Anyhow you decide, do not rely on one single drive. That was true from the
very beginning, from the floppy drives or even more back from tape ages,
maybe even far more back to the punch cards but I have no experience with
those. This basic thing is not going to change any soon it seems.

So if you make backups and the data is important to you, do two copy of
them -- perhaps onto two different drive from two different manufacturers.
Or use more disks if that is a regular daily backup with rotation cycles as
a server admin would do -- there is a good reason for that.

Tamas


On 2 September 2012 13:53, John Ferrell <jferrell13@triad.rr.com> wrote:

> Until something better is revealed, I have only the SMART system for a
> warning. I wish I better understood & I do think the information is
> available.
> They are all guaranteed to break the problem is just when!
>
> On 9/2/2012 4:30 PM, Peter Johansson wrote:
> > On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 2:43 AM, Chetan Bhargava <cbhargava@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Don't use WD Passport for reasons on my blog. Use Seagate GoFlex for
> >> obvious reasons.
> > Both Seagate and WD have had quality issues through the years.  A few
> > years ago WD was preferred to Seagate, but that may easily have
> > changed.  You always have to track the market to not only know which
> > manufacturer has the edge, but what specific drive models to prefer
> > and avoid.
> >
> > My preference has always been to purchase bare drives with a five year
> > warranty.  I am not sure it is even possible to purchase drives with a
> > five year warranty any more, and almost certainly not consumer drives.
> >   It has been my experience that most drives fail shortly outside of
> > their warranty period, and by the time a drive gets to be five years
> > old, it is worth retiring anyway.
> >
> > Drives that ship in external enclosures almost never have more than
> > one-year warranties, and almost always have the lowest quality drives
> > and usb interface/power supplies.  If you want a reliable external
> > drive, you need to pick a quality bare drive and a quality enclosure
> > and assemble it yourself.
> >
> > -p.
>
> --
> John Ferrell W8CCW
> =93During times of universal deceit,
>    Telling the TRUTH becomes a revolutionary act=94
>       George Orwell
>
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
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> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
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http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
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