Ultimate Edition Forum

I'd like to include 500GB PATA/IDE HDD in my build. Was going Western Digital, but have seen so many Linux user complaints on various forums, I'm not so eager. Can anyone recommend brand & model number of 500GB PATA/IDE HDD that is known to 'just work'? I'm newbie, so not into messing with the kernel, or fussing with it a lot to make it functional. Would like to use it in 'mobile-rack' setup, if possible. Thanks for any help.

Wellll, I might recommend you try for something with a little more memory

For the most part it is somewhat difficult to determine if a drive will be good for you or not, since they all have troubles of one sort or another and are primarily manufactured by 2 companies, Western Digital and Seagate, despite what the name on the product may say. For example..Maxtor=Seagate

I absolutely hate Seagate, and this is because of the Barracuda, which is in everything and it is not so much a quality issue as it is knowing that a product is defective and still pushing it, and hey, if you have a problem, Thailand is only a plane flight away.

If I am buying a drive I will generally go with WD not because it won't fail, but I have a better chance of getting it replaced. Shipped from Thailand.

"Lawsuits have been filed against hard disk manufacturers Seagate[21] and Western Digital,[22] related to the claimed capacity of their drives. The drives are labelled using the "decimal definition" of 1000 bytes to the kilobyte, resulting in a perceived capacity shortfall to those used to the "binary definition" of 1024 bytes to the kilobyte, which is how most operating systems report capacity.[23] While Western Digital maintained that they used "the indisputably correct industry standard for measuring and describing storage capacity", and that they "cannot be expected to reform the software industry", they agreed to settle in March 2006,[24] with a $30 refund to affected customers in the form of backup and recovery software of the same value.[23] A disclaimer is now included with all drives explaining the capacity figures."

In case anyone was wondering why their drives always come up short.

Do you mean 500MB or 500GB ??

Unlikely, you wont get a 500MB anywhere in the world...if you do they are unreliable...you cant shake or turn them upside down...they wont survive
so long into the future

A 500GB PATA/IDE, again wont be available..they were never made.....lucky if you are, you might get 80/100GB at max(used)....

SATA ports came out long before 500GB drives

pam wrote:Do you mean 500MB or 500GB ??

Unlikely, you wont get a 500MB anywhere in the world...if you do they are unreliable...you cant shake or turn them upside down...they wont survive
so long into the future

A 500GB PATA/IDE, again wont be available..they were never made.....lucky if you are, you might get 80/100GB at max(used)....

SATA ports came out long before 500GB drives

Sorry about that...when timeclock at library is running out, I get careless. I meant 500GB. Finding 500GB IDE/PATA hard disc drives to buy is not a problem. Quickie Google search of:
WD5000AAKB
WD5000AAJB
WD5000JBRTL
WDBAAV5000ENC-NRSN
turns up many sources for WD products and other brands. After reading all the complaints of Linux users, I'm paranoid about buying any brand/model number a user has not specifically recommended as working...especially since most fixes seem to require massive amounts of fussing to get it to work, or even worse, altering the kernel.

Formido wrote:

pam wrote:Do you mean 500MB or 500GB ??

Unlikely, you wont get a 500MB anywhere in the world...if you do they are unreliable...you cant shake or turn them upside down...they wont survive
so long into the future

A 500GB PATA/IDE, again wont be available..they were never made.....lucky if you are, you might get 80/100GB at max(used)....

SATA ports came out long before 500GB drives

Sorry about that...when timeclock at library is running out, I get careless. I meant 500GB. Finding 500GB IDE/PATA hard disc drives to buy is not a problem. Quickie Google search of:
WD5000AAKB
WD5000AAJB
WD5000JBRTL
WDBAAV5000ENC-NRSN
turns up many sources for WD products and other brands. After reading all the complaints of Linux users, I'm paranoid about buying any brand/model number a user has not specifically recommended as working...especially since most fixes seem to require massive amounts of fussing to get it to work, or even worse, altering the kernel.

Don't be paranoid because they are after you, so it's a total waste of time. This is a wide range topic not specific to Ultimate Edition by any means. It is how you use your hard drive, how you partition your hard drive, etc.. If you are using a dual boot with Windows your scenario is actually completely different than if you are dual booting Linux. I could go on forever but luckily
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

It is a good thing to inquire beforehand about what you are going to purchase, and if it has a high fail rate, but this is an area where if you go by pure consumer reviews you may be mislead. Try to keep in mind that there are companies who are paid to mislead you through this very tactic in the guise of Computer & Tech advice sites. Then there is the knowledge of the one issuing the complaint. For all you know they took their brand new drive, plugged it in with the power on, didn't see immediate results and issued a complaint.

Formido wrote:

pam wrote:Do you mean 500MB or 500GB ??

Unlikely, you wont get a 500MB anywhere in the world...if you do they are unreliable...you cant shake or turn them upside down...they wont survive
so long into the future

A 500GB PATA/IDE, again wont be available..they were never made.....lucky if you are, you might get 80/100GB at max(used)....

SATA ports came out long before 500GB drives

Sorry about that...when timeclock at library is running out, I get careless. I meant 500GB. Finding 500GB IDE/PATA hard disc drives to buy is not a problem. Quickie Google search of:
WD5000AAKB
WD5000AAJB
WD5000JBRTL
WDBAAV5000ENC-NRSN
turns up many sources for WD products and other brands. After reading all the complaints of Linux users, I'm paranoid about buying any brand/model number a user has not specifically recommended as working...especially since most fixes seem to require massive amounts of fussing to get it to work, or even worse, altering the kernel.

Cool, didn't see that
I don't think they should give any problems but the fact remains they are used.
If warranty is covered(unlikely) then get Only WD.

Whichever you buy...just run a diskcheck(on Ultimate Edition use palimpsest)..and reboot a couple of times...listen to, if there are any Loud clicking/sounds.

When building PC's, I always went with WD due to reliability.
Seagate failed miserably.
Samsung - as slow as a wet weekend
Maxtor - Seagates ugly deformed bastard child

Cheers.

Xanayoshi wrote:

Formido wrote:

pam wrote:Do you mean 500MB or 500GB ??

Unlikely, you wont get a 500MB anywhere in the world...if you do they are unreliable...you cant shake or turn them upside down...they wont survive
so long into the future

A 500GB PATA/IDE, again wont be available..they were never made.....lucky if you are, you might get 80/100GB at max(used)....

SATA ports came out long before 500GB drives

Sorry about that...when timeclock at library is running out, I get careless. I meant 500GB. Finding 500GB IDE/PATA hard disc drives to buy is not a problem. Quickie Google search of:
WD5000AAKB
WD5000AAJB
WD5000JBRTL
WDBAAV5000ENC-NRSN
turns up many sources for WD products and other brands. After reading all the complaints of Linux users, I'm paranoid about buying any brand/model number a user has not specifically recommended as working...especially since most fixes seem to require massive amounts of fussing to get it to work, or even worse, altering the kernel.

Don't be paranoid because they are after you, so it's a total waste of time. This is a wide range topic not specific to Ultimate Edition by any means. It is how you use your hard drive, how you partition your hard drive, etc.. If you are using a dual boot with Windows your scenario is actually completely different than if you are dual booting Linux. I could go on forever but luckily
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

It is a good thing to inquire beforehand about what you are going to purchase, and if it has a high fail rate, but this is an area where if you go by pure consumer reviews you may be mislead. Try to keep in mind that there are companies who are paid to mislead you through this very tactic in the guise of Computer & Tech advice sites. Then there is the knowledge of the one issuing the complaint. For all you know they took their brand new drive, plugged it in with the power on, didn't see immediate results and issued a complaint.

Well, for the most part, I'm intending to use mobile-rack setup, with multiple hard discs (each disc with its own dedicated OS). Still looking into disc drive selectors. Anyway, can I assume then that none of the four WD products above have a high fail rate, all are equal, and I'm relatively safe buying any of these?

Moebius wrote:When building PC's, I always went with WD due to reliability.
Seagate failed miserably.
Samsung - as slow as a wet weekend
Maxtor - Seagates ugly deformed bastard child

Cheers.

I'd always heard WD was the best....til I started looking into linux complaints. Not that I didn't find plenty of moaning about other brands too. I'm just getting really paranoid about picking certain components for Linux!

Only luck can tell...but nonetheless you get what you pay for. No warranty is what makes you paranoid. So yes its gamble.
Dont worry about linux, you dont even need to know what you are using if you use linux.(A few exceptions exist).