2TB (2.5") Seagate Firecuda SSHD or 1TB (2.5") HGST Travelstar for Laptop Storage Hard Drive (Not boot drive)?

[Feliks]

I tried asking this question on the Tom's Hardware forums, which 2 years ago were way better for getting answers. The answers I got there this time (all 3 of them) weren't even answers; not a single one actually answered the question, it's like people just copy pasted things there in hopes of getting selected as best answer. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they did.

Anyways, hello there! I'm Feliks and I need a storage drive for my laptop, and for the boot drive I already have an SSD. What I use this computer for is/will be a mix of gaming, school work, coding, possibly VMs, etc; whatever my heart's desire. I use a lot of storage and I don't like to use more than 1/2 of the space available on a drive at any time anyways. If there were bigger drives available for laptops, I'd probably go for it. The FireCuda's the biggest available for the laptop. It's important to me that the drive is reliable, but speed is also important (though as long as it somewhat compares with my desktop 7200RPM drive it should be fine).

I am between the 2.5" HGST Travelstar 1TB "normal" mechanical hard drive and the 2.5" Seagate Firecuda 2TB "hybrid" hard drive.

I honestly am inclined towards each one; I really want the FireCuda because of the extra storage and somewhat because of the speed though I've heard mixed things about it especially since the mechanical part of the hard drive is only 5400 RPM (some say this doesn't matter because of the way it's designed). The TravelStar has great reviews across the board and I trust HGST much more. Also it's 7200RPM, but on the flip side it's just a plain old normal hard drive.

I am worried the data will be at risk both because of SeaGate in general being considered a "less reliable" hard drive brand and because of what was said about this particular drive at the bottom of this page http://www.overclock.net/t/1619691/laptop-drives-seagat... (scroll to the bottom; it's the last post, by a guy who "does data recovery for a living"). It is important to me that the data's at least recoverable, yes I make backups but still, it's not like EVERYTHING gets instantly backed up (please don't give me a spiel about that... just don't).

PLEASE do not recommend to me to buy a 1TB SSD or any other SSD. I HAVE an SSD and I simply cannot afford a 1TB one and I cannot have any less than 1TB on my storage drive, as you can see I already want even more than 1TB if possible. (If you insist on a 1TB SSD, feel free to send me one for free!) Thank you!

[genexis_x]

5 minutes ago, Feliks said:

I am worried the data will be at risk both because of SeaGate in general being considered a "less reliable" hard drive brand and because of what was said about this particular drive at the bottom of this page http://www.overclock.net/t/1619691/laptop-drives-seagat... (scroll to the bottom; it's the last post, by a guy who "does data recovery for a living")

No brand is less reliable

I'll get a regular HDD if you already have SSD

[Vroooom]

It kind of seems like a no-brainer to get a 2TB SSHD over a 1TB HDD, but maybe I'm missing something. As for reliability: It's a hard drive. Your data is always at risk. Seagate had some unbelievably terrible 3TB desktop drives a couple years ago, but other than that, they're as good/bad as any others.

[Feliks]

Thanks guys. And any idea about recoverability? As I said, I know to always have back-ups but it's just inevitable that not everything always gets backed up soon enough. Thanks a lot for the answers though, they are miles better than the ones on Tom's Hardware, so I appreciate it a lot. 

[DailyProcrastinator]

I use the 2.5" 2TB Firecuda as my games storage hard drive in my two main systems and both run totally okay and it's been quite some time. Seagate has done really well quality wise over the last few years and they recently updated the hybrid Firecuda's, I'm very happy with them.

[Feliks]

13 minutes ago, JM21 said:

I use the 2.5" 2TB Firecuda as my games storage hard drive in my two main systems and both run totally okay and it's been quite some time. Seagate has done really well quality wise over the last few years and they recently updated the hybrid Firecuda's, I'm very happy with them.

Thank you so much, it really helps to see someone using the same product, seriously that makes me feel a million times better!

You mention SeaGate's updated them recently, do you have the updated versions or the older ones? And also how long has it been?

Thank you so much again!

[DailyProcrastinator]

18 hours ago, Feliks said:

Thank you so much, it really helps to see someone using the same product, seriously that makes me feel a million times better!

You mention SeaGate's updated them recently, do you have the updated versions or the older ones? And also how long has it been?

Thank you so much again!

I've had one in my small ITX build as main system storage for 11 months, it gets used a lot. Only my OS and program files are not saved to it.

And in my main system I use it for just all my games to be saved on. I got that at the beginning of summer.

 

The new Firecudda came out last year and any new 2.5" Hybrid Firecudda would be their updated model.

https://www.seagate.com/ca/en/internal-hard-drives/hdd/firecuda/

[Feliks]

Thank you JM21 and everyone else as well! All the answers here were appreciated. (I went with the FireCuda).

[mikerios]

HGST drives are the most reliable in the industry, by far; Seagate has a terrible track record.  In one data center that had both, the Seagates failed more than 100 times more often!

Google Express (Fry's) has the HGST Ultrastar 2TB (2.5") for $140, and sometimes there is a $20 discount on this (there is today).  It is worth whatever extra it costs--when a hard drive dies, the stress, costs, and time wasted is *way* more expensive than whatever price difference there is.

The Ultrastar is the high end drive from Hitachi aimed at datacenters and other mission-critical applications.  5 year warranty and 2 *million* hours MTBF.

[savagemadman]

I own and have used both the 2.5" Firecuda and a HGST 7200RPM Travelstar in a laptop (as a boot drive) and a PS4.

 

In the PS4, the Travelstar performs much better in all circumstances so far - I believe there is nothing sufficiently repetitive enough in how the PS4 utilizes the hard drive to really take advantage of the caching vs the higher data rate of the Travelstar. It was a bit disappointing as the older Seagate Momentus XT hybrid did perform well with my PS3.

 

As for the laptop, the Firecuda is the sure overall winner. It massively cut down on Windows boot times, and noticeably helped with repeated application loads. The caching in the newer mode Seagate SSHD works MUCH better than in some of my previous experiences with them - I recall the Momentus PSD that came with one of my old Vaios actually performing worse than a traditional drive.

 

I have no reliability concerns with either brand. The majority of my drives are actually the "unreliable" 3TB Seagates from a few years back and they haven't been a problem for me, though I have done the firmware updates.