Seagate Barracuda or WD Blue

[CapriAnupam]

So my old Seagate SATA 1TB HDD died suddenly, without any prior warning. It lasted around 11 years.

I had even tested it with Seagate SeaTools a few months back... had ran a short test and SMART test, and it had passed. So I don't know how it died so suddenly. Was really shocking. I had backup of the data, but it was a few months old, as I wasn't able to take backup because of cataract in my eyes. There wasn't a loss of very important data, as I wasn't operating the computer a lot, but still, any new info I had on my PC was lost.

I had turned on the PC in the morning, and it was running fine. I then turned it on in the evening, and I went to watch TV while it was booting. When I returned back after sometime, the screen was blank with just a cursor flashing. Any attempt to bring PC back via keyboard wasn't successful, and so I hard booted the PC, after which the HDD wasn't detected. Also, strangely, the other old HDD that I had as backup with Windows installed on it, also started giving blue screen error. I thought maybe my system had some problem.

I checked my main 1TB HDD on other systems to see it was detected, but it wasn't. I had hoped that somehow it would be detected on other system, but sadly, it just died. No detection at all, although the hard drive still spins, and gets hot too. Any ways that it can be accessed?

Anyways, I was able to install fresh Windows on my spare hard drive, and so the system is working fine thankfully. It is also 11 years old and I might have to replace it soon.

Before that, I need to run my PC on a fresh HDD, so I have decided to buy a new one. I am working presently from a borrowed PC from a friend, as I don't have a backup PC.

I had inquired about Seagate 2 TB Barracuda 7200 RPM sata HDD from a dealer, and they said it wasn't available in stock and instead offered me WD Blue 2 TB at cheaper price. Although they will get the Seagate one for me on order.

I remember that for a friend of mine, we had purchased WD Blue, and it hadn't lasted very long. This was many years ago though. So, I am not too keen on buying that, as that time WD Blue was really just an entry level low end drive, as a cheaper option. We had got WD Green after that as replacement, and it is running good, but I searched for that drive now, and I see that WD Green is now not available as a PC HDD. Only WD Blue is available as PC HDD now.

I have had good experience with Seagate hard drives, and so my first preference is that, and I will probably go for that.

Just wanted to ask if WD Blue is considered a good drive nowadays? I know some people swear by WD hard drives, but Seagate has been the one for me so far.

 

[napstersquest]

If this is supposed to be a boot drive for Windows, I would strongly recommend getting 1TB SATA drive instead. You don't have to change anything else today, and you can carry it with your new build when you do upgrade your computer.
Even though the PC is 11 years old, you would notice big difference in performance. Price difference nowadays is negligible, and SSD should last longer too (many even come with 5 year warranty)

 

[awestorr]

Last i checked,Seagate didnt have rma in india.
So wd is the natural choice be it ssd or hdd.

 

[CapriAnupam]

If this is supposed to be a boot drive for Windows, I would strongly recommend getting 1TB SATA drive instead. You don't have to change anything else today, and you can carry it with your new build when you do upgrade your computer.

I think you meant SSD 1 TB.

I had considered that option in the recent past after recommendation from people here, for my old PC, as it was running slow. But, I had researched a bit, and the options available for my motherboard were the SSDs, which were on the older side, and so, I wouldn't want to carry that to my newer system, as I would like to go for the latest SSD for it. So, I will just buy a SATA HDD for new, as it will also come useful as a storage drive for the new system.

I do plan to start looking, and planning for a new system now, as like the hard drive, this old system also might die suddenly. It shouldn't, but you never know.

Last i checked,Seagate didnt have rma in india.
So wd is the natural choice be it ssd or hdd.

I don't think that's true. I have got Seagate hard drive replaced in the past. And the Seagate official site too shows Seagate Service Center in my city. Although, I will get it confirmed, if the drive can be replaced if it gets any issue. Seagate is a very popular brand in India, and I don't think it is practically possible, that the faulty drives can't be replaced if they are under warranty. Who will wanna buy Seagate drives then?

 

[napstersquest]

I think you meant SSD 1 TB.

Yes, sorry for the confusion.

options available for my motherboard were the SSDs, which were on the older side

I did not understand that part. Even if your motherboard only supports SATA rev 2, the any latest SATA SSD would still be compatible (even if your PC can't use it's full sequential speed). And sequential speeds have lesser impact on boot drive performance than IOPS or random read/write performance, which will be magnitudes better for any good SATA SSD as compared to SATA HDD.

So, I will just buy a SATA HDD for new, as it will also come useful as a storage drive for the new system.

You can do the same with the SATA SSD, use smaller (250GB NVMe) for boot with new system when you buy that and keep using the SATA SSD you already have.

Last i checked,Seagate didnt have rma in india.
So wd is the natural choice be it ssd or hdd.

Seagate RMA is handled by Inspirysis in India and is very smooth experience. They also allow shipping dead SSDs to them and refund you the cost if nearest service center is too far.

 

[CapriAnupam]

Yes, sorry for the confusion.

No problem.

I did not understand that part. Even if your motherboard only supports SATA rev 2, the any latest SATA SSD would still be compatible (even if your PC can't use it's full sequential speed). And sequential speeds have lesser impact on boot drive performance than IOPS or random read/write performance, which will be magnitudes better for any good SATA SSD as compared to SATA HDD.

I meant about SSDs in general. I think I had searched about boot SSDs that time, and I don't remember exactly, but I had found that there wasn't any latest option available for my motherboard, as there were some bottlenecks with motherboard and processor. As I said, I don't remember the exact details now.

About SSDs as storage drives, I think the regular SATA HDDs will be more reliable. I am talking about long term use. Like, my last HDD that died, lasted for 11 years, and that's a lot. On the other hand, I think there is limited life for SSDs, right? So, if warranty is 5 years, then it can fail anytime after that. Although regular SATA HDDs can also fail a lot quicker, but in general, in terms of long term use, they are fairly reliable. I don't want to invest in buying another hard drive after 5 years, when it can last longer. So, for storage purpose, maybe regular SATA HDD will be good.

Right now, I am looking to get my system started, and also get my data that I have stored on my external hard drive back to the new drive. As the external drive is also old, I don't want to take a risk. Although the drive is in a fairly good shape. So, for now, I am looking for a storage drive mainly, on which I will install Windows, and when I get a new system, I will definitely go for a SSD boot drive.

Seagate RMA is handled by Inspirysis in India and is very smooth experience. They also allow shipping dead SSDs to them and refund you the cost if nearest service center is too far.

Thank you for this information, and also confirmation that Seagate HDDs can be replaced in India.

 

[guest_999]

About SSDs as storage drives, I think the regular SATA HDDs will be more reliable. I am talking about long term use. Like, my last HDD that died, lasted for 11 years, and that's a lot. On the other hand, I think there is limited life for SSDs, right? So, if warranty is 5 years, then it can fail anytime after that. Although regular SATA HDDs can also fail a lot quicker, but in general, in terms of long term use, they are fairly reliable. I don't want to invest in buying another hard drive after 5 years, when it can last longer. So, for storage purpose, maybe regular SATA HDD will be good.

You have a lot of misconceptions regarding hdd & ssd. There never was & never will be a 100% failure proof hdd or ssd even if it comes with 10 years warranty. Any hdd or ssd can fail at any time depending on many factors incl your luck so always keep backup of important data in at least two different drives one of which preferably not connected to the system all the time. Your last hdd lasted 11 years because you were very lucky, that's it. Don't expect that same luck again.

Right now, I am looking to get my system started, and also get my data that I have stored on my external hard drive back to the new drive. As the external drive is also old, I don't want to take a risk. Although the drive is in a fairly good shape. So, for now, I am looking for a storage drive mainly, on which I will install Windows, and when I get a new system, I will definitely go for a SSD boot drive.

1TB sata hdd cost around 4600 nowadays & you can buy crucial BX500 1TB dramless sata ssd for around same price from amazon using sbi credit card & coupon discount. Whenever you build a new system use bx500 as secondary/backup storage as you will be using NVMe ssd for that new pc anyway.

Also, install crystaldiskinfo free software & run it all the time to monitor your hdd health & temperature.

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[calvin1719]

I think you're mistaken in some aspects here. Afaik, Seagate and wd both have terrible reliability for their hdd lines, and the warranty is 3 years. Ssds, at least, have no moving parts.

Although regular SATA HDDs can also fail a lot quicker, but in general, in terms of long term use, they are fairly reliable.

A low sample size seems to be skewing your perception here. They're not more reliable, just that yours hadn't failed and you hear less about hdd failures simply because less people buy them now.

On the other hand, I think there is limited life for SSDs, right? So, if warranty is 5 years, then it can fail anytime after that.

warranty only indicates likelihood of failure within that time. It can fail on day 1 also, or it can last for 20 years.
Assuming no component failure, ssd life is limited by tb written. This number is more than sufficient unless the drives sees very heavy usage with frequent rewrites of many gbs of data. Eg. My current boot drive has about 9tb written in about 14 months. Mostly light usage, some games downloaded but nothing large.

 

[Anuj333]

whichever drive you end up buying, always keep a 2nd copy of your data in other drive