Mighty_Miro_WD

Hi @yoobster Since you're looking for a portable external drive I can recommend WD Elements and WD My Passport Ultra. They both are very good and reliable drives, and the only difference between them is that the second one is hardware encrypted and password protected while the first one is not. As for the maximum capacity, WD Elements comes with maximum available storage space of 2TB while WD My Passport is up to 3TB. Here's a link you if want to take a look: WD Elements - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=7oFQTf WD My Passport Ultra - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=QHULVs Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Hi @Dyelon21! The build looks pretty good, but the only change I would suggest is to change the drives, like the others wrote. For instance, such drive from WD is WD Red. The reason why is because of the firmware NAS drives have. They are optimized to use less power, cause less vibration and have AAM (which stands for Automatic Acoustic Management and with it you can set priority to quiet seeks or faster seeks but more noise) set to high levels, which multiplies rotational latency. Also, NAS drives have a specific build-in feature called TLER, which stops the hard drive from entering into a deep recovery cycle. For instance, a desktop drive will try, try and try again to get your data back if a sector's not reading properly and this will result in timeouts, etc. A NAS not be dropped from a RAID array since it will enter in deep recovery cycle to attempt to repair the error, recover the data from the problematic area, and then reallocate a dedicated area to replace the problematic area. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Well, since that's the purpose then you won't be needing an encryption.

Hi @EnTITy! It depends a lot on your personal preference. Also, are you looking for a portable or desktop external drive? For a portable external drive I can recommend WD Elements and WD My Passport Ultra. They both are very good and reliable drives, and the only difference between them is that the second one is hardware encrypted and password protected while the first one is not. As for the maximum capacity, WD Elements comes with maximum available storage space of 2TB while WD My Passport is up to 3TB. WD Elements - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ZIGUPI WD My Passport Ultra - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=k8Wjto On the other hand, in case you're after a desktop external drives you can take a look at WD My Book which is also hardware encrypted and password protected and comes with backup program SmartWare Pro 3.0 that you can use for automatic backup. WD My Book - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=9JiyHQ Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi @Fgtfv567! The best way to make sure what the condition of the drive is is to run a test on with some the manufacturers tool. Usually the manufacturers have their own programs for that purpose which are tuned specifically for their products, so you can check in the official manufacturers website if such one is available. For instance, if you have a WD drive you can run a test with Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. I suggest the extended test instead of a quick one because during it the software will try to fix any errors it finds automatically. Just don't forget to make a backup of the most important data first. Here's a link to download the program: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=EvJqsV In case there's no such one you can run a test with Windows build-in tool chkdsk, although it may cause a loss of data so I'd suggest to make a backup before running it. To do that just click on Start, type CMD, press enter, and in the black window that will appear type chkdsk [write the letter of the drive:] /r. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions I can help you with. Cheers!:)

Hi @RGT! WD Black is a performance oriented drive, which will suit better if you plan to run apps from the HDD too, but based on what you've described as a purpose to use the drive for I would suggest to go with WD Blue. It is meant for everyday usage and it's most commonly used for regular computing, light gaming and combined with SSD. Like you said, the Blue and the Green will emerge in the WD Blue line, which is why you can easily go with it for mass secondary storage if you want to go with a 2TB+ unit. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi @anandgeforce! Since you're looking for a secondary drive I would personally go with a standard HDD rather than a hybrid drive. That's because the SSHD blend HDD capacity with SSD speeds by placing traditional rotating platters, and a small amount of high-speed flash memory on a single drive. So basically a hybrid drive only has a certain amount of fast storage (cache) for commonly accessed files, which means that the files within this cache are accessed at SSD speeds while the rest are accessed at standard HDD speeds. Furthermore, the biggest con is that with the hybrid drives you have no control over what the SSHD stores in its cache - the drive uses a built-in algorithm to determine which frequently used files it will cache and everything that is not in the cache will run at a HDD speed, and unless you're going to use the same file very often you won't see a big deal of benefit. As for WD Black, it will do the job since it's a performance oriented drive and has build-in features - like a dual core build-in processor that you've noticed - that will give you faster loading times. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hey there @nicknorah and welcome to LinusTechTips! Yes, you can connect your hard disk without having to format it - it should be recognized by the system and after that you should be able to move the files you want. As an advice, check if the motherboard has the necessary interface you need - IDE ports for IDE drives, or SATA ports for SATA drives. Having another HDD plugged in the PC won't be a problem for booting as long as the boot order in BIOS, so once you plug the drive check your boot priorities in BIOS and make sure that the PC will start from the right unit. You shouldn't lose any data during the transfer, and you should be fine transferring the files to the new location. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @kriskris and welcome to the LTT forums! Basically speaking any drive that has SATA interface and is 9.5 mm high and smaller will fit in your computer. This particular model of WD Black is a 7.0mm, but nonetheless it will fit as well since there is usually a caddy that holds the HDD in the bay. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Thanks man, appreciate the good words! I just wanted to add that the Black Dual is not exactly a hybrid because it has different architecture compared to a standard hybrid. While the typical SSHD has a certain amount of fast storage (cache) for commonly accessed files over which you have no control, the dual drive has two separate partitions that you can use. It shows up as two hard drives: a 120GB SSD and a 1TB standard platter drive once the special WD drivers are installed/loaded.

Hi there. SSHD drives of Hybrid Drives are regular hard disks that have a small SSD drive that's used for caching. SSHD basically blends HDD capacity with SSD speeds by placing traditional rotating platters, and a small amount of high-speed flash memory on a single drive. So basically a hybrid drive only has a certain amount of fast storage (cache) for commonly accessed files, which means that the files within this cache are accessed at SSD speeds while the rest are accessed at standard HDD speeds. For everything else the drive functions like a regular HDD. You have no control whatsoever over what goes on the SSD portion. Furthermore, the biggest con is that with the hybrid drives you have no control over what the SSHD stores in its cache - the drive uses a built-in algorithm to determine which frequently used files it will cache and everything that is not in the cache will run at a HDD speed, and unless you're going to use the same file very often you won't see a big deal of benefit. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @Memories4K! Both options have their pros and cons, so IMO it depends on the personal preference. However, I would go with multiple drives storage configuration, but of course there is nothing wrong with only one drive. It's just that I like the idea of having one drive for, let's say OS and most demanding apps, while I use the other one for games and maybe mass storage. The dual configuration will also allow you to do such things as write data to one drive while playing from another without any lag. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @Siddbass! I'd recommend you the fresh install instead as well because the clean installation will basically ensure that no junk, redundant and temp files get cloned to the drive, as well as any potential problems (for instance, if you have any bad sectors or errors they will go to the destination drive). Also, no matter which of these two options you'll go with, make sure that all the data is backuped to another location before making so. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @greenmonk10! Since you have 4x120GB SSDs I would suggest to put them in some kind of RAID, and to use the current one you have as a boot drive. For instance, two in RAID 0, which will increase the sequential throughput. Since there is an extra layer, you take a hit in random access performance. You'll have no redundancy with this array, so if you decide to go with it I would recommend to make a regular backup of all the important information you have. Another option is to setup a RAID 5. It stores parity data, allowing recovery from a drive failure (if a drive fails, the data that was on it can be rebuilt from the data on the other drives plus the parity data). With RAID 5 rather than having all the parities stored on a dedicated drive, they're distributed among all the drives. Hypothetical read performance is like a same-size RAID 0 array, whereas write performance is like a RAID 0 array 1 drive smaller. It requires at least 3 drives. Or lastly you can also setup RAID 6, which is identical to RAID 5, but it has 2 sets of parity data, allowing the array to recover from 2 drive failures rather than just one. As for the WD Green, I would suggest to keep it as a backup location. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @FoxxyRin and welcome to the LTT forums! You can mount the drive there, and the drive should work on a proper temp. However, if you have doubts about it, you can monitor the temps of the SSHD with a third party app. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi there @ Yes, the USB 3.1 standard is backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. However, if you connect a USB 3.1 device to a USB 3.0 port, then the speed will be limited to the speed of the port, so the maximum available speed will be 5.0 Gb/s. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @TyH! Reallocated Sector Count in SMART test is quite important as an indicator of bad sectors and a dying drive. It basically means that your hard drive found a bad sector, and swapped it with a 'reserve pool' of sectors. After this swap, the medium should be free of bad sectors to the operating system. It's a technology designed to make failing sectors on the HDD cause no trouble for the operating system because it'll just swap a new one whenever it finds that a particular sector is becoming weak (because it takes more time to read that sector than normal). It's not fatal, but there are a number potential problems. 1. The number of sectors available for replacement is limited. Once that number is reached no more sectors can be "fixed". A small number of reallocated sectors in not a serious but the situation should be monitored. 2. The number of reallocated sectors can become large, as is the case here. The real problem is that there is usually some underlying reason for bad sectors developing and that problem is still there. Such problems are usually progressive and become more serious as time progresses. As the cause is usually unknowable so too is the time frame. The numbers could become very large in a very short period of time and essentially making the drive unusable. If you have waited until now to make backups it may be too late. Backups should be made before trouble develops. With these two in mind I would suggest to backup any important data you have on the drive, and look for a replace one. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @JimmyJimJam! I would recommend to install the OS and your most demanding/used apps so you can take advantage of the fast booting and loading times. If you perform any operating system related task that needs to retrieve data from the drive, it will be faster compared to the HDD speeds. Also, the faster random read and write speeds will make a noticeable improvement to general computer use, such as when loading programs (if they are installed on the SSD). Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Cheers!

Hi there @TNortham112! IMHO for programs and mass storage location you will be fine with either MBR or GPT (though I personally would go with GPT). Basically speaking it is only in situation when you would like to have a partition bigger than 2TB, or when you would like to have more than four primary partitions, that you need to use GPT. Also, for the newer model of computer that uses UEFI, it will only support GPT. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi there @Samsonsuperco! The Current Pending Sectors on the other hand are active visible bad sectors that cannot be read but are still visible to the operating system. These are dangerous and cause a lot of problems. I agree with @TetraSky - run a test on the drive with Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and see if any errors or bad sectors will be detected. If you want you can run an extended test since if the DLG finds something wrong with the HDD it will try to fix it automatically, but make a backup of your important data first. If you can upload a screenshots with the results so we can take a look. Let us know how it went.

Hi there. You can simply reformat the drive in Disk Management, or if you want install Linux directly on it without formatting it,. That way all the current data stored on the HDD will be wiped. Cheers!

Hi there @RozerMahbub and welcome to the LinusTechTips forums! 450W won't be sufficient enough for the planned upgrade, which is why I would suggest something around 600W, golden certified if possible for more efficiency. You can go with a slightly more powerful PSU than that if you want, since it will be better not to stress the unit beyond ~80% of its total power for prolonged amounts of time, and to have few wattages aside in case you decide to make any future upgrades on the rig too. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi there @Rusty_Shackleford! For gaming you will be fine with either MBR or GPT (though I personally would go with GPT). Basically speaking it is only in situation when you would like to have a partition bigger than 2TB, or when you would like to have more than four primary partitions, that you need to use GPT. Also, for the newer model of computer that uses UEFI, it will only support GPT. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi there @Jerombolo! The best way is to check in your retailer website what are the requirements for the RMA packaging and follow them. Other than that, I would suggest to place drive in an ESD (Electro Static Discharge) Bag,and also to make sure that it's firmly seated in the box you're sending it into. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi there @Rusty_Shackleford! The Green drive should work perfectly fine with Windows 8.1. Just as an advice, since it's an old drive, you can run a test on it with Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to see the health of the HDD: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=r5RvRU Just out of curiosity, are you going to use it as a boot drive, or as a secondary storage location? Cheers!