G'day Mac,
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Every doggone one of 'em regardless of brand, are made in Singapore.

It is shared technology and give or take a few things, the quality level is about the same for all as far as durability concerns go.




Almost but not quite - regardless, they aren't all made in the same plants. Samsung make drives in Korea IIRC, and I've seen a few "no-names" from India. Not sure where Fujitsu and Hitachi are making theirs these days (Hitachi took over IBM's drives - they used to be made by Seagate, but I think Hitachi make their own now - not sure where)

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I'd venture to say that the majority of hard drive failures are not due to hardware faults but to internal software probs. Unless you crash a head or the like.




When we see what we call a HD failure, it is the HDD. Sometime the logic board, sometimes a chamber failure of some kind... Remember the Quantum "fireball"? They were well named - saw more than I care to count go up in a cloud of sparks and smoke - they had a hybrid chip on board for the platter motor control which used to regularly blow itself apart.

Maxtor's had a habit of running too hot, usually resulting in a chamber failure - Quantums also often had chamber failures though usually for different reasons. Seen lots of "dropped" heads (actually, the "slipper" comes adrift and the head is allowed to contact the surface - very noisy...)

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It is a wonder that the things work at all.

Regardless of where they were designed, where manufactured or who manufactured them.

Failure is to be expected.

Backup accordingly.




Better advice was never uttered.

Mario:
When you store your CDRW or DVDRW or whatever you use, store 'em in a cool, dry, dark place - this media doesn't last nearly as long as the manufacturers would like us to believe.

--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya laugh --=--
You're only paranoid if you're wrong!