HDD for storage?

[Panix]

I'm looking for a 1TB or 2TB HDD for storage. I was considering a WD Green series drive since they are low power/low heat but then I've recently read about this heads parking issue and high load cycle count issues. Apparently, you need certain software (WDiddle3?) to change the feature or disable it entirely. This particular issue seems to be mostly apparent on Unix systems and doesn't effect Windows operating systems as much or at all.

Therefore, I was wondering if anyone here has tried or owns a WD Green drive.

I guess I am inclined to avoid them so I don't have to find out and I have good experiences with Samsung drives and the EcoGreen F2 and F3 drives seem okay. They're a little harder to come by, though, as I have to order online from a vendor. They aren't available at any local stores although I think some Samsung drives are in some of these external drives (that we never know the brand or model).

I also thought the Seagate drives are too risky although I think some of them are probably okay now but I want one with lowest heat as it will mostly be a storage / data drive. Seagate's are probably okay regarding that but then I am not sure about Seagate's low power drives. I think the LP series is really expensive so I'm going to choose based on price and reviews/recommendations (WD Green has mixed reviews: in Windows, they are heavily favoured whereas some users are having trouble with the heads parking/LCC so it would probably be an issue in Linux? The newest WD Green line might or might not have the issue. Too much uncertainty with the drive tends to steer me to other drives. What do you think?).

Any recommendations?

[humpty]

I just recently bought a Hitachi 2T, Deskstar 7200rpm. Just on impulse really, and it was the cheapest in the shops, I didn't even bother to google it. It doesn't run too hot, this is compared to a WD 500G I bought a few years ago. These days, most new HDs are power saving (so the man in the shop told me, but then he would say anything wouldn't he?). The 'greener' ones he said, are 5400rpm.

I use the HD as external USB storage using a cheapo case. I don't know if this is true for other 2Ts, but it takes about 45 seconds for XP to initialise it. This is compared to about 15 secs for a WD 500G and 5 secs for a Samsung 80G. So maybe it's to do with the size. Linux of course does not have this problem, you just mount it and it's ready. Linux also performs copying much faster, especially for many small files (XP takes ages for many small files).

In hindsight, I might have gone for two 1Ts, for safety that I only lose half my files in a disaster, and also the startup time issue (above) with XP.

[Adarion]

I can just tell from my personal experience and I'm all for Seagates.
Never had issues with it (okay I flashed that FW on the 7200.11 early) but from WD I had 2 total losses. Hitachis I don't know, had 2 older IBMs before Hitachi got the business, they were quick but hot and reliability... well they were the "Death Star" successors. Didn't went boom but one started to make sounds. Samsung I have a few which do okay.

Seagate depends from series to series with the warmth but recent ones are neat and are fine with power consumption and noise. (And I compare from older as 7200.7 to 7200.12, IDE and SATA).

But everybody will tell you a different story on HDDs.