Seagate Vs WD Reliability (Which Is Better?)
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Today’s topic is about the comparison between Seagate Vs WD Reliability. There are many hard drive brands to choose from, so you may want to familiarize yourself with the features and capabilities of each one to make the best choice for your needs.
In the end, the hard drive you choose determines where and how well your data is protected. In general, a more trustworthy drive should last you longer (though regular data backups are always a good idea!) than a less durable one. Choosing the most trustworthy hard disc drive from among the hundreds of hard drive brands and models is a problem many end-users faces.

Seagate Vs WD Reliability
With 49 drive failures out of a total of 10,861 drives over an average period of 7.74 months, Seagate’s 16 TB offering performed abhorrently. This leads to an annualized failure rate (AFR) of 1.11%, significantly higher than WD’s AFR of 0.14% (only one failure) over five months.
Seagate
Storage firm Seagate Technology PLC is based in the United States. Shugart technology was established in 1978. As of 2010, the corporation has been based out of Cupertino, California, USA, with its headquarters in Dublin, the Republic of Ireland.
For the first time, Seagate created a 5.25-inch hard disc drive in 1980. (HDD). They rose to prominence as a leading manufacturer and distributor of microcomputers in the 1980s. Seagate and Western Digital currently dominate the hard disc market. Desktop HDD, Laptop HDD, Enterprise / Archive HDD, and others are some of their most popular offerings.
The acquisition of rival companies largely fueled Seagate’s expansion. In 1989, Seagate purchased the Control Data Corporation’s Imprimis HDD division. Seagate purchased Conner Peripherals in 1996. Maxtor and Samsung’s hard disc businesses were acquired by Seagate in 2006 and 2011, respectively,
Seagate is now the world’s leading data storage company. Storage devices developed by the company allow users to create, share, and store their most important data from anywhere globally.
Western Digital
American computer hard disc manufacturer and data storage solutions provider Western Digital Corporation (WD), usually known as Western Digital and WD, is a household name. Storage devices, data center systems, and cloud storage services are some of the many products and services it creates, produces, and makes available to meet the ever-changing information technology industry needs.
The electronic industry has known Western Digital for many years. In 1970, Alvin B. Phillips created the company based in Irvine, California, and has since relocated. San Jose, California, is now the company’s new headquarters.
Western Digital, like Seagate, has grown to be a major player in the computer hard drive industry through the acquisition of other companies. When Western Digital purchased HGST in March 2012, the company became known as HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies). After the acquisition, WD became the largest hard disc producer in the world, which had a significant impact on the hard disc business.
Western Digital purchased SanDisk, a maker of storage chips, in May 2016. Western Digital purchased Upthere, a cloud storage provider, in August 2017 to enhance its cloud storage capabilities. Tegile Systems, a producer of flash storage arrays, was acquired by Western Digital in September of last year.
Now that WD and Seagate are the only two major hard disc producers, it is clear that the hard disc business has entered the oligarchy era. When deciding between, say, an SSD or an HDD, many consumers will weigh the pros and cons of the two manufacturers’ products. As a result, I’ll be comparing Seagate and Western Digital storage devices for you today.
Difference Between Seagate Vs Western Digital Reliability
Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corporation are both HDD manufacturers. In what ways do their hard disc drives differ? As a result of this comparison, you’ll learn about the differences between Seagate and Western Digital’s HDDs in terms of reliability, speed, and capacity.
Capacity
The fact that Western Digital was the first to deliver 2TB SATA hard drives to the market thrilled us with storage capacity. And hard discs are getting larger and larger in size. The helium-filled HGST Ultrastar Hs14, the world’s first 14 TB HDD, was shipped by Western Digital in October 2017.
Desktop-class drives from Seagate can hold up to 10 terabytes. This drive isn’t the most powerful, either. With a 14TB hard drive, you’ll be able to store more games, movies, and audio than ever before on your computer.
When it comes to hard disc capacity, either Western Digital or Seagate can meet your needs. It is possible to compare other important aspects such as pricing, performance, and dependability when choosing a hard disc from these two manufacturers.
Reliability
Selecting a high-performance and trustworthy hard drive is critical when upgrading a hard drive. Any drive you buy today may fail at some point, but the more reliable your drive is, the longer it should last. As a result, dependability is critical.
Many consumers prefer Western Digital as a hard disc manufacturer for classic platter drives. For years, many individuals have relied on WD hard drives. They also believe that WD hard drives are extremely reliable, a low failure rate.
However, a study from BackBlaze, shows that Western Digital’s drives were overall the least reliable among HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Is that true? Hard disc drive failures are different depending on the manufacturer, model, and capacity. These figures are only discovered when the manufacturer takes the model and capacity into account. As a result, these figures are not entirely accurate.
After searching on the Internet, many people believe that Western Digital’s hard drives are more reliable than Seagate’s. Furthermore, many consumers claim that Western Digital HDDs fail less frequently than Seagate HDDs.
Because not all hard drives are made equal, you may occasionally experience WD or Seagate hard drive failure, regardless of the reliability. Drive failure can occur from any manufacturer. So, regardless of which disc you’re using, the best method to safeguard your important data is to create a backup.
Speed
I’ve come across this analogy on the Internet in terms of HDD speed: Seagate and Western Digital are like two distinct individuals. Despite its youth, Seagate is on a mission to outperform the competition. It’s like comparing Western Digital to an older man who doesn’t care about speed but instead cares about reliability.
What does it mean? Because of this, Seagate’s hard discs will be speedier than Western Digital’s. However, its failure rate is higher than that of Western Digital, despite the quicker read-write performance of the drive. Western Digital HDDs have a slower read/write performance than Seagate HDDs, but they are better suited for long-term storage because of their reliability and longevity.
Generally speaking, Seagate hard disc drives are fast, fluent in both reading and writing, and light in weight. In terms of hard drive reliability, Western Digital’s HDD is among the best in the industry.
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, a free disc benchmarking application, can measure sequential and random read/write speeds of hard drives. Download a Seagate/Western Digital HDD benchmark right now and put it to the test.
Is WD More Reliable Than Seagate?
WD hard drives have been popular for many years. They also believe that WD hard drives have a meager failure rate and excellent dependability. However, a BackBlaze analysis reveals that among HGST, Toshiba, Seagate, and Western Digital, the movements from Western Digital were often the least trustworthy.
Is WD Or Seagate Better?
Western Digital HDDs have a little slower read-write performance than Seagate HDDs, but because of their excellent reliability and durability, they are better suited for storing. In conclusion, Seagate hard disk drives are often light, quick, and fluid in reading and writing.
Conclusion
Now concluding the topic of Seagate Vs WD Reliability. WD and Seagate are continuing to broaden their product offerings with the current advancements in software technology. Despite the rise of solid-state drives (SSDs), hard drives will be around for a long time before they go the floppy disc route and die of natural causes. Seagate and Western Digital debate has been going on for a long time, with people arguing over which is better.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Seagate still unreliable?
These drives, for their part, have annualized failure rates of 0.96 percent and 1.00 percent for the 6 and 10 TB models, respectively. 2019’s average fuel economy (AFR) was 1.89 percent across all drivetrains, which is significantly higher than in 2018.
Is it true that Seagate hard drives have a higher failure rate?
First-year failure rates of 2.6 percent for the Seagate 4TB drives, compared to 9.3 percent for Seagate’s 3TB drives, indicate that the new drives are faring much better than their predecessors.
Do WD hard drives have a lifespan?
This means that an external hard drive can last anywhere from three to five years if it doesn’t suffer any physical damage. As a precaution, you may want to consider purchasing a new external hard drive every few years to keep your data safe.
Do Seagate hard drives have a lifespan?
Three to five years should suffice as a general guideline. This includes both external and internal HDDs.