> I've got 16 3TB WD Reds running 24/7 for a little over 3 years. > Only had 1 failure (Smart complaining) in that time.
> I find that decent odds. > Joost I bought a WD Green 3 TB hard drive in May 2011, warranty was then 3 years. It went bad with errors after 34 months. I was able to get a warranty replacement after much hassle, with the warranty on such drives down to 2 years. That replacement hard drive went bad in about seven months, strange sounds reminiscent of a dialup modem, drive was no longer recognized by the computer. At nearly the same time as the WD Green failure, a 3 TB My Book Essential 3 TB USB 3.0 hard drive, ordered at the same time as the WD Green drive, went somewhat bad with errors, but the warranty on that was 2 years. Needing a hard drive for another computer (May 2013), and not trusting WD or "Green", I ordered a Seagate NAS 4 TB hard drive, figuring increased reliability compared to Barracuda or Desktop was worth the modest additional cost. That drive is still good as far as I can tell. Now I am considering an external hard drive with eSATA, more suitable for OS installation (Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Haiku?) than USB 3.0. Only brand I find is Micronet Fantom (GForce), or use Seagate NAS hard drive in an enclosure with eSATA. I really can't see why USB 3.0 is so more widely available than eSATA when eSATA seems superior as far as I can tell. Tom
