3TB Deskstar 3.5 Inch CoolSpin SATA 6Gb/s Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit $107

[Aaron Ledger]

Saw this on SD. Amazon is selling 3TB Deskstar 3.5 Inch CoolSpin SATA 6Gb/s Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit for $107 shipped.

This is definitely the lowest I have seen on a 3TB capacity.

[Mike Garcen]

just crazy to think you could add 12 TERABYTES for just over $400, crazy

[mpatnode]

Unfortunately the reviews make it look like the Deathstar model is keeping up to it’s reputation…

[swoon]

There are only 3 reviews listed for the product. That certainly isn’t enough to be statistically significant.

[mpatnode]

I was also refering to the historical problems with the model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitachi_Deskstar

Now if Hitachi isn’t smart enough to change the name after buying IBM’s hard drive division, do you really believe they’ve addressed the quality issues?

[swoon]

I am well aware of the “death star.” Every HDD manufacturer has had their share of lemons.

I’ve got a 2TB Hitachi Coolspin with no issues. I would not hesitate to try the 3TB either if I needed the storage.

[mpatnode]

I’m sure they make good drives, I just can’t believe they didn’t change the model name.    There’s a reason Ford no longer makes the Pinto.

[LowTech]

In the back of my mind I still harbor a little prejudice against Hitachi drives because of the IBM DeathStar thing and then later an apparent noise issue that some models were known for. 

However, a couple of months ago I was in need of a replacement HDD for my mom’s desktop PC.  In the end I decided to push my prejudices aside and get a 500GB Hitachi after having read the various customer reviews and whatever other information that I could find.  It was the apparent “best bang for the buck”.  After I installed it and got the PC back up and running I noted no unusual noises or vibrations even though I just knew for sure that the Hitachi would make its presence known somehow.  It simply does what it is supposed to.

This experience in no way make me a Hitachi fan boy but I now have another HDD manufacturer to consider when trying to make a HDD purchase decision and that’s always a good thing as in the past I never gave Hitachi drives any consideration. 

[Techbutton]

I worked for Hitachi GST, and I have to say that the problem wasn’t Hitachi, it was IBM. IBM quickly sold the hard drive business and Hitachi was plagued with that problem for a very long time.. Hitachi quickly changed the business model IBM was running on..

Others have problems just like Hitachi did, just the name stuck more with the “DeathStar” name people called it..

[mpatnode]

[quote=Techbutton]

I worked for Hitachi GST, and I have to say that the problem wasn’t Hitachi, it was IBM.

[/quote]

I have no problem believing that.  I wonder if as part of the deal, they were forced to keep the product name as well.

[LowTech]

[quote=Techbutton]

I worked for Hitachi GST, and I have to say that the problem wasn’t Hitachi, it was IBM. IBM quickly sold the hard drive business and Hitachi was plagued with that problem for a very long time.. Hitachi quickly changed the business model IBM was running on..

Others have problems just like Hitachi did, just the name stuck more with the “DeathStar” name people called it..

[/quote]

 

I believe that the circa 2005ish “meowing” issue was all Hitachi. 

And just to go off on a slight tangent (not Hitachi related – but in general) I feel that a lot of the HDD DOA user reviews that we see on NewEgg etc are in large part due to the shipping experience.  Earlier this month I received two Seagate 2TB drives for my NAS.  the box in which they were packed looked like they participated in a rugby game or something.  The exterior box was in such bad shape that I almost contacted NewEgg for an RMA as I knew for sure that these 3.5″ drives could not have survived the UPS experience that they went through.  I installed them anyways in my NAS and they work fine but I cannot help but believe that if one or both of these drives die prematurely that blame can be directly attributed to the rough handling that they were subjected to during the shipping process. 

For that reason I give sort of a half rate weighting to any DOA type negative customer reviews as it is clear that our shipping options tend to be rather rough on sensitive electronic and other products.

[Author]

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