Best Hard Disk Drives....

Im awaiting the dleivery of my XPS M1730, which comes with 1 Sata 200GB 7200rpm drive.

Im starting to regret that fact that I didnt add a second 200GB drive as well, so have decided to purchase another in preparation for when the system arrives - since I will be re-partitioning and reinstalling anyway.

I plan to set up RAID 0 with two 200GB 7200rpm drives.

However, do you know which make/model drive comes with the XPS in the first instance?.... since I would like to get another of the same.......

If not, Im considering selling the drive that comes with the XPS and getting 2 of the best 200GB drives I can find to RAID. I've come up with the following 2....

Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 200GB 7200RPM SATA 16MB Cache
Seagate Momentus 7200.2 G-Force 200GB 7200RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache

Although the Hitachi has a quicker seek time, everything else seems the same, but I hear the Seagate Momentus runs cooler and quieter??

Anyone have any experience of these or any recommendations??

 

My recommendation would be to wait until you receive the laptop, then find out which drive is installed and find a matching pair.

My second recommendation would be to buy an external drive and backup your data, in case one of the drives fails and destroys the array.

As for HDD suggestions, I've always been partial to the Travelstars (since they were owned by IBM). However, Seagate has a +2 year warranty standard, so I would go with them in this case.

Regards,

z.

 

I like my Hitachi and as you said faster seek time. The heat being more I have heard but do not think it is to the point of causing a problem. Seagate does have a longer warranty but that is mostly a marketing thing.

 

I already have a 500GB external HDD and tend to backup my documents and create an image of my OS partition etc, which is why Im not too concerned about the lack of fault tolerance with a RAID 0 setup.

However, when I create my backup image via Vista, will it still backup and restore the image OK even though Im using 2 discs via RAID?? From my understanding RAID is set up at BIOs level anyway, so the OS, or any image being restored, should just see total disc space of both discs as one.....

I have a Seagate Momentus 160GB 7200rpm HDD in my current laptop, which has always worked perfect, so I do trust Seagate TBH. Ive not used Hitachi much so was wondering if they are quieter etc?

As you said, Seagate has a longer warranty - but what does this mean?? If the HDD fails, obviously I lose my data - but will they just send me a replacement for the failed drive?? My laptop stays on my desk and never really moves, so Im sure a failed drive wouldnt be down to accidental damage etc, and hence should be covered by warranty.....

 

Looks like I'll go for the Seagate Momentus drives. Even if the laptop comes with a Hitachi drive, I'll sell the drive and buy Seagates.

Why?

Well Ive just noticed my work laptop (also a Latitude D620) has a Hitachi Travelstar, while my home D620 has a Seagate Momentus. Ive not really noticed it before since I rarely use my work laptop at home, but Ive just switched both on and the Hitchi drive is definately louder. Quite a bit louder.

Seagate it is

 

I agree, Seagate is the way to go. I've used the Hitachi EXTENSIVELY and I find that they REALLY heat up a lot. Matter of fact, right now, mine is rather hot from just sitting here, idling on power saver mode. They aren't that loud, but they can make a little noise sometimes. I've used the Seagates and I found them to be really cool, but I wasn't really in an environment where I'd notice a difference in sound.

Go with the Seagates.

 

I had the TravelStar 7K200 7200 200GB drive but it died on me. It was beyond recovery too, I assume it just overheated. It was very fast, and very quiet while it worked but next time I will go with Seagate. Even if you have backups, you lose countless hours restoring data etc.

I would definitely not put two 7K200s in a Raid 0...

Alternatively, WD is shipping their 320GB 5400 drives now... how about 640GB in that Raid 0? not as fast as the 7200 drives of course.

 

Its tempting, but I'd prefer 7200rpm TBH. I believe 200GB is the biggest you can get them in at the mo?