Another mirrored Seagate drive died in my main home computer. I've replaced it now and the mirror is busily rebuilding. At some point, I'll check the serial number and find out whether it was the older drive that failed or whether the new one experienced infant mortality.
My data is anecdotal and far below the CI to rise out of the noise, but the only two drives that I've had fail catastrophically on me in the last 10 years have both been Seagates, despite the fact that the vast majority of drives in our house are Western Digital. I only buy WD drives. The two Seagates that failed were two of the three that came in computers that we purchased (one desktop, one laptop). Probably a dozen WD drives and no failures, 3 Seagates and 2 failures.
The pendulum has always seemed to swing on this. When I was building PCs for a living we'd spend a year where we wouldn't order someone a Seagate even if they asked, they were so crappy. Then they'd clean up their act and WD would go to pot. They're all better than the best of them were back then, but for the last few years I've not had trouble with WD. Anecdotal though of course.
I was losing Maxtors, which caused me to continue the switch I'd made to Western Digital.
And in a mirrored pair, it might be a good idea to stagger the ages of the drives; if a pair was bought at the same time, maybe move one to another job after six months and put a new one in place. Otherwise, I wonder if it wouldn't be like my headlights, where when one failed, the other would generally go within a week.
I only buy WD drives. The two Seagates that failed were two of the three that came in computers that we purchased (one desktop, one laptop). Probably a dozen WD drives and no failures, 3 Seagates and 2 failures.
Edited at 2011-09-16 12:44 am (UTC)
Of course, before I started buying Seagates, I lost a bunch of Western Digital drives. ;)
They're all better than the best of them were back then, but for the last few years I've not had trouble with WD. Anecdotal though of course.
And in a mirrored pair, it might be a good idea to stagger the ages of the drives; if a pair was bought at the same time, maybe move one to another job after six months and put a new one in place. Otherwise, I wonder if it wouldn't be like my headlights, where when one failed, the other would generally go within a week.