Looking for opinions on Hard Drives (and storage in general)

[lowleg26]

A recent thread by diomedes, where we brushed on the topic of DVD media brands, got me thinking. I've got WAY too many CD/DVD backup discs. In the 8 years I've been backing up material in this way, I've amassed in excess of 1000 discs containing everything from movies, music, programs, old term papers, every resume I've ever put together, and games for windows 95 that I know I will never revisit again, but keep around (just in case).

Disc based backups have worked well for me so far. I've had very few problems with data loss, aside from the memorex discs I've used (which are terrible BTW). But with HDD prices coming down and the amount of space all these discs are starting to take up, backing up on hard disc is looking much more appealing. By my rough calculations, I could move all the disc data onto HDD's and they would occupy about 1/10 the space.

If you're still with me, thanks for listening! :goodboy:

Getting to the point, I'd like to get some input from other users about storage and how you go about it.

• How do you backup data (if at all)?
• If you backup on Hard Disk Drives, what brand(s) do you use or prefer?
• Do you use Internal HDD's or External HDD's (or both)
• If you use internal, do you leave them in your tower or use external enclosures?
• If you use an enclosure, any particular brand?
• Are there any brands or types that you would recommend staying away from?
• What do you think about blu-ray as a storage medium (or disc based storage in general)?
• Pancakes or Waffles? Butter?

Currently, I have a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint that I use as my primary drive since it runs surprisingly cool (and very quiet). I also have a couple of 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black drives that run at an acceptable temp but actually cause my entire computer to vibrate (its my shitty case's fault). I know WD black drives are usually referred to as top tier stuff, but do you think its overkill to just use them for storage?

All input is very much appreciated! Thanks in advance, everybody! :cozy:

 

[sicklychild]

I have a 500GB Freecom external HD which is mains driven and rattles when it runs.
I also have four USB hard drives which I prefer to the mains driven ones - two Western Digital drives and two Samsung drives - and each one is about 640 GB I think.
I prefer the Samsung drives because they look smarter and, in the UK, tend to be cheaper than the WD drives.
I think it is a good way to store backup data. Better than DVD or CD

 

[guy]

My little army includes:
Western Digital WD6400AAKS (3.5/SATA/7200/640/16)
Western Digital WD5000KS (3.5/SATA/7200/500/16)
Samsung HD103UJ (3.5/SATA/7200/1000/32)
Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 (2.5/SATA/7200/320/16)
Seagate Momentus ST9500420AS (2.5/SATA/7200/500/16)
Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS (3.5/SATA/7200/1500/32) x2
Western Digital WD3200ME/BEVT (2.5/SATA-USB/5400/320/8) x2

How do you backup data (if at all)?
I don't, but if I did I wouldn't rely on 1:1 mirroring software. I would choose a RAID-5/6 setup. (See below)

If you backup on Hard Disk Drives, what brand(s) do you use or prefer?
Prefer WD, Seagate, and Samsung. I've had bad luck with Maxtor in the past. Hitachi is hit-or-miss. But I've also had a couple WD drives fail before (they were all external 3rd-party drives, eg: LaCie). And Samsung is relatively new in the world of hard drives, so their firmware has reportedly been a little premature (but in my experience, nothing catastrophic).

Do you use Internal HDD's or External HDD's (or both)
Both, as well as a NAS unit (with bring-your-own-disks internal drives).

If you use internal, do you leave them in your tower or use external enclosures?
If you use an enclosure, any particular brand?
Are there any brands or types that you would recommend staying away from?
Always prefer to keep them inside the case as long as 1) the PSU can handle it, and 2) it connects directly to the motherboard (which should have a decent SATA controller). I don't fully trust external enclosures, because their USB-SATA controllers are usually very cheap/flaky and can cause data corruption. This is also true if you use a PCI card to add SATA ports inside the case. When it comes to enclosures, you need to find out what USB-SATA controller it uses (which rather hard to do). Silicon Power is preferrable, VIA should be avoided; other chipsets are hit-or-miss.

What do you think about blu-ray as a storage medium (or disc based storage in general)?
Fine, but burning at 2x is extremely time-consuming, and 6x burners and discs are very expensive (per GB, you're better off sticking with HDDs). Of course a Blu-ray burner should also provide Blu-ray playback, so you might find that valuable otherwise.



A few points of advice:
- If you're using the HDDs purely for storage (no HD video playback or gaming), try to go for "eco" series drives (WD Caviar Green, et al). These are slower at ~5400rpm but run very cool and will help you save some money on your power bill.

- If you need to move files around a lot, watch high-bitrate videos, or play games, go for 7200rpm drives: but do your homework and find out which drives have the most storage on the least number of platters. A 1TB drive with 3 platters is faster and produces less heat (nominally) than a 1TB drive with 4 platters.

- If you absolutely must have a failsafe (or two), consider RAID-5 (1-disk redundancy) or RAID-6 (2-disk redundancy). These setups require at least 3- and 4- identical disks (respectively) to work, but the "backup" is completely transparent to you, no need to pay for or run any backup software, schedules, etc. Check wiki if you need more information.
If a RAID system sounds good, you should also get a good controller (same as above; and recent Intel motherboards with ICH10 have a good RAID controller built-in). Make sure your PSU can handle the power needed. Otherwise, you might consider getting a NAS box (I use QNAP, although there are cheaper alternatives if you don't need all the features).

- If you keep your computer running 24/7 and don't have much by way of disk power management, you should seriously consider getting a "RAID edition" drive (eg: Western Digital RE series), which are rated for 24/7 continuous operation.

- Also check for the warranty length. Most drive makers will honor warranty claims with an advance-ship policy (they send you a replacement drive first, give you a few weeks to try to backup your data from a dying drive, then you ship the dying drive back). 3 years is the absolute minimum, but try to get 5 years (included) if possible.



One last word about "preferrable brands". The cold, hard truth is that there is no single brand/manufacture that has never had a drive fail. There are some drives that you should clearly stay away from (whether premature firmwares or just downright poor design), and tech sites will always report them. Beyond that is just a matter of karma (or luck).

 

[lowleg26]

I don't fully trust external enclosures, because their USB-SATA controllers are usually very cheap/flaky and can cause data corruption. This is also true if you use a PCI card to add SATA ports inside the case. When it comes to enclosures, you need to find out what USB-SATA controller it uses (which rather hard to do). Silicon Power is preferrable, VIA should be avoided; other chipsets are hit-or-miss

This is why I peruse the tech thread on whatever forum I join, I'm always going to get a bit of info I would have never figured out myself unless I had something go wrong. This is good information to have. I guess if I want an external drive, I'll stick with one designed to be external.

Samsung is relatively new in the world of hard drives, so their firmware has reportedly been a little premature (but in my experience, nothing catastrophic)

I must have been out to lunch when they started making drives. I had no idea that they were in the HDD biz until I received a new comp with a Spinpoint already in it! I can say the drive does function incredibly well, but they just don't have enough time under their belts for me to be comfortable putting all my eggs in the Samsung basket. I'd need to see that their quality remains constant year after year.

One last word about "preferrable brands". The cold, hard truth is that there is no single brand/manufacture that has never had a drive fail. There are some drives that you should clearly stay away from (whether premature firmwares or just downright poor design), and tech sites will always report them. Beyond that is just a matter of karma (or luck).

Agreed. Sometimes a drive just fails. Sometimes it just won't die. I had/have an IBM hard drive that came in desktop I bought in 2002. Triple platter for 80 gigs, if I remember right. I ran that thing nearly 24/7 until last year when the desktop died. The drive itself still worked. I gave it to a friend to put in a linux box he was building out of spare parts. The damn thing is still running today. Too bad IBM sold its HDD line to Hitachi, cause those things were fucking tanks.

 

[akuma2002]

My computer is old, but i have a 120 Gb internal Hitachi, a 40 Gb Seagate, a 250 Gb Iomega external and a Western Digital 250 Gb, external too. Th WD is mainly used to backup files from my others hdd's, but i also make a 2nd backup on DVD's.

 

[Gir633]

I've been lucky and only had one HD failure. That was in a machine that ran 24/7 for 5 years and at least 90% of that time it was running bitorrent either up or down. It was a 500 gig WD. It started getting wanky, taking awhile to access so I was going to get stuff off of it to an external on a Saturday morning, and that Friday night it died.

 

[shadeofgray]

Two internals are Seagate and WD, both are 320GB. External one is 1TB Seagate - it's used for backup.

Had one disk failure few years ago. It was Maxtor after working for over 6 years.

Pancakes all the way. Thin ones with jam and walnuts.

 

[Rollyco]

2x1TB for system and data, 1x2TB external eSATA for full incremental backups that run every time I hibernate manually. Backup drive is turned off at all other times for safety.

 

[kbryc08]

I used to burn data onto dvd's but I stopped after burning a couple hundred of them. Now I just stick with hard drives, I've used Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, and Fantom (which was Hitachi in my case). The external 1TB (2x500 Hitachi Desktar's in an enclosure) Fantom failed within a year and 2 of the Maxtor's that I've owned for more than 5 years failed on me last year.

I switched to external HD's when I ran out of physical space in my rig. So now I have 6 Western Digital drives (not on purpose, it just happened that way). Two are external and the other four are internal (about 2.5TB in all).

The only external enclosed drives I've ever had was the Fantom which, as I said, died quickly. I'm one of those people who almost never turns off the computer and I almost always downloading something so I tend to tax my drives.

The price of the hardware and the burn rate of blu-ray keeps me away, plus I don't have a desire for a blu-ray player anyway.

Pancakes > Lego My Eggo Waffles. Belgium waffles > Pancakes.
Lots of butter.

 

[thoraxe6668]

I use Western Digital, because I like my HDD to work.

 

[Syobon]

My little army includes:
Western Digital WD6400AAKS (3.5/SATA/7200/640/16)
Western Digital WD5000KS (3.5/SATA/7200/500/16)
Samsung HD103UJ (3.5/SATA/7200/1000/32)
Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 (2.5/SATA/7200/320/16)
Seagate Momentus ST9500420AS (2.5/SATA/7200/500/16)
Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS (3.5/SATA/7200/1500/32) x2
Western Digital WD3200ME/BEVT (2.5/SATA-USB/5400/320/8) x2

:surprised2:
I fell poor now, :surprised2:

besides my laptop hdd (250gb western digital), I only own a 500gb Samsung, connected though USB (zogis enclosure) , I have chosen this model because it is (or was) the most silent 500gb hdd in market and have a low power consumption, 5400RPM is enough to save files but not for put your OS in...

 

[Gir633]

I'm running a Seagate Barracuda 750 in my computer.
(Which I did not know/remember until I check for this, and I see it needs a firmware update because it's got lock up issues, so I got to do that.)

2 Seagate externals, one 500 and the other 750, and a 1tb Western digital.

I prefer the WD over the Seagates.

and there is an empty off brand 160gb around here somewhere.

 

[guy]

I fell poor now,

Yeah, that list doesn't include my PATA/IDE drives either (most of which I'm retiring as it were, but a couple of which are still in use).

 

[Joey007]

I have about 2 TB, spread in 4 different drives lol.

I do have a 1.5 tb external Samsung Story hdd

gotta get rid of the smaller 200 gb drives soon and fetch me another terabyte =)

hopefully on my next pc build.

&&

I'd avoid Seagate hard drives, I've noticed that the quality and lifespan aren't that great =/

 

[Rollyco]

Akiba-Online is running on an array with a WD Caviar Blue and a Samsung Spinpoint. The Caviar is slow as hell, the Spinpoint is nice and fast.

 

[lowleg26]

Akiba-Online is running on an array with a WD Caviar Blue and a Samsung Spinpoint. The Caviar is slow as hell, the Spinpoint is nice and fast.

Interesting. Now if something goes wrong in the future, we know where to direct the angry letters.

Blue Caviar is the "2nd" tier WD drive, but I'm surprised that its not in the same league as the Spinpoint. I guess Samsung is actually making superior drives at a lower price, what a concept.

Thanks for the interesting tidbit, Rollyco!

 

[isityours]

my internals are 500GB Seagate blue (OS) and WD barracuda 1.5TB. i also have 2 buffalo usb externals, one 320GB (torrents) and one 1TB (backup).
i only backup stuff that i couldnt do without. i use acronis true image suite2010/one-click backup (recommend the continuous backup setting if it doesnt interfere with daily use).
the 1.5 internal has stuff that i use reguarlaly (tv, movies, music etc) and i only turn the external 1TB on when backing up.
both internals are 7,200 and both externals are 5,400.
i know what you mean about prices though. my 1TB cost the same last year as the 320GB cost 2 years ago.
i hardly ever backup to disc but then again i have never had a disk drive failure to make me reconsider.
all the drives i use work well in the 3 major fields (heat, read/write, stability).
i wish i had gone with the next grade up when i got my internal drives though.....

 

[vonelemental]

uses/abuses seagate barracuda's. oldest hdd of mine is about 8 years old, still working though. seagate's not bad.

 

[hypemx7]

I currently have "several" HDDs for storage purposes.

2.5"
1 x WD Scorpio 160GB
2 x WD Scorpio 250GB
2 x WD Scorpio 320GB

3.5"
5 x Seagate 7200.11 500GB
1 x WD Caviar Black 1.0TB
2 x WD Caviar Green 1.0TB
1 x Seagate 7200.11 1.0TB
2 x Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB
2 x WD Caviar Green 1.5TB
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 1.5TB (returned)
1 x Samsung F2 Ecogreen 1.5TB (gifted)
1 x WD Caviar Green 2.0TB


From the list given, I can honestly say WD Caviar Green series is the way to go if you want storage.
The WD Caviar Green lineup is slower than others, but it produces less heat and noise in comparison.
Another good alternative would be the Samsung F2 Ecogreen.

Right now, WD Green Caviar 1.5TB HDDs are at the price sweet spot in the states.
You can buy one for less than $100.


On the method of accessing them, I have a Nas, 2 Dual bay docks connected via eSATA and another single bay dock connected by USB.
Personally, HDD docks are the best options for me because each HDD contains specific content (Music, Movies, Documents, Programs, etc.)
The Hotswappability (yes made up word) of docks go very nicely with storage purposes.
Also, not to mention it helps organization and transport of HDDs.

INTERNAL HDD + HDD DOCK = WIN for storage



On the point of External HDD (Internal HDD preassembled with an enclosure), I personally stay away from those.
You don't know what type of HDD they've put into the External one.
It could be a refurbished HDD for all you know.
Unless you need those built-in functionalities some external prebuilt HDDs offer, such as one-click backup, I'd advise you stay away from them.

 

[lowleg26]

I currently have "several" HDDs for storage purposes.

2.5"
1 x WD Scorpio 160GB
2 x WD Scorpio 250GB
2 x WD Scorpio 320GB

3.5"
5 x Seagate 7200.11 500GB
1 x WD Caviar Black 1.0TB
2 x WD Caviar Green 1.0TB
1 x Seagate 7200.11 1.0TB
2 x Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB
2 x WD Caviar Green 1.5TB
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 1.5TB (returned)
1 x Samsung F2 Ecogreen 1.5TB (gifted)
1 x WD Caviar Green 2.0TB

:surprised: So much storage...I'm jealous! :shy:

Thanks for all the input so far, guys! :happy: