[oclug] WD hard drive

[Milan Budimirovic]

Robert Charbonneau wrote:
> 
> On October 3, 2002 05:32 am, Mike Roy wrote:
> > Hello everyone:
> >       I'm thinking of upgrading my hard drive (currently 10 GB) to something
> > much larger and the current Future Shop (www.futureshop.ca) flyer lists a
> > Western Digital 60 GB / 7200 RPM unit for $139.99, claiming a saving of $60
> > (no mention of rebates in the flyer). However, if you go to their web site,
> > the same unit is on sale at the same price but the claim is a savings of
> > only $20 off the $159.99 price! Seems Future Shop missed Math 101.
> >       But, more to the point - has anyone had really good / really bad
> > experiences with Western Digital stuff.  The WD site claims no support for
> > Linux (no surprize there).  I've had really good luck with Quantum HDs and
> > I'd buy another one but I don't want to ignore this sale if WD, even at
> > $140, is a good deal.  Comments anyone?
> > Cheers,
> > Mike
> 
> I wouldn't buy Western Digital if I were you.  Their current generation of
> drives have caused a lot of troubles for quite a few people.  I had a WD
> Caviar die on me recently actually.  I would go for a Maxtor, and you can get
> cheaper prices from somewhere other than Future Shop.  I bought an 80GB
> Maxtor from CompuSmart a while ago for like $150.00 or something like that.
> 

You have to be careful with hard drives nowadays. Because profit margins
are so slim, manufacturers have cut corners in order to reduce
manufacturing costs. By some strange coincidence, all three major IDE
manufacturers announced on the same day that they have reduced their
manufacturers' warranty on new drives to one year. That's a pretty
serious admission that the 3-year failure rates of new drives is much
greater than it once was.