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peterbFri Dec-22-17 06:58 AM
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"Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage"


          

Hello:

At the present time I'm running 3 Western Digital 500Gb Black versions as backup drives. It's time for me to increase the capacity of at least one of my hard drives. Being that it's for data storage I'm thinking of going for a 5400 rpm drive. My searches for H.D.D.'s from 2Tb to 3 Tb capacity have me a tad concerned when it comes to failure rates. I'm open to purchasing either an internal notebook or desktop drive. All I'm looking for is some degree of reliability for archiving data. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

  

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Replies to this topic
Subject Author Message Date ID
RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage
Dec 22nd 2017
1
RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage
Dec 23rd 2017
2
RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage
Dec 23rd 2017
3
RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage
Dec 29th 2017
4
      RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage
Dec 29th 2017
5

therubeFri Dec-22-17 03:37 PM
Member since Jan 22nd 2003
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#1. "RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage"
In response to peterb (Reply # 0)
Fri Dec-22-17 04:55 PM by therube

  

          

Seagate consumer drives have HORRIBLE reviews.
(Based on that) I would avoid them at all costs.

Hitachi (HGST, now owned bye Western Digital) seem to have the best reviews - but they don't seem to have "desktop" drives anymore (?) instead sticking to "NAS" drives. (Seemingly a NAS drive is for a "NAS", RAID array, kind of thing & not for use as, say your typical C: drive. That said, I picked up a Toshiba NAS drive for offline storage - outside of any array.)

Western Digital "scares" me these days, in that there is so much "marketing" in drives these days, & WDC in particular has gone through so much "packaging", you never know what you're actually getting.

People say the Blacks are no long "Black" but rather rebranded XYZ's, while charging you more $$ & giving you a longer warranty (on the Blacks). And then there were Greens, which seemed to have gotten merged into Blues, so is a Blue blue or green or even black?

"Intelli" drives, I'm pretty sure are "quick parkers", IOW, after a relatively short period of time, the drives spin down, so in my mind, making them less then optimal to be used as a "system" drive. Spin up, spin down, spin up, spin down...

Cache. Toshiba has "P" & "X" series desktop drives. In general, the P's have less cache then the X's, so 64 vs 128. Now what does the matter in the scheme of things, don't know, but I did happen to realize that fact today.

"Specialized" drives may in some respects be "specialized". "Surveillance", NAS, bla bla bla.


So... for me, for an internal "system" drive (with SDD being too small, too expensive, relatively)...

HGST doesn't cut it because its not appropriate for a system drive.
Seagate has huge failure rates.
WDC I don't trust because of its marketing.
So that kind of leaves me looking at Toshiba (which there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information about - and there is talk of warranty ,option on their part, to give you a "gift card" rather then replacing a failed drive?).

I guess, in the end, if you get lucky & your drive lasts, it lasts, & if it fails, you've lost all your data. So...

Newegg, Fry's or Microcenter (?) would seem to be the places to go? (Bestbuy supposedly price matches.) Newegg may have "bare", possibly OEM, for some of their drives. Toshiba (the N that I picked up) while it was "retail" only meant that it came in a Toshiba box (but no cable or rails...).

Newegg has this Toshiba 4 TB, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149627 for $105 (after promo code), which I might give a shot?


Oh, & for archiving alone, whether a drive is 5400 or 7200 should not matter at all.
(For a system drive, you certainly would not want a 5400 drive.)


https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q3-2017/


Above thoughts are generally about 3.5" HDD's.
Not sure I'd consider a 2.5" for internal system desktop drive?
For storage, if it offered a better warranty or some other reason, then yes.

http://www.storagereview.com/pick_the_right_drive_for_the_job_24_7_nas_hdds_vs_desktop_hdds


For reference, FWIW, for black friday, various place had various brands; Seagate, Toshiba, WD Blue, of 4 TB HDD's for ~$88.

--------------------------------------
BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

Newegg.com's new image gallery layout sucks in the hugest way imaginable too !
And now they're using JavaScript to "turn" pages to boot ! SUCKS

  

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peterbSat Dec-23-17 02:01 AM
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#2. "RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage"
In response to therube (Reply # 1)


          

Thanks for the concise reply Steve. I'm sure happy that I'm not the only one experiencing this frustration. The link that you provided is an excellent resource. I deal with a local computer store called Memory Express. They offer a warranty service called I.P.R. (In-store Product Replacement.)Unfortunately they don't have your recommended Toshiba hard drives.I'll have to just wing it with a product from them rather than having to pay for RMA'ing products back to New-egg etc.

P.S. The W.D. Blacks that I have are quite old and are still solid after about 6 years. Too bad that W.D. is also going down the tubes.

Thanks again.

  

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spencercatSat Dec-23-17 07:26 PM
Member since Dec 24th 2001
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#3. "RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage"
In response to peterb (Reply # 0)


  

          

Several years ago I bought 2 WD Black drives for a home-built computer. One of the 2 drives was dead on arrival; aren't they tested before being sold? I've never had a problem with Seagate drives, but apparently Seagate now has a bad reputation, so I guess when one buys a drive nowadays, it's a matter of 'you pays yer money, and you takes yer chances'.

  

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ChickenmanFri Dec-29-17 03:38 PM
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#4. "RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage"
In response to spencercat (Reply # 3)
Fri Dec-29-17 03:41 PM by Chickenman

          

They don't make them like they used to..or so the saying goes. I have an ancient WD 640gb Black Drive. Must be about 10 years old. Still going strong. The dual 340gb platter " Black " series were built like tanks.

The cheaper Seagates may be an issue. I believe they were the old Maxtor manufactured drives. But the high end Barracuda's seem to last me forever. Seagate did have a firmware issue years ago... but that resolved in later editions.

In general,the more platters you have the more risk of failure you have. Mind you. I haven't had to buy a mechanical HD in so long, that my info may be out of date.

  

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GreyFalconFri Dec-29-17 04:33 PM
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#5. "RE: Recommendation for H.D.D. for data storage"
In response to Chickenman (Reply # 4)


          

I have not purchased a mechanical hard drive in a while except the Segate USB 3.0 drives and have had tremendous luck with them. Whatever laptop drives they are putting in them are very reliable. The first 1TB one I bought for backup ended up in my Son's Xbox1 beat hard for close to a year and is now in my DVR. He upgraded to a 2TB and is using it the same way. I also got one for my sister and myself for backup but they get very little use.

  

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