Which company is a reliable hard drive for a PC? Hard drive noise level

The topic of backup, which I raised in my recent publications, caused an unexpectedly strong reaction. It turned out that this question is relevant for many, because living with the fear that at any moment you can lose all your data is not good.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who responded to my question regarding the creation of a course on this topic. Thanks to you, I have been working at maximum speed for the last few days, and it is bearing fruit. The course lessons are completely ready, and one of these days I will present you with a presentation of this course.

Let's start with data from the company BackBlaze, which was one of the first to develop a cloud backup service without volume limitations. They organized their data storage center using ordinary consumer hard drives because it was the cheapest way to do it. As a result, they ended up with more than 27,000 hard drives, which were represented mainly by three manufacturers: Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi. They are also the world leaders in the production and sale of hard drives.

After four years of operation of the BackBlaze service, an article appeared on their blog in which they shared some interesting facts regarding the survivability of hard drives and their reliability under active conditions.

Here's the graph they showed:

It turned out that in the first year of operation, 5.1% of hard drives fail, then this figure gradually increases, and by four years, every fifth hard drive is dead.

If we try to further extrapolate this graph into the fifth and sixth years, it turns out that only half of the hard drives will survive to their sixth birthday. Apparently, it’s not for nothing that the longest warranty period that can be found on hard drives is 5 years, and most manufacturers now only give a warranty for 1-2 years. But here you need to understand that the warranty period does not mean that the disk will work exactly that long, but guarantees you a free replacement if the hard disk fails during this period of time.

But what an interesting picture they got regarding the failure of hard drives from different manufacturers during the first 36 months.

And here is the data on the number of failures per year for disks of different capacities for each manufacturer:

Judging by these data, the most reliable drives were from Hitachi, but Seagate, on the contrary, was a noticeable failure. It is also worth noting that after receiving this data, Western Digital acquired Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, a division of Hitachi that produces hard drives, and at the moment, WD and Hitachi drives are actually drives from the same manufacturer under different brands.

Now let’s move on to the interesting information collected by Storelab (the largest laboratory for data recovery from dead hard drives in Russia). They analyzed data on more than 4000 failed hard drives from personal computers (3.5″ format) and laptops (2.5″) that have passed through their laboratory over the years.

First, let's look at the approximate distribution of hard drive manufacturers on the global market. This is important to understand before viewing other charts:

The same three companies are in the lead:

Western Digital - 30%

Now let’s take a look at the statistics on receipts of failed hard drives at Storelab:

Seagate - 56% Western Digital - 19.5% Hitachi - 5%.

Here is what is written in their report on this matter:

“It turned out that the two groups of data are only partially correlated. The main difference is that the percentage of failed devices at market leader Seagate is almost 2 times higher than its share: 56.1% versus 31%. You can make an allowance for Russian specifics: according to Seagate’s own data, its share in the domestic market is more than 40%, but this does not fundamentally change the situation - the percentage of receipts of “dead” drives is significantly higher than the market share. This indicates the lower reliability of Seagate hard drives compared to other manufacturers. All other vendors have revenue share below market share, with Western Digital and Hitachi at nearly 11%. Thus, the devices of these companies are characterized by higher fault tolerance.”

The second important indicator is the average age of hard drives at the time of failure. It again differs depending on the disc manufacturer and often depends on the “success” of the model. During development, it is difficult to determine the durability of a hard drive. Having developed a device, the company can only conduct laboratory tests: temperature, pressure, vibration, etc. But this study, as a rule, does not show all design defects. The real test of durability is time. Shortcomings become obvious within a year and a half. If the majority of a manufacturer's hard drives survive this milestone, the product can be considered reliable.

As can be seen from the table, the leader in hard drive life expectancy is Hitachi. Its devices lasted an average of 5 years: a year and a half more than the next most reliable Western Digital with a capacity of up to 500 GB.

Here I have presented only a small part of their research. If you are interested in this topic, I advise you to read them in full. There they describe in detail why hard drives from different manufacturers fail in most cases and provide many interesting pictures on this issue.

Also on their website I found information about why a sudden power outage or sudden drop in network voltage is dangerous for hard drives and other storage devices.

Here's what they write about this:

“If there is a sudden power outage, various types of failures are possible, leading to loss of information. Most often, data corruption occurs. If the hard drive was writing data during a power failure, the corresponding file may become unreadable. Another option: the file can be read, but its contents are corrupted and unusable. Physical damage to hard drives can occur as a result of power outages. If a sudden stop occurs, direct contact of the magnetic heads with the plates on which the data is stored is possible. This is often accompanied by characteristic sounds. The result is damage to the surface of the platters, which can lead to permanent data loss. "

For laptops this is not critical, but if you have a desktop computer, then to increase the reliability of the entire system, I recommend that you purchase at least the simplest uninterruptible power supply that will allow your computer to work for 5-10 minutes after a sudden power outage. You can save all your documents and safely turn off your computer.

Unfortunately, the format of the article does not allow me to talk about everything that I found on this topic, but I think that even this information will allow you to choose the right hard drive for yourself and think about buying an uninterruptible power supply if you already have one No.

And I would like to finish this article with one phrase that caught my eye on one Western resource, where a lot of attention was paid to the issue of backup.

It is addressed to those who have not yet paid enough attention to the topic of backup, and in the original it reads like this:

“It’s not a question of will you lose your data—it’s when.”

It can be translated into Russian something like this:

“The question is not whether you will lose your data or not. The question is when exactly this will happen.”

Don't wait for this moment, start automating your backups while everything is good.

That's all for today. Thank you for your attention, I will be glad to see your comments.

See you in touch in the coming days!

Best regards, Evgeniy Popov.

Any device, and especially one that has at least some moving parts, makes noise. Moreover, just recently, the noise from some old-style devices was very, very impressive.

The HDD noise parameter is quite important, especially for systems where there was a focus on lower noise levels: quiet coolers for the case and processor, or a quiet water cooling system was installed. But for ordinary users, with mediocre noise reduction performance in their systems, loud hard drives will also not come in handy.

In fact, almost all modern hard drives are manufactured in accordance with certain standards and emit very little noise, but to understand which noise is greater and which is less, you need to plunge a little into the theory of sound and its measurement values.

From the school physics curriculum, almost everyone should remember that the noise level is measured in dB (decibels) - a smaller derivative of the main indicator B (bell). Here are some examples of noise in our environment:

• whisper – 30 dB;
• train noise – 90 dB;
• scream – 70 dB;
• rocket launch - 140-190 dB.

The weakest sound perceived by our ear is about 10 dB, and at a sound of 130 dB painful sensations begin.

All these indicators were given so that you can compare certain household noises with the noise of a hard drive and assess whether the noise is acceptable. The noise of modern hard drives is in the range of 20-35 dB, which is quite significant at the upper limit, although it will most likely be covered by noise from coolers.

The noise emitted by a hard drive is divided into two types: acoustic noise when idling and acoustic noise when searching for data. But still, it is the spindle that makes the main noise when the system starts, but there may also be characteristic sound vibrations during operation.

I would like to note that the above noise indicators are maximum, that is, the hard drive produces noise of a similar level only during certain periods of operation; the average noise emitted by the hard drive during operation can be much less.

Different series of hard drives from the same manufacturer may differ in noise levels. As an example, Western Digital Red ultra-quiet hard drives are hard drives that are marketed for 24/7 operation and enhanced reliability. At the same time, we all note the very low noise level, only 22 dB. Also, Green-series discs are considered a quiet series, but there this is done partly at the expense of a donation spindle speed, which there is only 5400 rpm. The noise level in Green-series hard drives currently ranges from 22 to 27 dB.

The more popular and classic series, Western Digital Caviar Blue, is a little noisier. The noise level of these disks ranges from 28-35 dB. I would like to note on my own that I have been using the Blue series for more than one year and have not noticed any strong noise, apparently all such noise is blocked by the severe noise from several coolers.

The noise level of a hard drive is almost always indicated in the product specifications, and you can always check it before purchasing. I’ll note once again that, of course, it’s better to take quieter hard drives, but the classic inexpensive options of the Blue series won’t hurt your ears too much. The main thing is that a couple or three decibels should not become an impetus for choosing a hard drive with a slower spindle (for those who really need all the speed of the drive).

In any case, the choice is always yours. Good luck!

• 1. Hard drive capacity
• 2. Connection interface
• 3. Rotation speed
• 4. Buffer memory
• 5. Dimensions
• 6. Manufacturer company
• 7. External screw selection
• 8. That's all well and good, but what about SSDs?

Sooner or later, each of us is faced with a situation when the internal memory of a personal computer is running out, and we don’t want to delete the existing information. In this case, there is only one thing left - to purchase a new, more capacious hard drive, but you want to do this in such a way that a similar problem does not loom on the horizon for the next five years. To help our readers make the best purchase, today we will talk about which hard drive to choose for your computer in 2019. First, let's discuss its most important parameters.

Hard drive capacity

Of course, the first thing any buyer thinks about is the capacity of the hard drive. By the standards of history, just recently, 20 gigabytes of internal memory space seemed luxury and excess, but today not every game can fit on such a modest hard drive. When discussing what size hard drive you should buy to make the purchase profitable and effective, you should first look at the current state of affairs on the market.
In the segment of hard drives, as with other computer components, you can notice a trend - top options are much more expensive than competitors that are not so much inferior to them. In order not to overpay for the fleeting right to feel like the owner of the best toy, you should look towards the middle price range, and there, in turn, notice that a 500 gigabyte screw is not much different in price from its 2 terabyte counterpart - then why save a few percent of the cost getting four times less free space?

Connection interface

The hard drive is connected to the motherboard, and therefore to all other components of the system unit, via a cable. This cable can have one of two types of interface - current SATA and outdated IDE. If your current home computer was purchased not 15-20 years ago, but much later, then you don’t have to look at IDE, and SATA is divided into three types - SATA 1, SATA 2 and SATA 3, respectively.
The first of them, like the IDE, cannot be found during the day, and the second and third generations differ in data transfer speed - 3 Gb/s and 6 Gb/s, respectively. By the way, these two types of interfaces are interchangeable, but if you want to insert a SATA 3 hard drive into the connector for the second one, it will work at SATA 2 speed. If you decide to purchase an external hard drive, then preference should be given to the USB 3.0 connector.

Rotational speed

The faster the spindle rotates, the higher the read/write speed of the hard drive will be, and therefore this aspect is also one of the main ones when choosing suitable hardware. In fact, this parameter has long reached its reasonable limit, which is at around 7200 rpm, and therefore choosing almost any screw regarding this characteristic will not be a mistake.
However, if you are buying hardware for a gaming computer, we recommend choosing hard drives with a speed above 10,000 rpm, and the most preferable purchase will be a hard drive made using SSD technology, but such copies will be discussed later. By the way, the vast majority of external hard drives operate at a speed of 5400 rpm and this fact does not cause any special problems.

Buffer memory

Buffer memory, also known as cache memory, is a place in which data is localized that has already been read from the disk, but has not yet been transmitted through the interface, which means that the larger it is, the higher the overall performance of the system. External drives are content with 8 MB, but for an internal drive you should choose 32 MB or higher - 64 will be ideal.

Dimensions

Hard drives, despite identical functions, can have very different sizes; the main ones are Small Form Factor of 2.5 inches and Large Form Factor of 3.5. The former, as a rule, have lower basic indicators, for example, the spindle rotates at a speed of 5400 rpm, but they are used in laptops due to their compactness. Large ones are suitable for familiar personal computers, but in recent years there has been a noticeable tendency to transfer even more powerful hard drives to a smaller format.

Manufacturing company

Despite the fact that dozens of brand names appear in the price lists of computer hardware stores, only two giants produce them - Seagate and Western Digital. It is difficult to say anything unambiguously regarding the advantages of a particular manufacturer, but after sifting through hundreds of reviews on the Internet, we came to disappointing conclusions for Seagate - their screws are much less reliable. Yes, many of those reading these lines may well do this thanks to the use of a screw from this company that has been faithfully and faithfully for five years, but why hope that you will be lucky if you can choose a more stable option?
By the way, we recommend that after purchasing a new disk, you immediately give it an increased load, this way you will test it under stressful conditions and if it was defective, then you will have time to take advantage of warranty service or replace a low-quality product, and if it survives this stress test without excesses, you can be almost 100% sure that it will last a long time. You need to understand that Russia is far from the main market for computer equipment manufacturers, and then the task of finding a service center often looks almost insurmountable; those who have encountered sending their components abroad for repairs know perfectly well how long and expensive it is. In general, in 2019 I personally would give my preference to WD, but this is not an advertisement and the choice is up to you.

External screw selection

In this case, a third is added to the two giant manufacturers - Transcend. The advantages of such gadgets are obvious - no fuss with mounting into a laptop case or system unit, you just need to connect it using one of the current connectors; we remind you that preference should be given to USB 3.0 - it is compatible with USB 2.0 and can be connected to absolutely any system.
The form factors of portable hard drives are the same as those of their older brothers, but in this case the dimensions are even more important - a compact device is much more convenient to carry, so if you plan to use it often outside the home, take a closer look at the 2.5 inches. The speed, of course, will most likely be lower, but the ability to tuck a screw into a jacket pocket is priceless. By the way, since you are going to carry it with you, it would be nice to think about its durability - anything can happen. Such equipment often fails when dropped from a height of only 10-15 centimeters, and therefore a rubberized case or case is almost a must-have.
In recent years, connecting conventional hard drives as external ones through special boxes that have a USB connection to a computer has become widely popular, and modern system units often already have such a compartment - very convenient.

This is all well and good, but what about SSDs?

In recent years, SSDs, also known as solid-state drives, which are sometimes mistakenly called hard drives, have become increasingly widespread when storing information. They are more like a large flash drive with microcircuits, because they do not have mechanical parts like the usual HDDs. All data here is transmitted electronically, and to connect such a device, SATA 2 or SATA 3 interfaces are used, but when buying such a powerful tool, you should get the most out of it, and therefore we recommend using a much faster PCI Express connection.

Such drives are much more compact than their predecessors, and therefore they almost always go on sale together with an adapter that will help insert the device into the HDD slot. Despite the fact that SSDs are much more problematic to damage, they, unfortunately, still break, and therefore reliability can hardly be considered one of the undeniable advantages of these devices today. Another drawback is the significantly higher price, and therefore not everyone who is faced with an urgent need to purchase a new hard drive will be able to afford this option.

If only a very wealthy user can purchase an SSD drive with a capacity of several terabytes, then small solid state drives are available to almost everyone and this opportunity must be used. The fact is that the performance of the operating system very much depends on the physical object on which it is located, and therefore with the help of a small SSD, for example, 128 gigabytes, you can make incredible progress in the speed of the OS.

Just place Windows or another operating system on an expensive medium, as well as a number of the programs you most need, and store the rest of the information on the HDD and you will be happy at an affordable price. By the way, owners of older systems should remember that this media is supported by Windows seven and higher, so you won’t be able to overclock your XP with it.

We hope that this material was useful to you and now you can imagine the sequence of actions if you decide to update the hard drive in your personal computer. You shouldn’t overly trust sales assistants in an electronics store - they have their own goals and motives, which may be far from the desire to choose the best option for you, and then keep your finger on the pulse and constantly update your knowledge about the most important components of the system unit, good luck!

Information security, quick access and processing are the main tasks of any modern hard drive. Regardless of the purpose, these indicators are fundamental in user choice. Servers need HDDs with maximum fault tolerance and large physical capacity. Office computers are aimed at the budget segment with an optimal speed/volume ratio. Gamers prefer high-speed hard drives with large built-in cache. Among the large range of products, it is not easy to make a choice.

We have compiled a list of the best hard drives based on expert assessments and reviews from real customers. Our recommendations will help you make a choice that suits your needs and desires. There are many competitors in the global technology market, but we have selected the best manufacturers and recommend paying special attention to them:

1. Western Digital
2. Hitachi
3. Seagate
4. Toshiba

For computer For laptop Volume: up to 2 TB Volume: from 2 TB Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s Server For video surveillance

1		RUR 4,037
2		RUR 5,728
3		RUB 6,501
4		RUB 12,190
5		RUR 2,411
6		RUB 9,750
7		RUR 8,840
8		RUR 3,447
9		RUR 3,029
10		RUR 16,627
11		RUR 2,490
12		RUB 2,900
13		RUB 5,550
14		RUR 4,329
15		RUB 13,820
16		RUR 4,804

*Prices are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice.

Hard drives: For computer

*from user reviews

Minimum price:

Main advantages

• High spindle speed provides quick access to the necessary clusters and reading information, which allows you to use the disk when assembling a gaming computer
• Implemented a modern third generation connection interface
• Has a record low power consumption, which allows you to slightly reduce energy costs
• A system of automatic control over the activity of work and access to the memory of the hard drive significantly extends its lifespan
• The small volume and budget price make the HDD suitable for everyday home use, where there is no need to store a large amount of archival data

For computer / Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s/ Volume: up to 2 TB / Rotation speed: 7200 rpm

Main advantages

• Support for hardware command queuing ensures fast processing of a number of requests at a low level, resulting in increased performance of the device as a whole.
• Multi-Tier caching technology optimizes parallel reading and writing of data
• Single-plate implementation of the device guarantees its high reliability during active use
• Dual read head ensures perfect file reading and writing accuracy
• Buffer operation is provided by non-volatile Intel Optane memory
• Despite the high rotation speed of the hard drive spindle, the device has a low noise level and good protection against overheating

Show all products in the category "Volume: up to 2 TB"

Hard drives: Volume: from 2 TB

Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s/ Volume: from 2 TB / Rotation speed: 7200 rpm/ Server / For computer

Main advantages

• Can be used to organize shared database access processes on servers
• Copes with large volumes of data. The processing speed is quite high, thanks to the increased speed of 7200 RPM and a system of 10 heads
• Supports the latest generation connection interface - SATA lll 6 Gb/s
• The record value of the buffer memory eliminates delays in the processes of reading/writing information of any size
• Provides protection against rotational vibration
• It is possible to reflash to increase reliability and reduce noise levels
• Capable of working 24/7

For computer / Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s Rotation speed: 7200 rpm

Main advantages

• 256 MB buffer memory provides high speed access to a significant amount of the most frequently used data
• 7200 rpm spindle speed increases access speed to files recorded on disk platters
• The device's fault tolerance reaches two million hours of continuous active operation.
• Support for the industry standard Secure Erase allows, if necessary, guaranteed and even remote destruction of all data on the disk using a low-level software method without the possibility of restoring it using any method existing today
• 512e sector format emulation mode solves potential problems of incompatibility of hard drive capabilities with aging server systems

For computer / Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s/ Volume: from 2 TB / Server / Rotation speed: 7200 rpm

Main advantages

• The drive is designed and optimized specifically for use in large and mid-sized enterprise storage systems
• NASware 3 technology support ensures increased reliability, performance and full compatibility with modern NAS systems
• A special sensor detects the slightest vibrations that may occur in the system, and the dynamic head control mechanism successfully compensates for this shaking, stabilizing the process
• The TLER error recovery feature prevents the drive from suspending operation in a RAID array, even for a short time
• The use of RAFF and StableTrac technologies reduces the impact of vibrations and stabilizes the rotation of the disc plates

For computer / Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s/ Volume: from 2 TB / Rotation speed: 7200 rpm

Main advantages

• Dynamic caching technology optimizes the performance of the 256 MB buffer memory block and allows you to get almost instant access to the data you use most often
• The spindle rotation rate of 7200 rpm determines the high speed of writing/reading from the plate - 227 MB/s
• IntelliSeek technology reduces the negative impact of external vibrations on the hard drive
• A five-year limited manufacturer's warranty ensures exceptional overall product reliability.
• Proprietary free software within the Acronis True Image WD Edition package allows you to perform any software manipulations on the hard drive

Show all products in the category "Volume: from 2 TB"

Hard drives: Rotation speed: 7200 rpm

For computer / Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s/ Volume: up to 2 TB / Rotation speed: 7200 rpm

Main advantages

• The drive, produced using hybrid technology, combines the performance of solid-state drives and the low cost per unit of information storage characteristic of conventional hard drives
• The drive has high flash memory reliability thanks to the use of Toshiba chips, which are manufactured using a modern 24-nanometer process technology
• Thanks to support for the SATA3 interface, the drive is capable of using a data bus with a high throughput of 600 MB/s
• Developed intelligent caching algorithms allow you to store the most frequently used data in fast memory
• Thanks to the technologies used, the speed of the drive is five times higher than that of conventional hard drives, which makes it suitable for use in gaming PCs

Show all products in the category "Rotation speed: 7200 rpm"

Hard drives: Rotation speed: 5400 rpm

For computer / Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s/ Volume: from 2 TB / Server / Rotation speed: 5400 rpm

Main advantages

• Support for NASware 3.0 technology guarantees correct operation of the device with NAS server systems based on RAID arrays of any complexity level
• A reliable passive cooling system ensures stable operation of the drive 24/7 and normal operation up to a temperature of 65 degrees Celsius
• 3D Active Balance Plus technology protects data plates from vibration and noise
• The design of the housing and spindle reduces the noise level of the device to 28 dB during active operation
• Power consumption of 4.5 W reduces the overall power load on server clusters and allows for significant savings when using large non-linear RAID arrays