Seagate - Reviews and experiences

I spotted these Seagate drives when I was browsing an online shop — a coworker had actually mentioned them as a good deal, so I grabbed one 8TB unit in December to stash a big archive. Threw about 7.5TB on it, kept it inside my desktop like you would, no crazy abuse. Then, about a month in, it started clicking and died — data gone. When I pulled it (I tinker with hardware for work, so I know how to open a case), the plastic on the SATA connector snapped off. Supplier used that to refuse a return. So yeah, lost data and a few hundred bucks. Figured I’d try differently and bought two 20TB external drives with enclosures, put everything on one and mirrored to the other. Within days one of them made odd noises, so I made the mirror and stashed the backup away cold. The original didn’t see much use and still started failing by March. I’m bummed — they used to be the brand I trusted. Not flawless, but when they work the speed/space is great. Still, reliability is shaky, and I’d advise making extra copies elsewhere rather than trusting one set of Seagates.