Most reliable internal HDD for storage?

Cooler Master Storm Scout case
Asus Rampage III Formula motherboard
Intel i7-970 3.2ghz 6 core / 12 thread
Corsair H80i CPU cooler
OCZ 6GB triple channel DDR3
EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 PSU
EVGA GTX 770 4GB Superclocked GPU
1TB Seagate Barracuda internal HDD



Long story short, I used to have two 1TB Barracuda's in this machine; about a year ago one of the two failed with bad sectors and was causing freezing, crashing, and BSOD's.

Checking my event viewer today, I noticed that my second Barracuda is reporting bad sectors. Both of these HDD's had less than 2 years of spin time on them and I really am looking for a reliable internal storage drive.

I plan on buying a ~250GB SSD for my Windows 7 installation as well as a game or two, but I really need to find a reliable HDD for basic storage. I am interested in a 1TB drive, but am willing to consider something larger if the price is right.


I've been reading reviews lately of different drives, but almost every drive I have come across has been reported by a lot of consumers to be bad with bad sectors.

I'd appreciate any help you all can offer me in a decision!

Thanks!

 

I've had the best luck with WD Caviar Black.

http://www.directron.com/wd1002faex.html?_s_icmp=filter

(Note: Directron is where I buy most of my stuff - that and, as of today, they are $16 lower than Newegg on this drive.)

Hope this helps.

 

Any problems with returns?

 

I ALWAYS buy "enterprise-class" drives for my personal builds. They are designed to run 24/7/365 and typically come with 5-year warranties.

As seen here, they tend to cost a bit more, but typical drives are now coming with 3, 2 or even 1 year warranties.

That WD Caviar Black comes with 5 year warranty but note it is designed for "fairly" hard working "home" systems, and harder working server, RAID, 24/7 office environments. Also note not all WD drives have 5 year warranties. No doubt still a good drive.

Regardless the drive type, all drives WILL fail - eventually so a good backup plan is essential. And for sure, a nice supply of cool air across the drive provided by the case will help ensure a long life.

That said, when it comes to reliability, if budget allows, I recommend going all SSD. The "limited write" issues of early generation SSDs is no longer a concern - especially with modern operating systems. Consider the fact Newegg's cheapest 256Gb SATA III SSD has a MTBF rate of 1,000,000 hours. That's 114 years! :dood

 

Directron is normally very good on returns; I've had no problems. Their RMA period for most defective hard drives is one year, and you get back a new (not recertified) one.

 

Thanks for the info.:cool

 

Great. You've made me realize my next hard drive will likely live longer than I will. :-D

 

"Hard" drive? Ummm, no. SSD? Yes!