Okay, I'm Bored... My Seagate Story...

[Vin DSL]

This amazes me...

I bought my wife a 12Gb HD about 2 years ago. If I remember correctly, it was over 100 bucks. Well, it took a while, but she finally filled it up with digital pictures, clipart, and so forth. So, I decided to buy her a bigger drive tonight, on the way home from work.

Hrm... It took 2 years to fill 12Gb, so I figured 40Gb was plenty big. I checked the local ads and OfficeMax was selling a 40Gb Western Digital POS for $39, but guess what, their computer was down, and they thought they had 3 in stock, but the guys in back had gone home, so after 20 minutes of me looking at paperclips and copier paper, they said they don't have any, but they could call another store and see if (argh!!!)... I told them to stuff it!

Next stop was Circuit City. They had a 80Gb Western Digital for $59. I really don't like WD drives, but what the hell; for 59 bones I can hold my nose while I'm putting it in the wife's machine. Oh, yeah, BTW, they were out of those too, but they had plenty of 42" plasma screen TV's. LoL! Screw Circuit City!

Now I'm getting desperate. I hit CompUSA 11 minutes before closing time. Big w00t! They had Seagates - my favorite HD's. So, I start scanning the shelves. Bingo! 200Gb w/8Mb cache for (gulp) $99. Hahahaha! I couldn't believe it, so I got ahold of some jerk shutting the computers off, 10 aisles over. I asked, "Is this for real?" "Um, I guess so." was the reply.

Bottomline is: It was for real! 200Gb HD for less than 100 bones. I just got done sticking it in my wife's ancient 500MHz AMD Socket-7 computer. It formatted out to 186Gb. I ran the included disk cloning software. The 12Gb Maxtor is now sitting in the Seagate box, and the 200Gb Seagate is sitting in her dinosaur.

Anyway, I can't believe this. How cheap, and big, are these HD's gonna get? What's next? And, how do you top that?

Okay, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it...

EDIT: In case you think I'm BS'ing:
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...ct_code=309209

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[Vin DSL]

BTW, while I'm thinking about it, here's my gift to you today - for reading this silly post. This is where you find all the hot deals in your area. Make sure you 'bookmark' it:

http://www.salescircular.com/

[Still Shady]

:smilie_sp :smilie_sp :smilie_sp :smilie_sp


Of course not... Interesting hard drive adventure you got into. BTW Seagate sucks! JK! I prefer Maxtor though!

[Vin DSL]

Originally posted by Still Shady
BTW Seagate sucks! JK! I prefer Maxtor though!

LoL! Do you like the sound of railroad cars clickity-clacking down the tracks too? If so, Maxtor is for you! Remember, that's what I just removed from the machine. That's how I knew the HD was full. It sounded like a geiger counter in heat.

I thought my last Seagate was quiet, but this one is totally inaudible. That isn't necessarily why I prefer Seagate, but it is another source of amazement for me. No motor noise - no head noise - just the sound of the power supply and case fans fans sucking air...

[Still Shady]

Well... probably the old maxtor sucked but I am using it right now It's noiseless! :

[G.Bloke]

Originally posted by Vin DSL
LoL! Do you like the sound of railroad cars clickity-clacking down the tracks too? If so, Maxtor is for you! Remember, that's what I just removed from the machine. That's how I knew the HD was full. It sounded like a geiger counter in heat.

Ahh but you also said it was an old drive. Who's to say Maxtor haven't made improvements in that area on their newer drives?

I've had my fair share of drives from every major manufacturer, can't say I have much opinion on them .... a drive is a drive and it's the cost and specs I tend to look at, not the brand. I've had a greater number of problems with one Seagate model than any other drives I've ever owned (it ended up in the dustbin and so did the replacement they sent). The drive I use in my main machine, the one I'm using now is an IBM Deskstar 40 Gb, which has proved to be fast and reliable (http://www.hgst.com/hdd/desk/ds120gxp.htm) It must be about 2 years old now. I've got various drives in my server and development boxes.

[CeleronXL]

Haha, I have a Maxtor drive (120 GB).. and yes, it does sound something like a train going down the tracks (during activity).

I love my secondary 40 GB Seagate drive though. It's dead silent. Methinks I'll put Linux on it.

[Vin DSL]

(Based on manufacturer's information)

The World's Toughest and Quietest High-Performance Desktop Drive With Record-Setting Storage Density

Key Advantages

* Highest storage density in the world for efficient system designs
* A proven rugged design for increased reliability
* The industry's only sixth-generation FDB motor
* 3D Defense System™ for comprehensive protection against handling damage and data loss
* Inaudible acoustics with sound barrier technology (SBT), including the Seagate® exclusive SoftSonic™ motor

Best-Fit Applications

* Mainstream and High-Performance PCs
* Entry-Level ATA Servers, including RAID
* Cost-Effective Network Attached Storage
* PC Gaming Systems
* Home Media Servers
* Near-Line Storage

The Seagate 3D Defense System—No One Does More to Protect Your Drives

DRIVE DEFENSE

* SeaShell™ packaging for drive protection against 1,000 Gs of nonoperational shock
* Enhanced G-Force Protection

DATA DEFENSE

* Error-correction code (ECC)
* Safe Sparing

DIAGNOSTIC DEFENSE

* SeaTools Suite diagnostic software
* Web-based tools
* S.M.A.R.T. Technology
* Enhanced Drive Self-Test (NDST)

[mattsiegman]

heh, hard drives are really cheap nowadays

IMHO, I don't care about the noise as long as it saves

[Vin DSL]

Okay, let's forget it being the quietest HD in the world, and the toughest, with the highest density. How about speed? It's currently ranked #4 by PC World. Not bad for a PATA drive, no?

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,113457,00.asp

100 bucks, folks! Better get 'em while they're hot...

[CeleronXL]

There's none for $100 there. :/ And there's also none at the CompUSA site for that much either.

[Vin DSL]

Originally posted by CeleronXL
There's none for $100 there. :/ And there's also none at the CompUSA site for that much either.

Huh?

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...ct_code=309209

Offer is good 'til the 17th...

[Vin DSL]

Oh, something else I should mention - this drive comes with what they call DiscWizard. I don't like to rely on 'crutches', but I'll have to admit, it sure made things easy. It detected that the W2K registry wasn't setup to allow partitions over 136Gb, so it fixed that with the click of a button (and a reboot). Then, they have some sort of clone utility made by Ontrack which worked great. It made the partition, formatted the drive, and did a disk image, all in one easy step. That saved me digging around the closet for DiskCopy, Norton Ghost, or whatever - you know, those proggies you use bi-annually - the ones that take you an hour of cursing to find...

Actually DiscWizard really was a wizard. You decide which utilities you want to run. It goes over to the web and downloads the latest version, and installs it, and away you go.

Pretty slick stuff!

[CeleronXL]

Nice! I'll definitely have to check that out. !

I searched for Seagate before and the drive wasn't there. Strange. O_o Oh well.

[tuxxer]

Anyway, I can't believe this. How cheap, and big, are these HD's gonna get? What's next? And, how do you top that?

I think I remember reading in Wired ,that they want to shoot for a Terrabyte drive within ten years. At the moment there is some sort of threshold that they have to cross before thats possible ,and it may end up being a optical drive , rather than a magnetic drive.

Tux