Which 2TB Hard Drive?

SoildSnake

SoildSnake

SoildSnake

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Hey guys i have narrowed my choices to the following: Price is not an issue. But i need something quiet and very reliable. Bit concerned about the firmware issue of the Samsung (i dont like the idea of having to update it myself). Also concerned with the failing drives that have plagued Segate in recent past. And the WD may be the slowest of the three and i want a fairly fast drive. Any help appreciated

Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s - £60

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB - £67

Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA-II 64MB Cache - £70
 
I have 3 of the WD Caviar Green's, perfect for storage of photos etc, when speed isn't an issue, quiet, cool, and low power. You should look into the idle issue they have where the heads park after 8 seconds of inactivity, easily changed but a pain regardless!
 
Benihana said:
I have 3 of the WD Caviar Green's, perfect for storage of photos etc, when speed isn't an issue, quiet, cool, and low power. You should look into the idle issue they have where the heads park after 8 seconds of inactivity, easily changed but a pain regardless!
Click to expand...

Does that issue only occur among the 2TBs or does it occur with the 1TBs as well?
 
Yeah that was another reason why i want to avoid WD. I may be using this drive pretty much constantly, watching videos, streaming, Virtual machine use etc. My preference would be the Samsung or the Segate; but it seems BOTH have firmware issues?
 
The utility you run to fix it says it supports these drives:

WD20EADS, WD20EARS, WD15EADS, WD15EARS, WD10EADS, WD10EARS, WD8000AARS, WD7500AADS, WD7500AARS, WD6400AADS, WD6400AARS, WD5000AADS, WD5000AARS

So I assume that it effects the 1TB version as well, I can't be sure! You can check the amount of LCC's in something like HD Tune.
 
Benihana, I was planning on getting a 1TB WD Caviar Green. What is the utility called that has the fix?

Or should I just go for the Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm?
 
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Call the police my threads been hijacked!

So which would people recommend the Segate 2TB or the Samsung 2TB; for constant use in a caddy, quit, reliable and fairly fast. Thanks
 
bledd. said:
Buy two and keep the data on both

Samsung or WD, that's what I always stick to
Click to expand...

This.

Although i tend to buy more WDs, as i like their 'advanced rma' service - they still come from Hungry but the process takes less than a week. WD's regular rma isn't as fast as Samsungs as Samsung's whole rma procedure is UK based. And as a result, sometimes, even they can receive, test and send out a new hdd in less than a week.
 
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There is 2 version of Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA-II 64MB Cache see below.

WD20EARS-00MVWB0 - this is the old ver. and timer is active.I believe Ocuk stock is this one, I bought one and got this ver. so had to disable the timer.

WD20EARS-60MVWB0 - this is the new ver. and the timer is disabled.
 
Setting the timer is easy enough. Just bung it on a bootable USB/CD drive, load it and a few seconds later you are done. I set mine to five minutes delay from the 8 seconds default.

I didn't know whether it was a big problem for my WD20EARS drive but did it anyway before it had a chance to count up too much.

I did consider getting another brand but chose to stick with WD because they've served me well so far.
 
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I would prefer to stick with Samsung or Segate; so if people are recommending Samsung or WD ill probably go for Samsung. Does anyone know what version of the Samsungs overclocks stock because i don't want to have to mess around with firmware updates etc.

Also why no recommendations for Segate; are they not reliable any more? Thanks
 
i have a few of the western digital caviar green 2tb drives. Win7 'forgot' on of the drives for a day or so but aside form that iv had 6months of trouble free use. I dont notice any slowing (but will investigate the 8second inactivity thing anyway). 2 of the drives are at 90% + (hence im on this thread looking for new recomendations) and i am accesing them often as well as using one as a holding area. Windows tells me they transfer between each other @ 100 to 130MB/s wich seems pretty fast to me.
For what its worth,

Highly recomended.
 
WD Green would be my choice,but im a bit biased as i wont buy any other HDD manufacturer,WD have simply been so reliable for me over the years.

Also there RMA service is superb.
 
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Their RMA service is indeed fantastic. You get your replacement drive within a week and you can recover as much of your old data as possible to it before sending your dead drive back. Costs less than £4 to post the dead drive too (assuming Royal Mail Recorded Delivery with a 4 platter drive).
 
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I'm getting the seagate as its cheaper,i only buy seagate and wd (no issues ..see my sig) only reason not getting the wd is the head parking
 
AtaRo said:
There is 2 version of Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA-II 64MB Cache see below.

WD20EARS-00MVWB0 - this is the old ver. and timer is active.I believe Ocuk stock is this one, I bought one and got this ver. so had to disable the timer.

WD20EARS-60MVWB0 - this is the new ver. and the timer is disabled.
Click to expand...

The new WD20EARS-60MVWB0 comes with a new problem where it dont show the temp of the drive for some reason.
 
I went for the Seagate 'green' drive. Most reviews showed it out-performed a lot of other 2TB drives, which is impressive considering its 5900rpm spin speed.
 
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