"Aren't All Hard Drives the Same?"

Most people don’t think much about hard drives.  The average hard-drive customer is either running out of space on a computer or has an old hard drive that failed.  Rather than becoming educated, they try to solve the problem ASAP. “Computer not working!” they scream and at confused and frightened Best Buy employees.  They run down aisles filled with confusing assortments of computer peripherals. Then, they stop by an array of 100 gigabyte internal drives, salivate, and grab the first one they can and get out of the store.

After all, aren’t all hard drives the same? What advantage would one have over another?

Quite a bit, actually. Modern hard drives vary a great deal,  and there are a few quick things to consider when buying one.

Brand

The brand of a hard drive can tell you quite a bit. If it’s a company that’s been making drives for quite a while, it’s reasonable to assume that they know what they’re doing. If the company keeps resurfacing with a new name, or if the drive is generic, don’t buy it. Hard drives aren’t exactly simple to build; the firmware alone must be specific to the microinch or the drive could conceivably fail. You’re not buying laundry detergent here—this is a highly technical device. Only rely on name brands. I always recommend Samsung drives, as they are more dependable than many of the modern manufacturers. Also notable are Maxtor and Western Digital drives; Seagate also makes great, dependable medium, but their entry into the field of data recovery may prove to be a conflict of interest.

If you’re buying an external hard drive, consider how you’ll use it. The primary use, of course, is backup. If this is the case, you might want to shop for a drive that has backup software bundled with it. One notable example is the Maxtor OneTouch II, which can be purchased at a fair price at most online stores (they’re also extremely cheap on Ebay).