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Old 1st July 2008
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lvlamb lvlamb is offline
Real Name: Louis V. Lambrecht
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A hard drive is made of parts which sometimes can originate from the same sub-parts manufacturer.
Then they are mounted in a low-cost location.
At each step, there are quality tests which are used to accept some specifications.
Essentially, beyond some design, all drives are the same.
There isn't either much price difference between capacities. Currently, almost none for 40G to 160G drives.
Just drives "specified" for AV, retail desktops, commercial grades, industrial grade, hot swapping.

I have few experience with the Seagate (Maxtor or whatever brand they bought).
What I know for sure from Western Digital, is that I buy RE drives, those with product # ending in ***YS.
Specs are better, all around, in MTBF, temp range, shock, ...

It is usual, at one manufacturer, to have 5 to 10 specs for one capacity.
Hence, IMVHO, inter-brand comparative testing is pure BS, not academic at least: comparing B&W drillers to Diamant Board gear.

Hard drives are killed (also) by heat. Negating this is refusing the old chemistry principle of processes speeding or slowing depending on the process temperature.
When hard drive technology near, in measurement, the size of molecules we must now speak of chemistry, hence influence of heat.
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