Which brand of  hard drive has the longest life span?
114125
I don't really think that it's fair to say that any has a longer life span than another. In my personal experience, I've seen 10 year old hard drives from maxtor, western digital, ibm, etc.. and I've also seen just as many die inside of a year or two. A while back when I was doing research to buy a new hard drive, I actually signed up for a site that kept track of user submissions on hard drive make/model/life-span. You'd be amazed at how even the field was. Every manufacturer has their bad batch, but for the most part one drive is just as susceptible to failure as the nest. The fact is, all these drives are built on similar technology and thus are all prone to failures in the same way. For now we just have to deal with the fact that a hard drive is a failure part and take that into account when you build a computer. Rather than looking at what hard drive has a longer life span, look for the best performing drives, and, if failure is really a concern, the longest warranty.
635570
the best makes are western digital ore seagate, seagate usually give a 5 year warranty. this is important very important. as drives break down more than people think.\nliteon is good dvd drive, benq is not so reliable, samsung is good, hp is good. lg is good but don't last. also try get a good speed. 16x upwards\n\nalways by new or from a reliable source
1144816
I don't have any experience with Seagate HDD's, but I have heard from people who have used them in heavy usage situations and they say that they are not all that good. They recommend Western Digital first and Maxtor a close second. I have built a couple of computers, and I buy most of my parts from newegg.com. I do trust the customer comments, especially the last two months, this may show a trend in quality issues.
1059300
Actually the lifespan is about equal and all depends on how well you care for your monitor and use it.  I've seen old white IBM monitors outlast LCDs strictly because they were kept dust free, not used very often, and in general just well kept.  On the flipside, I've seen CRTs go out within a year's time (personal experience) compared to the 5 years an LCD has lasted me thus far.  Again, it all goes to how much you use it and how well you care for it.\n\nLCDs are prone to damage, like any electronic device, if you misuse it.
715123
Hmm.. It looks good, expecially if you want to do many things with it. You should ask if they offer a 7200RPM hard drive instead of a 5400RPM other then that the specs seemed to be fine. \n\nAbout the 2 year warntee worth the investment. Computers somehow tend to break after the first year. Protect your investment. 3 years they charge way to much.
223673
DELL! Ofcourse! I has great stability. Lasts long. Low maintaince. bla bla
250368
Your second hard drive needs to also be an Ultra ATA hard drive (the size can be whatever you need). The hard drive controller installed in your computer will support at least two hard drives, the second one installed is called the "slave" (if you encounter that question in the install instructions). 7200 RPM is standard (the speed that the drive spins) but if you can get something faster for a decent price, that would be a good upgrade. A faster RPM means less time to retrieve data and therefore better performance. If you have a Dell, I would start with their website as the starting point to get some idea of pricing. Also, pretty much every large electronics store has these types of hard drives as they are standard upgrades.
3270
Check the link below.  I like Seagate and Western Digital.
922631
It seems that if you take care of them they should retain their data for a good long while (wikipedia says 100 years); however, the way most people handle and store them they will only last for a couple of years.\n\nCheck out the wikipedia article on CD-Rs and their lifespans:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R#Optimal_storage_conditions_and_expected_lifespan\n\nThis guy also has some interesting information on the subject:\nhttp://www.practicalpc.co.uk/computing/storage/cdrlifespan.htm
1124309
StorageReview.com is a pretty good resource for checking out hard drives. Rates them based on performance, reliability, etc.\n\nhttp://www.storagereview.com/\n\nMaxtor in general seems to be average to good.
264978
never tried them, always used seagate... why fix something that doesn't cause u headache. go seagate?
1014630
All hard drives have the potential to die any day.  Reliability on a hard drive isn't really reliable.  The average hard drive, if treated with care, would last you 4-5 years, but now, most die within the first year because of larger programs and the many many viruses, worms, trojans, etc. out there.  I suggest that you also do another back up onto CD if the information is really important.  Most external hard drives have a 1 year warrenty if not 3, so if it were to die on you, you can call the manufacturer and get it replaced.\n\nI give you props for backing up your information on a second hard drive, most people don't do that and lose everything.  So to answer your question in brief, hard drives usually live for 4-5 years if taken care of.  If all you're doing is storing files on that hard drive, it'll last you pretty long.  But if you start installing drives and extracting potential virus prone documents onto there, then you'll experience some problems.  Hope this helped.
220870
It would be easier to just replace the unit, there not very expensive and you can do it with a screwdriver and 15 min. of free time.  newegg has very good drives for a reasonable amount.
1107216
I think they are called a portable hard drive.
460084
I've used all three a great many times and all three are just as good.\n\nI actually have 4 hard drives in my PCs, 600 gigs, 2 WD's and 2 Maxtor's.\n\nI would just go with whatever you can get the best price on.
12171
sata 1 or and sata 2 are the fastest hard disks currently,,,,
115416
I am a Toshiba guy all the way, i get excellent performance out of mine and I found the price to be decent compared to the ProGen I bought in 1996 for 3,100!