Drives for NAS

[Egg-Roll]

So I'm currently looking for drives for my NAS which can hold 15 drives. The enclosure is a Rosewill 4U Server Chassis which has 3 cages of 5 drives ea.

I'm wondering which drives I should get, I'm fine with shucking the white labels for cheap however after some actually quite painful searching (shame on you WD) I found out that all Reds 10TB are possibly SMR, Pro's are PMR but the pricing is more expensive than the ultrastars.

One person did claim they got a ultrastar from a shuck, but thats a huge hit or miss imo, either that or they are referring to the RN number which corresponds to the series.

The 12Tb units from WD enclosures are a little weird, one video I noticed US7SAP140 which is for 14Tb, don't really want to get one that isn't 100% good.

 

So I guess the best question here is it safe to use SMR or not? I'd be willing to try Seagate (IronWolf) again if I know they won't eat shit after 1-2 years of use, which every drive has in the past with them, tho I've only ever bought consumer grade.

Also would any drive be ok with the 5x3 rack setup vibration wise this case has? They'll mostly be sitting idle likely.

 

My system will be holding non-important files (videos, pictures, etc), tho I do want a parity setup as it's a lot of data, which setup I'll choose later. (leaning unraid)

Also won't shuck a single Seagate because if WDs are truly UltraStars with lower RPM and modified firmware they are superior in every technical way than the BarraCuda Pros apparently inside them, less the rpm speed difference.

[SenKa]

I can tell you I shucked an 8TB easystore and got one of those spun-down ultrastars. Though, in the case of the 8TB there are a couple different models of drives used and not all are infact ultrastars.

 

I have tortured the hell out of this drive and its yet to care, spun up every day for 2 years and spent roughly half of that with no active airflow. 100% recommend shucking easystores. Do yourself a favor and cut off pin 3, don't try and mess around with tape. A sharp pocket knife and a steady hand is all you need.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, SenKa said:

I can tell you I shucked an 8TB easystore and got one of those spun-down ultrastars. Though, in the case of the 8TB there are a couple different models of drives used and not all are infact ultrastars.

 

I have tortured the hell out of this drive and its yet to care, spun up every day for 2 years and spent roughly half of that with no active airflow. 100% recommend shucking easystores. Do yourself a favor and cut off pin 3, don't try and mess around with tape. A sharp pocket knife and a steady hand is all you need.

I forgot to mention I shucked a 8tb that (I found out today) is a ultrastar too or at least based on the rn. Sadly wasn't so lucky with my 6tb getting a green blue drive (both 2 years ago as well). So long as all are at least WD Reds then I should be fine and since WD has yet to release a green I mean blue version of the 8tb let alone a 10 I'm fairly safe from that disaster, I'm hoping someone here has shucked a few 10TB to help me out because I really don't like the idea of SMR, at least for the initial load.

 

Anyway of finding out if I need to worry about the 3rd pin? My 8tb isn't causing issues with my external BlacX. I understand it is a cable issue more than anything, I'm just wondering if there is a way of finding out next to plugging one in (like looking at the connector), because I really don't want to yank a pin out lol... Also read one could tape all 3 pins (pin 1-3) and would work, someone else pointed out pulling the 3v plug out of the modular cable would work too.

[SenKa]

10 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

I forgot to mention I shucked a 8tb that (I found out today) is a ultrastar too or at least based on the rn. Sadly wasn't so lucky with my 6tb getting a green blue drive (both 2 years ago as well). So long as all are at least WD Reds then I should be fine and since WD has yet to release a green I mean blue version of the 8tb let alone a 10 I'm fairly safe from that disaster, I'm hoping someone here has shucked a few 10TB to help me out because I really don't like the idea of SMR, at least for the initial load.

 

Anyway of finding out if I need to worry about the 3rd pin? My 8tb isn't causing issues with my external BlacX. I understand it is a cable issue more than anything, I'm just wondering if there is a way of finding out next to plugging one in (like looking at the connector), because I really don't want to yank a pin out lol... Also read one could tape all 3 pins (pin 1-3) and would work, someone else pointed out pulling the 3v plug out of the modular cable would work too.

Uhhh, any of those options *should* work. as far as im aware HDD's dont use 3.3v for anything, but it is specifically pin 3 that causes issues. It does not shock me that an external enclosure doesnt have the issue, it probably doesn't supply 3.3v at all since its only made for hard drives. Removing the 3.3v plug out of a modular cable would also work, yes, as it effectively does the same thing as taping the 3.3v pins off.

 

As I said, I literally cut the pin out on my 8TB drive, and have had 0 issues. I do understand that not everybody would be on board with that.

 

I have written and read a LOT of data to this drive at once (roughly its full capacity each way), which I am assuming is your concern with SMR? Ive had zero issues whatsoever, and would not be concerned.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, SenKa said:

I have written and read a LOT of data to this drive at once (roughly its full capacity each way), which I am assuming is your concern with SMR? Ive had zero issues whatsoever, and would not be concerned.

Afaik all Ultras are CMR at least that is what I found, same with a lot of the older 8TB reds, so unless you've used a drive that is actually a SMR you like me don't know the issues (if any) of running a SMR. Even my 6Tb Blue is CMR.

 

2 hours ago, SenKa said:

I do understand that not everybody would be on board with that.

I just don't want to risk damaging something as expensive as a drive Even tho unlikely I rather not.

[SenKa]

Just now, Egg-Roll said:

Afaik all Ultras are CMR at least that is what I found, same with a lot of the older 8TB reds, so unless you've used a drive that is actually a SMR you like me don't know the issues (if any) of running a SMR. Even my 6Tb Blue is CMR

I responded while taking a very quick break, and couldnt quickly find the answer... apologies.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, SenKa said:

I responded while taking a very quick break, and couldnt quickly find the answer... apologies.

No worries, if this was yesterday I myself wouldn't have known  I don't think anyone knows exactly how SMRs will work when a SMR dies in a setup as such, they might work great in unraid/raid but they all might die once one does, they are too new to trust. Now I will have the fun part of removing the 3V wire from the psu end of my sata cables, not yet but maybe this week. Plus I also found out my psu only can harbor 12 drives unless I plug a few into Molex and they are all being used for the fans right now 

 

Lots of work ahead for me to do, along with many bridges, at least the HDD issue seems to be solved mostly, tho it would be great to hear from someone who has actually used a 10Tb drive.