Seagate?

[Kratt]

Why do Seagate HDDs cost more than Maxtor and WD HDDs? I never remembered them having a price premium. But it:s about $10 more for each size.

[Bruce]

It's not always that way... just depends on the exact drive you're looking at. You're going to pay a slight premium because of perpendicular recording and the longer warranty though.

Seagate offers a 5 year warranty, Maxtor drives are now 3 years since they were acquired by Seagate (used to be only 1), and most WD drives are still 3 years as well.

Seagate drives are still the quietest. The same cannot be said for Maxtor drives. They have gotten quieter over the years, but still nowhere near as quiet as a Seagate or even WD drive.

[Kratt]

Since my :new: HD died again, wondering about doing RAID mirroring. Can hardware RAIDs be moved to a new MB when I upgrade? Should I get different brands so they have diff. lifespans? ie not die together!

[Bruce]

Can hardware RAIDs be moved to a new MB when I upgrade?It's sometimes possible if both motherboards use the same RAID controller, but even then, it's not guaranteed. What you'll probably want to do is image the array, copy it over to a secondary drive (or array), set up your RAID array on the new motherboard, and then copy the image over.
Should I get different brands so they have diff. lifespans? ie not die together!
The lifespans of all drives are nearly identical. I would just get two of the same. All companies are going to have bad drives, it's just luck of the draw. Always remember to backup regularly.

[Kratt]

Well, I have a backup on a USB drive, since this is my 2nd PC HD death in 1mth, wondering if I should buy 2x250GB for $200 and RAID it.

Thinking of u/g the CPU/etc in a few months tho. Don't need the speed, just need stability of quality parts.