Western Digital Shutting Down Hard Drive Factory

[xAcid9]

I got friend work there. rip 

Got few more friends work at WD Penang, probably got another raise. I'm jelly.

[Syntaxvgm]

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

Haha, does anyone really need storage that fast on a server though?

And before you argue certain businesses, those businesses can afford to shell out the money for SSDs

Why wouldn't you just get a single larger HDD?

That seems like an excessive amount of backing up

2 words

Archiving video. 

 

[Peter S]

Still, I am more fond using HDD than SSD for it can securely erase data  without the hesitations of shortening the lifespan of the drive unlike with SSDs. And I think it's a good thing to those who are using HDD for there might be a price decrease of HDD when SSD is widely produced. I just hope that the manufacturers be able to give satisfaction to the customers with this market transformation. 

[Christophe Corazza]

On 18-7-2018 at 8:45 AM, Sfekke said:

HDD's are getting old when it comes to OS boot disks but other then that to me they still serve a purpose.

 

Save your HHDs to sell to a hipster that swears their mp3's and flac sound better streaming from a platter then a SSD... 

[Christophe Corazza]

For long-term unplugged storage, which technology is currently more durable overall? SSDs or HDDs?

My greatest fear with this shift in storage technology is related to that.

[79wjd]

5 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

For long-term unplugged storage, which technology is currently more durable overall? SSDs or HDDs?

My greatest fear with this shift in storage technology is related to that.

The bigger concern that I have with SSDs is that they're more likely to die out of nowhere whereas an HDD is more likely to give you warning. That said, backups are important because no solution is perfectly safe.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

7 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

The bigger concern that I have with SSDs is that they're more likely to die out of nowhere whereas an HDD is more likely to give you warning. That said, backups are important because no solution is perfectly safe.

It doesn't matter if SSD failures are more likely to be irrecoverable than HDD failures or if HDDs sometimes give you some warning. All drives, no matter what kind, are subject to irrecoverable failure without any warning whatsoever. The only way to ensure your data is safe is to have a solid backup scheme.

[Valentyn]

1 hour ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

It doesn't matter if SSD failures are more likely to be irrecoverable than HDD failures or if HDDs sometimes give you some warning. All drives, no matter what kind, are subject to irrecoverable failure without any warning whatsoever. The only way to ensure your data is safe is to have a solid backup scheme.

Just had one of my external backup drives just disconnect and reconnect in Windows a few times; now she won't be seen at all. Poor thing is on its last legs. It's younger than my Samsung SSD. Can happen to'em all.

On the brightside, WD's SSD's aren't too shabby. I recently got one of their WD Blue 3D 1TB drives for £160 with shipping. Decent little drive; even after cloning over my entire old SSD, including OS and Data. 

[rheyL]

sad news for me, all my HDD are WDs

i hope no HDD price increase... 

i can't afford large chunk of SSD yet. 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

8 hours ago, Valentyn said:

Just had one of my external backup drives just disconnect and reconnect in Windows a few times; now she won't be seen at all. Poor thing is on its last legs. It's younger than my Samsung SSD. Can happen to'em all.

Absolutely, it can happen to them all. That's why I have multiple backup drives for each of my data drives.

[Christophe Corazza]

On 20-7-2018 at 11:24 PM, djdwosk97 said:

The bigger concern that I have with SSDs is that they're more likely to die out of nowhere whereas an HDD is more likely to give you warning. That said, backups are important because no solution is perfectly safe.

 

Indeed, that's a big concern as well.

But your only way to circumvent that problem is to have sufficient redundancy with your data storage.

[PocketNerd]

Isn't increasing SSD production hard because of NAND shortages, or does this mean that there will be more NAND production as well?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 hour ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Indeed, that's a big concern as well.

But your only way to circumvent that problem is to have sufficient redundancy with your data storage.

I'm thinking you may be confusing redundancy with backups. Redundancy merely protects against HDD failures in most cases. The most common example of redundancy are all levels of RAID other than 0. Depending on the level of RAID, one or more drives in the array can fail without loosing data. Redundancy is important when one needs to ensure continuous operation in the event of one or more drive failures.

 

However, drive failure is not the only way one can lose data. Viruses and other malware, PSU failures that fry your drives, power line surges that blow through any surge protection you may have and frying your drives, user error (such as accidental deletion), theft, fire, flood, asteroid strike (ok, that's a long shot), etc. can all cause loss of data. The only way to reasonably ensure the safety of data in those circumstances is to have a solid backup scheme. Redundancy, including RAID, is NOT a backup!

 

A backup is a copy of your data stored on media that is kept powered down, disconnected from the computer, and stored somewhere away from the computer. For most people, this would be to have an onsite external  backup drive and an offsite external backup drive. An onsite backup can be stored in a drawer away from the computer, preferably in another room at home.

 

While one can store an offsite backup drive at a trusted friend's or relative's home, or in a locked drawer or locker at work or school, those can be subject to snooping, theft, or seizure. A bank safe deposit box is the most secure and only you and the bank have access to it. The bank will allow access to it by anyone else, including law enforcement and othe Government agencies, including the three letter ones, only with a court issued warrant. Safe deposit boxes are far safer and are not all that expensive. Most people will have one anyway to keep important documents, family heirlooms, etc. in. Offsite backup drives need be swapped out with the onsite backup drives a often as practical to keep them as up to date as possible.

 

An alternative to an offiste backup drives is to use a paid online (aka cloud) backup service. Online data storage is rarely secure and you have to manually upload your data to them. The free ones are not secure and are notorious for disappearing with inadequate to no warning at all. I recommend Backblaze for online backups (Carbonite comes in second). Crashplan eliminated their home backup service last year. Their new Small Business plan is a good replacement, albeit at twice the cost, but it is as buggy as a flop house bed and their tech help reps have their collective heads inserted up their collective backsides. I had considered them as a good alternative for when I swich to Linux but they need to clean up their act first.

 

[Mihle]

14 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I'm thinking you may be confusing redundancy with backups. Redundancy merely protects against HDD failures in most cases. The most common example of redundancy are all levels of RAID other than 0. Depending on the level of RAID, one or more drives in the array can fail without loosing data. Redundancy is important when one needs to ensure continuous operation in the event of one or more drive failures.

 

However, drive failure is not the only way one can lose data. Viruses and other malware, PSU failures that fry your drives, power line surges that blow through any surge protection you may have and frying your drives, user error (such as accidental deletion), theft, fire, flood, asteroid strike (ok, that's a long shot), etc. can all cause loss of data. The only way to reasonably ensure the safety of data in those circumstances is to have a solid backup scheme. Redundancy, including RAID, is NOT a backup!

 

A backup is a copy of your data stored on media that is kept powered down, disconnected from the computer, and stored somewhere away from the computer. For most people, this would be to have an onsite external  backup drive and an offsite external backup drive. An onsite backup can be stored in a drawer away from the computer, preferably in another room at home.

 

While one can store an offsite backup drive at a trusted friend's or relative's home, or in a locked drawer or locker at work or school, those can be subject to snooping, theft, or seizure. A bank safe deposit box is the most secure and only you and the bank have access to it. The bank will allow access to it by anyone else, including law enforcement and othe Government agencies, including the three letter ones, only with a court issued warrant. Safe deposit boxes are far safer and are not all that expensive. Most people will have one anyway to keep important documents, family heirlooms, etc. in. Offsite backup drives need be swapped out with the onsite backup drives a often as practical to keep them as up to date as possible.

 

An alternative to an offiste backup drives is to use a paid online (aka cloud) backup service. Online data storage is rarely secure and you have to manually upload your data to them. The free ones are not secure and are notorious for disappearing with inadequate to no warning at all. I recommend Backblaze for online backups (Carbonite comes in second). Crashplan eliminated their home backup service last year. Their new Small Business plan is a good replacement, albeit at twice the cost, but it is as buggy as a flop house bed and their tech help reps have their collective heads inserted up their collective backsides. I had considered them as a good alternative for when I swich to Linux but they need to clean up their act first.

 

I haven't heard about any bank deposit boxes where I live. Even if it exists, it's not normal.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 hour ago, Mihle said:

I haven't heard about any bank deposit boxes where I live. Even if it exists, it's not normal.

Horse feathers. Just becasue you never heard of them doesn''t mean they don't exist or aren't normal. Don't you ever watch movies? Hiding stolen goods in bank safe deposit boxes or using subterfuge to gain access to safe deposit boxes is a common theme in crime thrillers.

 

Safe deposit boxes are "normal" and very common worldwide, including in Norway. Just put "safe deposit box norway" in your favorite search engine and you will get numerous hits for fees for them at various banks in Norway, including one bank in Norway that is exculsively safe deposit boxes.

[Mihle]

1 minute ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Horse feathers. Just becasue you never heard of them doesn''t mean they don't exist or aren't normal. Don't you ever watch movies? Hiding stolen goods in bank safe deposit boxes or using subterfuge to gain access to safe deposit boxes is a common theme in crime thrillers.

 

Safe deposit boxes are "normal" and very common worldwide, including in Norway. Just put "safe deposit box norway" in your favorite search engine and you will get numerous hits for fees for them at various banks in Norway, including one bank in Norway that is exculsively safe deposit boxes.

I mean where I live. I know they qe in movies, but those movies also always is in US.

 

I don't know anyone personally that use it even if they exist. They must be much more common in US.

[Mihle]

30 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Horse feathers. Just becasue you never heard of them doesn''t mean they don't exist or aren't normal. Don't you ever watch movies? Hiding stolen goods in bank safe deposit boxes or using subterfuge to gain access to safe deposit boxes is a common theme in crime thrillers.

 

Safe deposit boxes are "normal" and very common worldwide, including in Norway. Just put "safe deposit box norway" in your favorite search engine and you will get numerous hits for fees for them at various banks in Norway, including one bank in Norway that is exculsively safe deposit boxes.

And actually, I can't find much or then in Norway. Some, but it's few. And most of the biggest banks stopped with it years ago.

 

Buying a safe and have it in your home or someone you knows home is the closewy thing that is easy.

[Ezzy-525]

I used to be of the opinion that I wanted as many TB of mech storage as possible for films and tv rips. But I've realised once they're ripped...I NEVER watch them again.

 

Might be time to ditch most of my drives and save maybe one for current TV/Movies for Plex and delete as I go.

 

I got a 4TB hard drive barely 6 months ago and it failed this weekend (taking my movie collection with it...the one ones I want to replace are my MCU rips).

[xentropa]

2.5 inch HDDs will go.

3.5 inch will stay.