Most Reliable External HD?

[dustinhxc]

Well, this is my 2nd WD External 1TB Harddrive that just randomly decided to erase everything and now it wont even format to use as a back up back up.
What are some reliable harddrives? I have to be able to swap it from Windows 7 and Mac OS Lion +

Id like at least 1TB and Under $300

Thanks

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax

Im thinking a RAID Dual will be more reliable..

[kishy]

Here's the problem:

"Most reliable" is going to be determined in the long term. I can tell you that I have 3 Seagate externals and I'm thrilled with all of them, but that doesn't help you since those particular models are no longer on the market (my 2TB USB 3.0 drive probably is, but the actual drive inside has potentially changed).

Buying drives is a gamble. My suggestion is to eliminate all drives with 2 year or shorter warranty (as your loss on the hardware cost if it fails in 2 years plus 1 day is too high), , then narrow down by any more criteria that you require (capacity, rotational speed, etc), then eliminate the choices that have questionable reviews or are too new to have reviews, then buy the cheapest out of what's left or go with gut instinct on brand if the price difference isn't huge.

Storage is a gamble. Backing up, and then backing up your backups is pretty much essential, especially since modern drives seem to not give much warning before they go, and even when they do, that warning might not give enough time to transfer the entire contents to something else.

[dustinhxc]

Here's the problem:

"Most reliable" is going to be determined in the long term. I can tell you that I have 3 Seagate externals and I'm thrilled with all of them, but that doesn't help you since those particular models are no longer on the market (my 2TB USB 3.0 drive probably is, but the actual drive inside has potentially changed).

Buying drives is a gamble. My suggestion is to eliminate all drives with 2 year or shorter warranty (as your loss on the hardware cost if it fails in 2 years plus 1 day is too high), , then narrow down by any more criteria that you require (capacity, rotational speed, etc), then eliminate the choices that have questionable reviews or are too new to have reviews, then buy the cheapest out of what's left or go with gut instinct on brand if the price difference isn't huge.

Storage is a gamble. Backing up, and then backing up your backups is pretty much essential, especially since modern drives seem to not give much warning before they go, and even when they do, that warning might not give enough time to transfer the entire contents to something else.

Thank You, I am debating a Raid drive or maybe a Raid drive and another External for multiple backups.

[tp4tissue]

Externals are generally bad... because most of them under continuous usage with moderate i/o will hit 70-80 Celcius..  and idle at 55-65 Celcius

Vs an internal drive which does 45 Celcius idle, and peak at 55-60 Celcius

Actively Cooled drives will run 20-30 Celcius Idle,  Peak at 40-45 Celcius



External drives are BAD for this very reason... it heats up and cools across a large temperature range..

And if you do this to "METAL", especially moving parts... over a long period of time, heat stress is inevitable..


Ontop of that... 80C is NOT uncommon at all.. so... yea... run that for a few weeks it's gonna die.

[dustinhxc]

Externals are generally bad... because most of them under continuous usage with moderate i/o will hit 70-80 Celcius..  and idle at 55-65 Celcius

Vs an internal drive which does 45 Celcius idle, and peak at 55-60 Celcius

Actively Cooled drives will run 20-30 Celcius Idle,  Peak at 40-45 Celcius



External drives are BAD for this very reason... it heats up and cools across a large temperature range..

And if you do this to "METAL", especially moving parts... over a long period of time, heat stress is inevitable..


Ontop of that... 80C is NOT uncommon at all.. so... yea... run that for a few weeks it's gonna die.

Oh wow, that's a great point. Maybe I will just upgrade my 2nd internal drive.
Any pointers on them? What to look for in specs? I look for nonrecoverable read errors, rotation speed, cache, temperature.

[Leslieann]

I replace WD's all the time, I refuse to buy them unless they are WD Black or Raptor.
I trust Seagate, yes, I get an occasional bad one, but I don't replace them like I do WD's.

However... In an external, they are always getting tossed around, which is hard on them. I highly recommend 2.5in based externals as they deal with shock and heat better*, but if you really want a long life external, buy a box and an SSD. They can get bounced around without being hurt.

Raid is not a backup.  It's a fallover in case a drive fails. If your computer gets hit by lightening and gets past your PSU, it doesn't matter if you have a 10 drive raid, your data is gone. Raid only protects against a drive failure, not system, not fire, not flood.  Not that an external drive is a whole lot better. Leaving it plugged in leaves you almost just as vulnerable, and you have to remember to use it, and it's still on the same property.

If you want a good backup that won't fail, instead of spending $50-$100 on a drive, get an online backup like Backblaze, Mozy or (my favorite) Crashplan. These plans are unlimited data, for about $60 a year. You get offsite, redundancy, and it's automated. Seriously, it's the best way to go, since you have nothing to do, and you don't even have to buy and maintain a drive. If you have a buddy, you can even use Crashplan for free by using their software to swap data with your friend. I do this with a customer, I backup to their server and their server backs up to my home server.  Not only is it free, but if I need to, I can go the office and retrieve a copy instead of re-downloading everything.



*Tests have shown that heat isn't as big a factor in drive life as people once thought. It can contribute, but typically it doesn't get hot enough to do serious damage. It's more likely to die from defects, drops, or just poor manufacturing. I had one run 24/7 at 70-80c for almost a year before it died, and it only ran that hot because it was defective from the factory. Good drives are actually tougher than people give them credit for, my Raptor survived a rainstorm, the one (Maxtor) survived high temps for a year, another (Seagate) desktop drive survived being an MP# player in a car for 9 months (shoved up under a seat where it got hot). I'm not saying let them burn, but they can run hot and not worry. You would be surprised at how hot some laptop drives get on a daily basis.

[tp4tissue]

Externals are generally bad... because most of them under continuous usage with moderate i/o will hit 70-80 Celcius..  and idle at 55-65 Celcius

Vs an internal drive which does 45 Celcius idle, and peak at 55-60 Celcius

Actively Cooled drives will run 20-30 Celcius Idle,  Peak at 40-45 Celcius



External drives are BAD for this very reason... it heats up and cools across a large temperature range..

And if you do this to "METAL", especially moving parts... over a long period of time, heat stress is inevitable..


Ontop of that... 80C is NOT uncommon at all.. so... yea... run that for a few weeks it's gonna die.

Oh wow, that's a great point. Maybe I will just upgrade my 2nd internal drive.
Any pointers on them? What to look for in specs? I look for nonrecoverable read errors, rotation speed, cache, temperature.

dont' worry about specs..   just get lots and lots of drives..  @ the cheapest per TB ratio you can find..

good rate is still $90 / 3TB  this year... freaking HDD mafia artificially making prices stick...


Wait until they hit $90, and buy 4 of them... raid 2 of the drives, and only write the best and most important stuff to it...  use the other 2 in non-raid, for movies and files you can afford to lose..  I mean.. if I lose pride and prejudice, who cares,  but if I lose Robocop bluray, I'd be very upset...

[tp4tissue]

I replace WD's all the time, I refuse to buy them unless they are WD Black or Raptor.
I trust Seagate, yes, I get an occasional bad one, but I don't replace them like I do WD's.

However... In an external, they are always getting tossed around, which is hard on them. I highly recommend 2.5in based externals as they deal with shock and heat better*, but if you really want a long life external, buy a box and an SSD. They can get bounced around without being hurt.

Raid is not a backup.  It's a fallover in case a drive fails. If your computer gets hit by lightening and gets past your PSU, it doesn't matter if you have a 10 drive raid, your data is gone. Raid only protects against a drive failure, not system, not fire, not flood.  Not that an external drive is a whole lot better. Leaving it plugged in leaves you almost just as vulnerable, and you have to remember to use it, and it's still on the same property.

If you want a good backup that won't fail, instead of spending $50-$100 on a drive, get an online backup like Backblaze, Mozy or (my favorite) Crashplan. These plans are unlimited data, for about $60 a year. You get offsite, redundancy, and it's automated. Seriously, it's the best way to go, since you have nothing to do, and you don't even have to buy and maintain a drive. If you have a buddy, you can even use Crashplan for free by using their software to swap data with your friend. I do this with a customer, I backup to their server and their server backs up to my home server.  Not only is it free, but if I need to, I can go the office and retrieve a copy instead of re-downloading everything.



*Tests have shown that heat isn't as big a factor in drive life as people once thought. It can contribute, but typically it doesn't get hot enough to do serious damage. It's more likely to die from defects, drops, or just poor manufacturing. I had one run 24/7 at 70-80c for almost a year before it died, and it only ran that hot because it was defective from the factory. Good drives are actually tougher than people give them credit for, my Raptor survived a rainstorm, the one (Maxtor) survived high temps for a year, another (Seagate) desktop drive survived being an MP# player in a car for 9 months (shoved up under a seat where it got hot). I'm not saying let them burn, but they can run hot and not worry. You would be surprised at how hot some laptop drives get on a daily basis.

in large samples... they said there's no statistical correlation.. but these are also data centers that have their setups well maintained... dust free... observe safe temperatures.. they probably almost never spin down.. so there's not as much rise and fall in temperature even if the average temperature is higher..

So thermal expansion issues would be largely kept in check, as opposed to @home drives, where people turn things on and off with sporadic usage..

Now for 80C... it's just really bad.. because these drives have small processors on them... even if most of these small ICs are rated for 120C...  I doubt the manufacturer intended for continued high temps.. so they must've struck a deal some where for failure rates at much lower temps despite the design spec... because of the millions of chips that they're using.. it can amount to huge savings in cost if they reduce purchase restrictions.

[Leslieann]

So thermal expansion issues would be largely kept in check, as opposed to @home drives, where people turn things on and off with sporadic usage..

If you do backups often enough, the drive should never have a chance to hit high temps.

Problem is, people either leave them plugged in, or don't bother with them.

[tp4tissue]

So thermal expansion issues would be largely kept in check, as opposed to @home drives, where people turn things on and off with sporadic usage..

If you do backups often enough, the drive should never have a chance to hit high temps.

Problem is, people either leave them plugged in, or don't bother with them.

most externals have auto spin down these days.. but the enclosure is what makes it bad, because then the drive is going from 0 to 55-60 with light usage.. and 0 to 80 with heavy usage..

[Malphas]

Get a Drobo 5N.

[dustinhxc]

Thanks for the replies! Ill check out these websites and brands. 

[Oobly]

I refer you to this post of mine: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53053.msg1183686#msg1183686

TLDR; Samsung are good as are Seagate, Hitachi may also be. Stay away from WD or Toshiba.

And I agree with Leslieann. Overall drive heat is not as much of an issue as shock. Localized heat can be a cause of failure, such as when the head is forced to read / write intensively to a single area (I've had a few drives fail due to MS's implementation of disk checking software).

I would recommend adding some decent internal drives instead of an external, except if the drive is needed for physically moving the data.

[dustinhxc]

I refer you to this post of mine: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53053.msg1183686#msg1183686

TLDR; Samsung are good as are Seagate, Hitachi may also be. Stay away from WD or Toshiba.

And I agree with Leslieann. Overall drive heat is not as much of an issue as shock. Localized heat can be a cause of failure, such as when the head is forced to read / write intensively to a single area (I've had a few drives fail due to MS's implementation of disk checking software).

I would recommend adding some decent internal drives instead of an external, except if the drive is needed for physically moving the data.

ive actually been looking at Hitachi thanks!

[IvanIvanovich]

For externals I always go for a 2.5"... why? 2.5" designed for laptops since they usually have better heat tolerance, generally have much better parking and gshock ratings than 3.5"... plus they are more convenient to take places since they are smaller and lighter. If you don't mind spending a bit more money, get a top rated 2.5" bare drive and a good aluminum enclosure that supports both USB3 UASP and esatap like those from Orico or Delock.
If you don't need something portable, I would look into getting a NAS instead and setting up some automated backup routine. Or if you don't mind your data being with some 3rd party do like Leslieann suggests and go for a cloud plan.

[dustinhxc]

For externals I always go for a 2.5"... why? 2.5" designed for laptops generally have much better parking and gshock ratings than 3.5"... plus they are more convenient to take places since they are smaller and lighter. If you don't mind spending a bit more money, get a top rated 2.5" bare drive and a good aluminum enclosure that supports both USB3 UASP and esatap like those from Orico or Delock.
If you don't need something portable, I would look into getting a NAS instead and setting up some automated backup routine. Or if you don't mind your data being with some 3rd party do like Leslieann suggests and go for a cloud plan.

im looking at these..

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce/Solid_State_Pro
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Electra_6G/

[IvanIvanovich]

If you're going to go SSD just grab the biggest cheapest one you can get that isn't made by OCZ. Same advice applies to enclosure selection. Especially with an SSD you need UASP or esata or you loose all the write speed advantage if you're using slow USB bulk only transport that is more typical in cheaper USB drive enclosure.

[dustinhxc]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167175&ignorebbr=1

This one looks reliable..

[MJ45]

I refer you to this post of mine: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53053.msg1183686#msg1183686

TLDR; Samsung are good as are Seagate, Hitachi may also be. Stay away from WD or Toshiba.

And I agree with Leslieann. Overall drive heat is not as much of an issue as shock. Localized heat can be a cause of failure, such as when the head is forced to read / write intensively to a single area (I've had a few drives fail due to MS's implementation of disk checking software).

I would recommend adding some decent internal drives instead of an external, except if the drive is needed for physically moving the data.

ive actually been looking at Hitachi thanks!

I have had some experience with data loss and my advice is go with the best you can afford. Enterprise class drives are more reliable but cost more, all hard drives will fail over time. I do multiple frequent backups to be safe. But for the price Seagate Barracuda's have served me well. Also drive docks are handy for quick backups if you have a multiple bare drives.  I have a Drobo FS NAS with 5 2tb Seagate Barracuda's that been reliable since 2009 it has the capacity for a one or two drive failure depending how its set. After losing all my data once I will never take risks or let it happen again.

[dustinhxc]

I refer you to this post of mine: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53053.msg1183686#msg1183686

TLDR; Samsung are good as are Seagate, Hitachi may also be. Stay away from WD or Toshiba.

And I agree with Leslieann. Overall drive heat is not as much of an issue as shock. Localized heat can be a cause of failure, such as when the head is forced to read / write intensively to a single area (I've had a few drives fail due to MS's implementation of disk checking software).

I would recommend adding some decent internal drives instead of an external, except if the drive is needed for physically moving the data.

ive actually been looking at Hitachi thanks!

I have had some experience with data loss and my advice is go with the best you can afford. Enterprise class drives are more reliable but cost more, all hard drives will fail over time. I do multiple frequent backups to be safe. But for the price Seagate Barracuda's have served me well. Also drive docks are handy for quick backups if you have a multiple bare drives.  I have a Drobo FS NAS with 5 2tb Seagate Barracuda's that been reliable since 2009 it has the capacity for a one or two drive failure depending how its set. After losing all my data once I will never take risks or let it happen again.

Thanks!

Im leaning towards this right now..

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSU3SSD240GB/

[IvanIvanovich]

I would suggest this 240GB + enclosure.

edit=changed enclosure recommendation... I am not sure about the Orico ones that newegg carries support UASP, otherwise would have to order from Asia.

[tp4tissue]

I would suggest this 240GB + enclosure.

edit=changed enclosure recommendation... I am not sure about the Orico ones that newegg carries support UASP, otherwise would have to order from Asia.

I've had really bad luck with my ssd in enclosures... always SOME sort of incompatibility with people's computers..

[IvanIvanovich]

I've been using my old first gen 80GB intel x18m in some random Chinese 1.8" enclosure I got off ebay like a big flashdrive for awhile and never have any problems. Mostly depends on the enclosure... but also you need to remember that trim won't work when it's in a USB either so you will have to take it out and attach to sata to do ata secure erase now and then to restore performance.

[dustinhxc]

Thanks Ivan!

I ended up going with the OWC Mercury On-The-Go® Pro240GB SSD from OWC. Since the SSD works good in that enclosure.

Ill let you all know how it works..

[sameer.wahid]

Backblaze just posted a nice three-year review of the HD's they have in their clusters. The winner? Hitachi! (surprised me too).
http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Glad to see that WD also fared well, since I own 9 of their drives.

[dustinhxc]

Backblaze just posted a nice three-year review of the HD's they have in their clusters. The winner? Hitachi! (surprised me too).
http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Glad to see that WD also fared well, since I own 9 of their drives.

Wow.. Not liking the Seagate failure rate... lol I have 4 Seagates.. So far so good on them. Both my WD have failed me though. Went with OWC this round SSD as well. Id like to get another for my OS.

[terrpn]

for whatever reason i have absolutely no luck with 2.5 ext drives

bummer to as i prefer to  take them with me, but they always wind up croaking on me and costing me data

my 3.5's have lasted me forever and r reliable

i just went out and got a 128g thumb drive and just use that for easy transport. if i fill it up i just dump on my external or desktop and keep getting up

i do quite a bit of video as well and no problems with the size

everybody has their own preference i guess...........

[dustinhxc]

for whatever reason i have absolutely no luck with 2.5 ext drives

bummer to as i prefer to  take them with me, but they always wind up croaking on me and costing me data

my 3.5's have lasted me forever and r reliable

i just went out and got a 128g thumb drive and just use that for easy transport. if i fill it up i just dump on my external or desktop and keep getting up

i do quite a bit of video as well and no problems with the size

everybody has their own preference i guess...........

Ditto! only my 2 2.5" WD have failed on me.. My Seagate 3.5" all good still..
But since Im getting an SSD 2.5" Im hoping I have better luck. Im backing up to the 3.5"s and my online server as well.
But I wanted an SSD external to switch between computers.
I only have a 32gb thumb drive. Id love a larger one! Thats a great idea..

[dustinhxc]

I got my OWC Enclosure and SSD 6G HD. It came quick, it looks great. Formatted it and am dragging work files on it. Works good so far but my computer has slow 2.0 so I just ordered a 3.0 Card from Newegg. Should have that in a few days and Ill really be cookin' then

[IvanIvanovich]

I hope you remembered to get UASP USB3 card... or it won't even make that much difference.

[dustinhxc]

I hope you remembered to get UASP USB3 card... or it won't even make that much difference.

Crap Im not sure what that is..

I ordered this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1HD0PB5476

I type in UASP on Newegg and only the brand Sedna pops up.

Thanks,

[IvanIvanovich]

Oh you're good to go. The Via Vl800 is a good USB3 controller and it does support USB Attached SCSI Protocol, which is a newer USB3 standard protocol specifically for storage. It's much faster than old bulk transport protocol and much less taxing on CPU as well.

[dustinhxc]

Oh you're good to go. The Via Vl800 is a good USB3 controller and it does support USB Attached SCSI Protocol, which is a newer USB3 standard protocol specifically for storage. It's much faster than old bulk transport protocol and much less taxing on CPU as well.

Oh wow, thank you so much for the information! I went off reviews and 5 star rating only. Glad I picked a decent one, thanks


Man.. This enclosure is so nice with the Aluminum Heatsink and shock resistance.... No wonder the WD failed, just looking at its enclosure.. What a crappy external enclosure.. 
Also having the SSD in here makes me feel more safe in case it gets moved around..

[Oobly]

Good choice.

All the stuff I wrote pertains only to spinning disc drives, SSD is a whole other animal entirely and far better suited to being moved around.

[dustinhxc]

Good choice.

All the stuff I wrote pertains only to spinning disc drives, SSD is a whole other animal entirely and far better suited to being moved around.

Thanks! It seemed to be best for what I am going to use it for. Now I need one for my Internal OS HD.

[CommonCurt]

I always hook up my external ssd through esata.  Not sure if that enclosure that you got has esata, but if does try it out and see what you think.

[dustinhxc]

I always hook up my external ssd through esata.  Not sure if that enclosure that you got has esata, but if does try it out and see what you think.

I got the USB 3.0 version. They also have a FireWire 800 version.

[IvanIvanovich]

I like esatap... but it's too bad it didn't really catch on for some reason. Unpowered esata is more common, and it's simply annoying. Who wants to use 2 cables, or a wallwart? Not me! USB3 with uasp is just as speedy anyway and it's more convenient to have it be backwards compatible with older usb2 PC even though it will be super slow in comparison.

[CommonCurt]

I like esatap... but it's too bad it didn't really catch on for some reason. Unpowered esata is more common, and it's simply annoying. Who wants to use 2 cables, or a wallwart? Not me! USB3 with uasp is just as speedy anyway and it's more convenient to have it be backwards compatible with older PC even though it will be super slow in comparison.

True. That is the only downside, but mine usually just sits on my desk so it's not that big of problem.  Plus esata 6gb definitely seems faster then USB3.0.

[CommonCurt]

I always hook up my external ssd through esata.  Not sure if that enclosure that you got has esata, but if does try it out and see what you think.

I got the USB 3.0 version. They also have a FireWire 800 version.

I really like that Guardian MAXimus raid enclosure that you posted first. Iam probably going to get just the enclosure and add my own HDD's.

Thanks for linking that. I hadn't seen it before.

[IvanIvanovich]

Oh true... I only compare it to esata 3gbps... only one of my computer even have 6gbps and it only 2 ports internal. Not that it even matter except for ssd anyway, and even then obviously only with ssd to ssd.

[dustinhxc]

I always hook up my external ssd through esata.  Not sure if that enclosure that you got has esata, but if does try it out and see what you think.

I got the USB 3.0 version. They also have a FireWire 800 version.

I really like that Guardian MAXimus raid enclosure that you posted first. Iam probably going to get just the enclosure and add my own HDD's.

Thanks for linking that. I hadn't seen it before.

I like that one too! you're welcome.

[Leslieann]

Backblaze just posted a nice three-year review of the HD's they have in their clusters. The winner? Hitachi! (surprised me too).
http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Glad to see that WD also fared well, since I own 9 of their drives.

Wow.. Not liking the Seagate failure rate... lol I have 4 Seagates.. So far so good on them. Both my WD have failed me though. Went with OWC this round SSD as well. Id like to get another for my OS.

Replaced a few drives this week every one of them was WD, I've had okay luck with Hitachi.


As for the study, don't read too much into it.
Consider what they are doing, VERY high, almost exclusively WRITE loads, in a high heat, high vibration server rack, nothing like a typical consumer environment. They were told consumer level drives wouldn't even last 6 months. So while Seagate looks bad there, they were never meant for that environment.

[dustinhxc]

Backblaze just posted a nice three-year review of the HD's they have in their clusters. The winner? Hitachi! (surprised me too).
http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Glad to see that WD also fared well, since I own 9 of their drives.

Wow.. Not liking the Seagate failure rate... lol I have 4 Seagates.. So far so good on them. Both my WD have failed me though. Went with OWC this round SSD as well. Id like to get another for my OS.

Replaced a few drives this week every one of them was WD, I've had okay luck with Hitachi.


As for the study, don't read too much into it.
Consider what they are doing, VERY high, almost exclusively WRITE loads, in a high heat, high vibration server rack, nothing like a typical consumer environment. They were told consumer level drives wouldn't even last 6 months. So while Seagate looks bad there, they were never meant for that environment.

That's a great way to look at it! Sorry to hear that your WD also failed. I don't plan to buy them again and was so relieved when I checked my wife and I's computers and found all 4 of ours are Seagate.

[Leslieann]

That's a great way to look at it! Sorry to hear that your WD also failed. I don't plan to buy them again and was so relieved when I checked my wife and I's computers and found all 4 of ours are Seagate.

They weren't my drives.  I won't buy any WD unless they are from the Black or Raptor series.

[dustinhxc]

That's a great way to look at it! Sorry to hear that your WD also failed. I don't plan to buy them again and was so relieved when I checked my wife and I's computers and found all 4 of ours are Seagate.

They weren't my drives.  I won't buy any WD unless they are from the Black or Raptor series.

Oh I see! Nice

[IvanIvanovich]

This month must be fail hard drives month! Today I got failure eminent warning message... kind of surprised Windows actually can tell you now... but I didn't value it's opinion so I checked it with disk diagnostic... it was true. Goodbye last 2TB Samsung! Hello new 4TB Seagate.

[dustinhxc]

This month must be fail hard drives month! Today I got failure eminent warning message... kind of surprised Windows actually can tell you now... but I didn't value it's opinion so I checked it with disk diagnostic... it was true. Goodbye last 2TB Samsung! Hello new 4TB Seagate.

Oh wow sorry to hear that. Samsung ey? Enjoy the Seagate! Love mine.

[Leslieann]

This month must be fail hard drives month! Today I got failure eminent warning message... kind of surprised Windows actually can tell you now... but I didn't value it's opinion so I checked it with disk diagnostic... it was true. Goodbye last 2TB Samsung! Hello new 4TB Seagate.

Consider yourself lucky.
Of the hundreds of drives I have replaced, I have seen a grand total of two warnings.

[IvanIvanovich]

I was able to copy all the data from the fail disk... after it was done I decide I will clear it, make new partition, new format... test again and it passes ) I'm still not sure I should trust it, but I guess I can use it for a scratch/temp disk until it really fail.
I can't ever remember Window giving me any warning before either, is it maybe something new in 8.1? I have gotten them from IRST driver before though... but I didn't install it on my server just left it with the drivers from the chipset package since it have better hotswap supports.