Looking for a reliable 3TB or bigger HDD!

[Fred Castellum]

Alrighty fellow LTT members. I'm looking for a reliable hard drive around 3 TB in size, bigger the better however the catch here is I'm looking for something that will last me years and can handle 24/7 operation(low failure rate drives). 

 

I've been eyeing WD Red Pro 3TB drives for a while now, however I wanted to see what recommendations you guys have! I've personally never had a WD drive fail on me aside from the very first one I've ever purchased which stopped functioning due to overheating and maintenance negligence(not my fault I gave the rig away to a family member).  

 

I don't plan on spending more than $200 dollars since money is tight and I'm somewhat cheap(in my profession the more money you have the more you can make). 

 

HGST(Formerly Hitachi drives)

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB $134.99

HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB $184.99

 

Thanks~!

 

[Shalashaska]

Can get a Black for the same price they are $40 off ATM.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236623&cm_re=wd_black_3tb-_-22-236-623-_-Product

[dizmo]

I'd check out the WD Re's as well. They're supposed to be quite decent.

Not sure on their cost tbh

[Electronics Wizardy]

The bigger the drive the less reliable the drive is. Enterprise drives aren't cheap but should be the most reliable.

[Goose Legs]

I've had great luck with WD's SE Series drives...they're enterprise grade, but I've seen them go for less than the Black drives. I'm using 10 of them in a server in a RAID 5 and they've been working well for about a year this coming March. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Enterprise-WD3000F9YZ-Frustration-Free/dp/B00CYSYZZC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413869752&sr=8-3&keywords=3tb+wd+se

[Fred Castellum]

I'd check out the WD Re's as well. They're supposed to be quite decent.

Not sure on their cost tbh

Hmm what can you tell me about these off the top of your head compared to Reds or even Blacks? 

 

Can get a Black for the same price they are $40 off ATM.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236623&cm_re=wd_black_3tb-_-22-236-623-_-Product

I'll take the warranty of these into consideration. Might set up a raid config, depending on my final decision.

 

The bigger the drive the less reliable the drive is. Enterprise drives aren't cheap but should be the most reliable.

Seagate Enterprise drives? I'm wary of the reliability of Seagate drives in general, I have a friend that has tons of Seagate drives and has yet to have one fail but reading reviews online myself I'm paranoid that the failure rate would cause me to lose valuable data. 

[dizmo]

Hmm what can you tell me about these off the top of your head compared to Reds or even Blacks? 

 

I'll take the warranty of these into consideration. Might set up a raid config, depending on my final decision.

 

Seagate Enterprise drives? I'm wary of the reliability of Seagate drives in general, I have a friend that has tons of Seagate drives and has yet to have one fail but reading reviews online myself I'm paranoid that the failure rate would cause me to lose valuable data. 

They're Enterprise grade drives so they have better vibration resistance, work better closer together, and there's something about them that makes them a lot better in RAID scenarios but I can't remember what it was called...

If you Google WD Red reviews, there's a few comparisons and the Re was in one of them. It was pretty in depth, I read it a while ago.

[Scouten]

Seagate Enterprise drives? I'm wary of the reliability of Seagate drives in general, I have a friend that has tons of Seagate drives and has yet to have one fail but reading reviews online myself I'm paranoid that the failure rate would cause me to lose valuable data. 

i have personally had 2 WD blacks fail on me so far while no Seagate drives of mine have failed. thats why i went with 4 st3000vn000 drives for my server

[Fred Castellum]

I've had great luck with WD's SE Series drives...they're enterprise grade, but I've seen them go for less than the Black drives. I'm using 10 of them in a server in a RAID 5 and they've been working well for about a year this coming March. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Enterprise-WD3000F9YZ-Frustration-Free/dp/B00CYSYZZC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413869752&sr=8-3&keywords=3tb+wd+se

They're Enterprise grade drives so they have better vibration resistance, work better closer together, and there's something about them that makes them a lot better in RAID scenarios but I can't remember what it was called...

If you Google WD Red reviews, there's a few comparisons and the Re was in one of them. It was pretty in depth, I read it a while ago.

Hmmm reading up on this stuff here: http://www.smbitjournal.com/2014/05/understanding-the-western-digital-sata-drive-lineup-2014/

[dizmo]

I don't have time to read them, sleep and such, but check out these:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8265/wd-red-pro-review-4-tb-drives-for-nas-systems-benchmarked

 

This is the one I was referring to earlier

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7258/battle-of-the-4-tb-nas-drives-wd-red-and-seagate-nas-hdd-faceoff

[Goose Legs]

Seagate Enterprise drives? I'm wary of the reliability of Seagate drives in general, I have a friend that has tons of Seagate drives and has yet to have one fail but reading reviews online myself I'm paranoid that the failure rate would cause me to lose valuable data. 

 

If data integrity is your top priority, might I suggest getting three identical drives, and use two of them in a RAID 1 (mirror) configuration so that if one drive fails, your data will still be intact. Of course, if one drive does fail, you have the ability to use the third drive you bought as an immediate hot spare. This kind of configuration with routine backups to an off site location (say, Google Drive, just as an example) should protect you from nearly any but the worst possible disasters. 

[Siddhesh]

The bigger the drive, less reliable it will be. I've had better luck with WD drives than seagate. Go for black if you need performance (they are quite loud) or Red for overall. Re's are good as well.

[Captain_WD]

Alrighty fellow LTT members. I'm looking for a reliable hard drive around 3 TB in size, bigger the better however the catch here is I'm looking for something that will last me years and can handle 24/7 operation(low failure rate drives). 

 

I've been eyeing WD Red Pro 3TB drives for a while now, however I wanted to see what recommendations you guys have! I've personally never had a WD drive fail on me aside from the very first one I've ever purchased which stopped functioning due to overheating and maintenance negligence(not my fault I gave the rig away to a family member).  

 

I don't plan on spending more than $200 dollars since money is tight and I'm somewhat cheap(in my profession the more money you have the more you can make). 

 

HGST(Formerly Hitachi drives)

HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB $134.99

HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB $184.99

 

Thanks~!

 

 

 

Hey MyInnerFred,

 

As the guys suggested, WD Black is a great drive that goes up to 4TB and has the longest warranty in the whole WD drive series. They are durable and designed for high performance. Here's a link for more info: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760 .

 

Also, if you can find one within your budget, I could also recommend checking out WD Se - a drive designed for durability and NAS. They also work well in regular computers and are specifically designed to work 24/7 and have 5 year warranty. Here's a link to that too: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1050 .

 

The WD Red is also a great option as they are designed for NAS/RAID environments that run non-stop and also work good in desktop computers. The difference betwenn WD Red and WD Red Pro is that the Pro version is designed to work in 8 to 16 bay NAS/RAID setups while the regular WD Red works great in 1 to 8 bay setups. WD Red goes as high as 6TB. Here's a link: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810 .

 

The HGST drives also have great reputation among users for durable and safe drives.

 

If safety is what you need, I would strongly suggest having a full backup offsite (maybe more than one). If you decide to go for RAID, have in mind that even Mirroring is not considered a backup, even though it provides redundancy.

 

Hope this helps out,

 

Captain_WD.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Hmm what can you tell me about these off the top of your head compared to Reds or even Blacks? 

 

I'll take the warranty of these into consideration. Might set up a raid config, depending on my final decision.

 

Seagate Enterprise drives? I'm wary of the reliability of Seagate drives in general, I have a friend that has tons of Seagate drives and has yet to have one fail but reading reviews online myself I'm paranoid that the failure rate would cause me to lose valuable data. 

If you don't want to lose date get a raid 1 of 2 drives.

[Fred Castellum]

It's decided I'm going to nab a WD Black 4TB! Thanks for the suggestions people! 

 

Probably set up a RAID config later on down the road! 

 

 

-snip-

The dam WD spokesperson was the last push! Haha thanks.

[565465464]

If you really do not want to loose files go for a RAID 1 (or 5/6 if u get more drives) config + backup. A drive can sudddenly fail and a RAID can get fucked up if you are having some bad luck.