I've always favored WD over Seagate, but there is no denying Seagate had some revolutionary drives in their day starting with the 7200.7, a model I still haven't seen a single failure from, even after over a decade of service.
Recently, though, I agree with you, I've seen more Seagate failures than other manufactures, but they are almost always external 3.5" drives.
I bought four seagate drives to throw into RAID a few years back. All failed within a 6 month period.. I just assumed something happened during shipping or I got a bad batch... Got Western Digital and haven't looked back. Had a few Samsung drives too before they sold out, they still tick along perfectly fine. :)
This drive though is over priced and ugly, what pushed them to go with that green colour when the machine is completely black, with black controllers? Buying a non-xbox branded drive would actually match the console better from a colour and aesthetics perspective.
I have the opposite issue. Most of my WD drives fail within the first year or two, while my Seagate drives hum along well into the 4-5 year mark.
Now I've bought Seagate external drives and ripped the drive out to put into a system (can be as much as $50 cheaper over retail). Those seem to fail in 2-3 years.
This is actually backed up by empirical data: Google "backblaze seagate 3TB" Also seagate drives overall fail more often than other manufacturers - also backed up by other studies (and my own experiences)
Backblaze studies only consider a single configuration: bulk cold storage. Their data isn't entirely applicable to desktop, mobile, or server usage scenario.
It is still relevant, and important, and actually fantastic they provide that level of transparency, but Backblaze has a few flaws in their data collection. For one, Backblaze has an interesting history of sourcing drives from various vendors, many of which came from "shucked" drives from Best Buy and Costco locations across the country from 2010-2011. Shucked drives often have firmware that is calibrated for external drive usage scenario (occasional read/write, non-24/7 use) and when looking at the Backblaze data, they fail to provide firmware, just generational model numbers.
Seagate is notorious for using multiple firmware configurations within the same model drives.
This here. I appreciate the Backblaze data, they are one of the few putting real world data out there. I think they definitely identified an issue with the 3TB class of drives, and especially with Seagate.
That said, they are only testing one scenario, and it is not one that is terribly relevant to most end users. That needs to be kept in mind when looking at their data.
I disagree with this, i think the backblaze scenario is perfectly valid. In general, i've had bad experience with seagate drives. I have some WD black 2 terabyte drives I bought many years ago that are still going strong. All 3 of my seagate drives have shown issues. If you look at shrinking warranties over the past few years, you can tell right away who makes crap drives. I try to only go with drives that have a 5-10 year warranty.
Oh and to add to this, both my 2 TB WD black edition hard drives have been in a dual drive enclosure for 4.5 years. Not a single issue with either one of them.
I've had 6 X 2 TB drives, 6 X 3TB drives and now 6 X 5 TB drives in RAID or JBOD external boxes. All from Seagate External drives I opened up. I've had 1 x 2TB drives go bad, 3 3TB Drives, and no 5TB Drives, but the 5 TB ones are relatively new. This sort of correlates with BackBlaze's experience with thousands of drives : https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-fail... Of course this article is all about notebook sized hard drives, so very different. 3TB 2.5 drives are still rare
So Seagate with cooperation with Microsoft managed to create green plastic case for one of its crappy drives. Astonishing. I look forward for time when Seagate will be the leading manufacturer of plastic cases for SSDs.
Considering you can get one of their 2TB SSHDs for the same or less and stick it in a case that will match the XBox One's aesthetic better, I'm not sure what the appeal is supposed to be. Unless that custom firmware is really compelling, but that seems unlikely.
I got the Xbox One Media Hub from Collective Minds. It plugs into the USB port on the side of the Xbox and actually looks like part of the system. The media hub adds three USB ports to the front of the Xbox and can accept any 2.5" SSD, HDD, or hybrid drive of at least 256GB or larger. At $39.99 USD it's priced good. I haven't decided on what drive to install in mine yet. I'm thinking at least a 2TB drive of some sort.
Ugh, the real solution is to redesign the Xbox One to use user replaceable drives!
Nifty looking, and the custom firmware might help... in my experience external drives aren't super reliable...I'd guess because they aren't adequately cooled compared with internal drives. Beyond that of course, there's no solution if the Xbox's internal drive does...
Thanks for your nice review! I do need such external hard drive to extend my PC space. But, I do have searched the WD external drive, Toshiba backup portable drive and Samsung USB drive. And perhaps, you’re mentioned Seagate drive also needs to be taken into considerations. http://www.icare-recovery.com/howto/seagate-hard-d...
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28 Comments
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AndrewJacksonZA - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Good thing it's not a 3TB drive. My friend's 3TB Seagate external died in the middle of a copy operation last week Wednesday... :-(hughlle - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Your point being? That 3tb seagate drives are inherently risky because your friend once had one that failed?ddriver - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Seagate seem to be the champs when it comes to failure rates the past years. WD REDs seem to be a serious contender though...Samus - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
I've always favored WD over Seagate, but there is no denying Seagate had some revolutionary drives in their day starting with the 7200.7, a model I still haven't seen a single failure from, even after over a decade of service.Recently, though, I agree with you, I've seen more Seagate failures than other manufactures, but they are almost always external 3.5" drives.
StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
I bought four seagate drives to throw into RAID a few years back. All failed within a 6 month period..I just assumed something happened during shipping or I got a bad batch... Got Western Digital and haven't looked back.
Had a few Samsung drives too before they sold out, they still tick along perfectly fine. :)
This drive though is over priced and ugly, what pushed them to go with that green colour when the machine is completely black, with black controllers? Buying a non-xbox branded drive would actually match the console better from a colour and aesthetics perspective.
khanikun - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link
I have the opposite issue. Most of my WD drives fail within the first year or two, while my Seagate drives hum along well into the 4-5 year mark.Now I've bought Seagate external drives and ripped the drive out to put into a system (can be as much as $50 cheaper over retail). Those seem to fail in 2-3 years.
Miller1331 - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - link
I have personally had 2 die on me within the last 6 months, 1tb and 3tb 2.5 drivesAtwaterFS - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
This is actually backed up by empirical data: Google "backblaze seagate 3TB"Also seagate drives overall fail more often than other manufacturers - also backed up by other studies (and my own experiences)
Samus - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Backblaze studies only consider a single configuration: bulk cold storage. Their data isn't entirely applicable to desktop, mobile, or server usage scenario.It is still relevant, and important, and actually fantastic they provide that level of transparency, but Backblaze has a few flaws in their data collection. For one, Backblaze has an interesting history of sourcing drives from various vendors, many of which came from "shucked" drives from Best Buy and Costco locations across the country from 2010-2011. Shucked drives often have firmware that is calibrated for external drive usage scenario (occasional read/write, non-24/7 use) and when looking at the Backblaze data, they fail to provide firmware, just generational model numbers.
Seagate is notorious for using multiple firmware configurations within the same model drives.
Reflex - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
This here. I appreciate the Backblaze data, they are one of the few putting real world data out there. I think they definitely identified an issue with the 3TB class of drives, and especially with Seagate.That said, they are only testing one scenario, and it is not one that is terribly relevant to most end users. That needs to be kept in mind when looking at their data.
eek2121 - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link
I disagree with this, i think the backblaze scenario is perfectly valid. In general, i've had bad experience with seagate drives. I have some WD black 2 terabyte drives I bought many years ago that are still going strong. All 3 of my seagate drives have shown issues. If you look at shrinking warranties over the past few years, you can tell right away who makes crap drives. I try to only go with drives that have a 5-10 year warranty.eek2121 - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link
Oh and to add to this, both my 2 TB WD black edition hard drives have been in a dual drive enclosure for 4.5 years. Not a single issue with either one of them.nyarrgh - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
I've had 6 X 2 TB drives, 6 X 3TB drives and now 6 X 5 TB drives in RAID or JBOD external boxes. All from Seagate External drives I opened up. I've had 1 x 2TB drives go bad, 3 3TB Drives, and no 5TB Drives, but the 5 TB ones are relatively new. This sort of correlates with BackBlaze's experience with thousands of drives : https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-fail...Of course this article is all about notebook sized hard drives, so very different. 3TB 2.5 drives are still rare
mszew - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
So Seagate with cooperation with Microsoft managed to create green plastic case for one of its crappy drives. Astonishing. I look forward for time when Seagate will be the leading manufacturer of plastic cases for SSDs.Flunk - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Seagate actually owns Sandforce now so they actually bought in to the SSD race.Gunbuster - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
AKA a totally standard USB HDD. Way to be on the cutting edge SeagateGunbuster - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Not to mention it doesn't even match the design aesthetic of the XB1...06GTOSC - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Yeah I'd think you'd want a standing drive that sits next to the XB1. Not just a green drive you lay next to it.cashnmillions - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
So it is endorsed and licensed through Microsoft, does that mean anything? Does it do anything more than any other external hard drive?Brett Howse - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
I'm told it has custom firmware for use as a console drive (updated the post) but not sure what that means so we're going to test it and find out.Miller1331 - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - link
Snake-oil?Miller1331 - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - link
It means that you get to pay more to have the xbox logo on itFlunk - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Why not just buy a regular 5TB external drive for a similar price?kyuu - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Considering you can get one of their 2TB SSHDs for the same or less and stick it in a case that will match the XBox One's aesthetic better, I'm not sure what the appeal is supposed to be. Unless that custom firmware is really compelling, but that seems unlikely.RGagne1975 - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
I got the Xbox One Media Hub from Collective Minds. It plugs into the USB port on the side of the Xbox and actually looks like part of the system. The media hub adds three USB ports to the front of the Xbox and can accept any 2.5" SSD, HDD, or hybrid drive of at least 256GB or larger. At $39.99 USD it's priced good. I haven't decided on what drive to install in mine yet. I'm thinking at least a 2TB drive of some sort.Wolfpup - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link
Ugh, the real solution is to redesign the Xbox One to use user replaceable drives!Nifty looking, and the custom firmware might help... in my experience external drives aren't super reliable...I'd guess because they aren't adequately cooled compared with internal drives. Beyond that of course, there's no solution if the Xbox's internal drive does...
Brookber0 - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
Thanks for your nice review! I do need such external hard drive to extend my PC space. But, I do have searched the WD external drive, Toshiba backup portable drive and Samsung USB drive. And perhaps, you’re mentioned Seagate drive also needs to be taken into considerations.http://www.icare-recovery.com/howto/seagate-hard-d...
Miller1331 - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - link
Not sure about the green