The best solution for storage in my scenario?

[wyattzx]

Hey folks! 

 

Right now, I'm running a 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD, a Seagate 500GB HDD, and a WD 750GB HDD. The Seagate is about five years old, and the WD is about three years old. The WD drive came out of my old off-the-shelf HP Desktop, and the Seagate is from a gaming build my older brother had done back in 2009. Since the day I began using the WD drive, it has always made a loud rattling noise. I can confirm it is the drive, and not the case, because it's been in four cases over the past three years. I've run tests on it, and it shows that it has 100 bad sectors on it. The Seagate drive, however, has always been silent, and has no bad sectors. Right now, I'm running the Seagate drive for my Music, Pictures, and Videos. The WD drive is solely for games. Origin, and Steam are both installed on there, as well as a few games that don't use either. (League of Legends, for example.) It would be a nightmare if either of these drives were to fail, though that is more the case with my Game drive, as my other drive's data is more or less backed up online. (Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.) Right now, I've got around 380GB of games on the drive, and it would take a few weeks to redownload it all. Onto my question, though. 

 

I want to replace both of these drives with new drive(s) but am unsure what to do. I listed my SSD earlier because of a followup question. What I ma thinking of doing is replacing each of the HDDs with 1TB WD Blue drives. It would be foolish to buy the 500GB versions, when you can get 1TB versions for $10 more. Moving the data between the drives would be easy, as neither of them are boot drives. I wouldn't have any problems doing this, but I do not know if it is the best idea. 

My other idea is to run one, larger drive. (A 2TB HDD, for example.) This will conserve space, but will also double my risk of data failure of everything. I'm torn here, and I don't know what the best move to make here is. 

 

My followup SSD question: Is my Kingston HyperX 3K SSD going to be reliable enough that I should be at relative ease and peace of mind with it? It's got TRIM enabled, and is running in AHCI on a Sata III port. Running a fresh install of Windows 7 64-Bit. I am relatively new to the SSD scene, so apologies here if I seem new to it all - I am. The SSD is for Windows, and most of my programs. Sony Vegas Pro is likely the largest install on the drive. A total of 23GB is being used. 

 

Thanks,

 

~RDZX

[Geekazoid]

Hey folks!

Right now, I'm running a 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD, a Seagate 500GB HDD, and a WD 750GB HDD. The Seagate is about five years old, and the WD is about three years old. The WD drive came out of my old off-the-shelf HP Desktop, and the Seagate is from a gaming build my older brother had done back in 2009...

~RDZX

Sorry mate, I'm lazy. Would you mind summarising that ^ post of yours?

[wyattzx]

This is the last placed I expected "tl;dr" to be the norm.. 

 

I have two HHDs running. WD 750GB, and Seagate 500GB. The drives are each 3+ years old, the WD being 3, and the Seagate being 5 / 6. The WD has always made a rattling noise since I first got it with a pre-built machine in 2011. The Seagate has never really given me issues, though. THe WD also has 100 bad sectors. I want to replace both of these drives. Do I replace them with two 1TB WD BLues, or one 2TB+ HDD? 

The Seagate is being used for Pictures, Music, and Videos. The WD is solely for games. 

[heavygrounds]

The hard drive question is complicated, but it comes down to this: If you have enough space in your case and don't mind paying the extra cost, 2 1TB hard drives is more reliable (as you mentioned). While 1 2TB hard drive will be much cheaper.

 

As far as SSDs go: SDDs are extremely reliable and as long as your not moving large data in and out of it, it will last you forever.

[alpenwasser]

Hey folks! 

- snip -

 

 

Sorry mate, I'm lazy. Would you mind summarising that ^ post of yours?

 

 

This is the last placed I expected "tl;dr" to be the norm..

 

If by "this [place]" you mean the storage section, "tl;dr" is indeed

not the norm. We tend to be rather... wordy around here in fact.

Anyway, as to your actual question: Two smaller disks are naturally

a less risky proposition than a single larger drive. If you have the

money, I might even suggest buying one 2 TB HDD, and an additional

HDD to run as a USB backup drive (its size being determined by how

much data you have which you actually think is worthy of being backed

up).

In the end it basically comes down to how much money you can afford

and are willing to spend on your storage setup, and only you can make

that decision.

And concerning SSDs, while I am not too familiar with your specific

model, in general under most somewhat reasonable consumer usage

scenarios this is true:

 

As far as SSDs go: SDDs are extremely reliable and as long as your not moving large data in and out of it, it will last you forever.

EDIT:

Also, welcome to the forums.

Edited August 20, 2014 by alpenwasser

[Eniqmatic]

Unless I'm missing something, I believe the whole larger the capacity, less reliability is a myth. 2 drives in my mind are certainly less reliable than one drive as you double the point of failure.

 

Buy a WD 2TB red drive if you want reliability. 

 

Don't worry about the SSD, it will last.

 

Welcome

[SnowGhost1212]

Howdy,

 

If I were in your position I would buy a 2TB SSHD (Hybrid Drive) for around $130, this way you get much fast read/write speeds than your standard HDD for the price of two 1TB drives. If you wish you can then partition it or whatever you find suits you. As for your second question, that SSD should be absolutely fine.

 

Hope I helped,

 

SnowGhost

[alpenwasser]

Unless I'm missing something, I believe the whole larger the capacity, less reliability is a myth. 2 drives in my mind are certainly less reliable than one drive as you double the point of failure.

True, but if you have all your data on a single drive, no matter

how reliable it is, if it fails, you do lose everything, whereas

dividing it up on multiple drives, while increasing the overall

risk of one of your disks failing (assuming they are all equally

likely to fail as the one larger disk), will leave you with some

of your data intact.

Then again, I wouldn't exactly call this a sensible strategy to

"protect" one's data, if you can even call it that. Hence my

suggestion for a 2 TB drive + a backup one.

And yes, I haven't really come across any actual solid data which

indicates that larger capacity drives are inherently less reliable

than smaller ones, nothing but a bit of hearsay here and there.

[Eniqmatic]

True, but if you have all your data on a single drive, no matter

how reliable it is, if it fails, you do lose everything, whereas

dividing it up on multiple drives, while increasing the overall

risk of one of your disks failing (assuming they are all equally

likely to fail as the one larger disk), will leave you with some

of your data intact.

Then again, I wouldn't exactly call this a sensible strategy to

"protect" one's data, if you can even call it that. Hence my

suggestion for a 2 TB drive + a backup one.

And yes, I haven't really come across any actual solid data which

indicates that larger capacity drives are inherently less reliable

than smaller ones, nothing but a bit of hearsay here and there.

 

That's cool, and I agree, go for a single 2TB and do backups, as you should be. There really is no reason to not be backing things up these days, especially with large storage drives so cheap these days. 

[Titania_WD]

 Hi RDZX,

If you decide for two 1 TB drives, especially if you think that at one point you could configure a RAID (like RAID 1 for redundancy), you might wanna take a look at the WD Red drives (http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771442.pdf) . The Blue ones that you've mentioned are just fine and very reliable. However, the Red line of HDDs is designed for NAS and RAID. Besides the drives are tested in 24/7 environment.

If you'd rather have a single 2TB drive, then I'd recommend the line of HDDs designed for gamers – WD Black (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760). The core advantage of the WD Black drive is the performance.

I completely support the idea of alpenwasser - if you can afford it, always have a backup in a separate physical location. Here's a link to the WD external storage solutions – http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/ .

 

These are just a few hints. I'll be here, if you have any questions.

Titania_WD

 

[wyattzx]

Thanks for the information, guys! Fast and reliable - I knew I'd like this place. I'm taking a look at the WD Black drives now, and I've come to a new option. One 2TB WD Black drive, or the original idea of the two 1TB WD drives. 

It will cost me more for the two 1TB drives if they're both black, or I will save $20 if they're both blue, compared to a  single 2TB WD Black. I have the room in my case, so that -shouldn't- be a problem, I think. 

My comment about a single larger drive being more prone to failure, was as alperwasser said. If all of my data is on one drive, and it fails, everything is gone. If I have two, either my games or media will be safe. 

One other thing I was thinking, is as SnowGhost1212 said; a 2TB Hybrid Drive. I've no experience with these drives, but.. they seem a bit too good to be true to me. Could anybody deny or confirm this? I can get a 2TB Seagate SSHD 

for cheaper than I can get any other form of 2TB drives. If this isn't too good to be true, then one of these, and a 2TB backup drive would be perfect. 

 

Let me know what you guys think!

[alpenwasser]

I'm taking a look at the WD Black drives now, and I've come to a new option. One 2TB WD Black drive, or the original idea of the two 1TB WD drives.

Do you need the speed of a Black drive? If not, I would as mentioned

likely recommend a 2 TB drive (Seagate Barracuda, WD Green/Red, w/e)

which is a bit more affordable in combination with a backup drive

(that is, if you actually need to back up any of the data on those

drives, otherwise it's wasted money of course).

If you can make use of the Black's speed, sure, go for it, it is

a good drive and has a long warranty on it. But it does cost quite

a bit.

 

One other thing I was thinking, is as SnowGhost1212 said; a 2TB Hybrid Drive. I've no experience with these drives, but.. they seem a bit too good to be true to me. Could anybody deny or confirm this? I can get a 2TB Seagate SSHD 

for cheaper than I can get any other form of 2TB drives. If this isn't too good to be true, then one of these, and a 2TB backup drive would be perfect.

I don't have and experience with specific SSHD drives, but in principle

there's nothing wrong with the concept, maybe look if you can find some

reviews on the drive you're looking at.

An SSHD should give you better speeds for the data on it which is most

frequently used. So depending on your usage pattern, you might get

shorter load times in games and such.