpm 80GB) or Seagate Barracuda IV (7200rpm 80GB)? Just let me know how your experiences went with these brands. And, oh by the way, I'm not too crazy about Maxtor (a couple of drives I had dried) but if you really had a good experience with them, feel free to post.
Thanks folks!

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

I still perfer IBMs myself, to all other brands. However, I've had good expeiences with both Western Digital and Seagate. I had and know of Maxtors going blooey all over the place lately-- so I'm really wary of them, though some I've owned for years without incident. At work, we've had about 5 of them, 40 to 60 gig in new G4 Macs go tits-up and take valuable data with them, leading me to believe there was a bad batch. I personally had one go blooey on me in my work G4 667 about a week after I got it, it started making a ticking noise like a clock, and prompty died. I rescused the most irreplaceable of data off of it myself though, freezing it and throwing it in a mobile rack before it thawed out and destroyed itself permanantly.

Anyway, I digress. It's been my experience that Western Digital drives are okay. I have several I've been using for years with no problems. Seagates I find to be amoung the noisest of harddrives I've used, but as for data reliability, no real compalaints. I'd go with whichever brand has the better price, and is more user-recommended than the other, however slight, as either will probably suit you just fine.

[nana2]

Check out the 100GB WD drive, if you can afford it.

WD---?? yuk..poo

My new 80 gig Seagate Cuda 380021A is very nice indeed, fast and completly silent.
My second choice would be an IBM 60GXP-btw 75GXP's were discontinued 2 months ago, must still be some inventory around i guess.

Laiterz
Targon

[SpeedRacer]

Question... dont' ALL manufacturers have somewhat cheap/bad models? Isn't it ultimately more important to consider a particular manufacturer's specific model falls in their full lineup than blanketly stating that X manufacturer is better/worse than another?

I hadn't heard about the IBM recall, but have heard that WD had some pretty serious failure issues several years back just as i've been reading (lately) that the new 100GB drive is a marvel of speed and performance.

Speed

[itai195]

Well I'm not familiar with either of those drives personally but I do have one thing to say. AVOID WESTERN DIGITAL! I've had three WD hard drives die on me. One was a few years ago, a very old 800MB drive. One was a 5GB drive. And the last one to go was a 30GB firewire drive. I'd like to consider myself pretty computer savvy, so I doubt these drives died prematurely through any action of mine...

IBM's drives still seem best to me, though yes that class action business sounds pretty rough... I've really always had a good experience with Maxtor personally... including a 4 year old 8GB drive that's still breathing. Never had a problem with a Seagate drive, they seem rather reliable.

[ 10-25-2001: Message edited by: itai195 ]

[FormerLurker]

Running 2 of the WD 7200 80s in my G4/450 DP.

Awesome. Very quiet, hardly noticible over the G4's fan.

Fat and Fast, and less than $195 at newegg.com

No recent experience with Seagates, but more than one " if i have to reformat it just ONE more time, I'm gonna go drop this drive from the top of a hi-rise" experience with them in the past.