Originally Posted By: tanstaafl.
Originally Posted By: hybrid8
Reading the reviews on the various 2TB models has got me a little worried though. Lots of failures from every brand.

The only salvation there is if you look at the pattern of the failures. Most failures are DOAs, and of the remainder most of those fail within the first couple of weeks.

Yes, those write-ups had me concerned at first. But eventually I figured out that these were probably all due to having UPS deliver a poorly packed and highly fragile mechanical marvell over long distances.

All brands seemed to have the same DOA complaints, as did most large online vendors.

The local shops sell tons of the same drives, and claim nary a single return on them (do I believe them?).

So, I decided to get the big drives, paying my own cash for the first time in over a decade, but made sure to buy them locally. Bulk shipments to shops generally come much better packed than single drive shipments to consumers, so one would expect the DOA rate to be near zero there.

Cheers