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What is the best hard drive?

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Re: What is the best hard drive?

#141

Post by dragontamer »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #105
arthurfm wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The manufacturer of the hard drives was listed incorrectly by Backblaze. It's as simple as that. Hitachi (owned by Toshiba) and HGST (owned by WD) are two different companies. You can't say a drive was manufactured by Hitachi/Toshiba when it was actually a HGST drive.

If the drive has|had the Hitachi brand on it you absolutely can say that's what brand of drive it is|was. As I understand: WD bought HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), then sold on the manufacturing of 3.5" drives to Toshiba to comply with EU and FTC requirements ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/5635/western-digital-to-sell-h... ). WD retained the 2.5" side of the HGST manufacture. I doubt anyone wants to buy…

This is my understanding as well, but as you note its very convoluted.

Which is why I'm sure the HGST label on the graphs is an honest mistake. The hard drive world was severely shaken up as Hitachi got bought out by WD, and then FTC / EU split that company up on monopoly grounds.

There's no need to use a conspiracy theory. Nonetheless, it seems like the super-reliable "Hitachi 7k3000" of old is in fact a Toshiba drive today.

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#142

Post by arca_vorago »

mironathetin wrote: post #131
rootbear wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a general rule, I get really annoyed when I come across a web page and I can't tell how old it is, especially if it is information that is likely to age rapidly. I don't care if putting a date on the page makes it less "evergreen", hurts someones SEO stats or makes the flowers wilt, I just want to know if I can trust what I'm reading.

Yes, dates are really important. If anybody thinks, readers will skip their article, if the date is too easy to find, why don't you sign the article with the authors name and then let the author decide, if a date has to be added. Like "joe - Nov. 1, 2014" or just "joe". This article certainly needs a date.

I agree. I actually submitted a bug report to DuckDuckGo based on this. Perhaps a slight abuse of the reporting system, but I feel one of the primary reasons I end up typing !google at the end of my searches is that I don't see dates on searches by default in ddg.

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#143

Post by dragontamer »

geofft wrote: post #113
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We’ve been asked to use the HGST name and we have honored that request. // Intriguing - that suggests some sort of advertising deal? Which calls in to question the impartiality of the report. Who asked them? In what context? Why accede to a third parties interference in the report? Are Backblaze getting reduced price HGST drives now?

I'm a little confused why we expect people to be hostile to friendly requests in the absence of back-room dealing... what's the harm in saying "sure" and including that footnote? And don't we expect enough human decency for them to mention if there were financial considerations in the reporting?

The "harm" is in misinformation, and damage to the brand.

The Hitachi 5K3000 and Hitachi 7K3000 are amongst the most reliable hard drives in the report. Those drives are 3 years or more old and yet have some of the lowest failure rates in the study.

Unfortunately, Hitachi doesn't exist anymore. Hitachi as a company was split and sold in pieces. It is either HGST (owned by WD) or Toshiba.

I want to buy the 7k3000 today. Which hard drive manufacturer is making the modern equivalent? Is it the Toshiba DT01ACA300, or is it the "HGST Deskstar" ??

Despite sharing the same branding, I don't think HGST Deskstar is in fact from the same factory as the Hitachi Deskstars. When you look at the HGST Deskstars, they have WD Technology in them ("Coolspin" RPM).

The Toshiba DT01ACA300 has very similar performance characteristics to the old Hitachi 7k3000 drive.

So its a confusing situation. Which is why I'd like clarification. I bet that the Toshiba DT01ACA300 is actually the super-reliable hard drive that I want, but I admit that I'm a bit ignorant on this front.

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#144

Post by atYevP »

LordIllidan wrote: post #79
ghshephard wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's amazing - I'm reading the post right now (as in, 11:28 AM pacific)- and I switched back to the tab, and it doesn't show the date. But I opened it less than 10 minutes ago. They couldn't have changed it that real time could they. Hit Refresh. Lo and behold - there is the date. Now that's an agile organization. Thanks very much - I really appreciate the date on these posts as well.

That's WordPress for you ;)

It certainly helped :)

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#145

Post by atYevP »

atYevP wrote: post #7
_delirium wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's been edited, but the current post seems fine to me. It doesn't have a date on the post per se , but it's very clear up front when the data is from: the table is labeled "Failure Rates Through December 31, 2014" in bold in the table header, which leaves little room for confusion.

We haven't edited the current post! It does state that a year ago we published the first set, but that assumes you read last-year's post :)

Update -> We have NOW edited the posts, so they all have times :)

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#146

Post by atYevP »

moe wrote: post #14

While I love these recurring blog posts, it would be even nicer if Backblaze could wrap a public API and/or pretty interface around their live monitoring. I'd happily pay a small fee for access to an up-to-date snapshot when I'm in the market for harddrives.

Yev from Backblaze here -> Not a bad idea, though that might take a lot of work on our end. In the mean time, we're going to be releasing some raw data in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that!

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#147

Post by atYevP »

moe wrote: post #14

While I love these recurring blog posts, it would be even nicer if Backblaze could wrap a public API and/or pretty interface around their live monitoring. I'd happily pay a small fee for access to an up-to-date snapshot when I'm in the market for harddrives.

Yev from Backblaze here -> Not a bad idea, though that might take a lot of work on our end. In the mean time, we're going to be releasing some raw data in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that!

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#148

Post by rootbear »

rootbear wrote: post #23
atYevP wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yev from Backblaze here -> it's an internal debate as to whether we should put dates on everything. It used to be that they were part of the URL (because of the way our blog was designed) but that is no longer the case. We decided to leave them off for a while to see if that made posts more "evergreen", but we definitely see where it can lead to some confusion. We'll keep chatting about it internally, there's likely…

As a general rule, I get really annoyed when I come across a web page and I can't tell how old it is, especially if it is information that is likely to age rapidly. I don't care if putting a date on the page makes it less "evergreen", hurts someones SEO stats or makes the flowers wilt, I just want to know if I can trust what I'm reading.

My goodness! This comment upped my karma points by about 50%! I guess I hit a nerve... Thanks for all the up votes.

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#149

Post by geofft »

dragontamer wrote: post #143
geofft wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little confused why we expect people to be hostile to friendly requests in the absence of back-room dealing... what's the harm in saying "sure" and including that footnote? And don't we expect enough human decency for them to mention if there were financial considerations in the reporting?

The "harm" is in misinformation, and damage to the brand. The Hitachi 5K3000 and Hitachi 7K3000 are amongst the most reliable hard drives in the report. Those drives are 3 years or more old and yet have some of the lowest failure rates in the study. Unfortunately, Hitachi doesn't exist anymore. Hitachi as a company was split and sold in pieces. It is either HGST (owned by WD) or Toshiba. I want to buy the 7k3000 toda…

Switching factories could certainly happen without a corporate structure change, though, right?

If it's important to track this information, I think it's relevant to mention it specifically, and I'd expect an honest review to discuss important changes like this (if they're aware of them), regardless of the brand names mentioned. If HGST requested that the review not mention a change in factory or technology, or refused to answer questions about it, then yes, I'd suspect malice somewhere.

Re: What is the best hard drive?

#150

Post by atYevP »

rootbear wrote: post #148
rootbear wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a general rule, I get really annoyed when I come across a web page and I can't tell how old it is, especially if it is information that is likely to age rapidly. I don't care if putting a date on the page makes it less "evergreen", hurts someones SEO stats or makes the flowers wilt, I just want to know if I can trust what I'm reading.

My goodness! This comment upped my karma points by about 50%! I guess I hit a nerve... Thanks for all the up votes.

Well you inspired change as well ;-)
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