WD red / red plus / red pro?

[Surcof]

Hi there after 8 long years i have to replace my disks, i mind durability the most: i'm not a pro gamer, nor a worker, i'm just a student who spend about 10/12 hours daily in front of my pc doing all kind of stuff, and accumulating tons of stuff (stl, avi, steam games, junk i forget to remove...), and i would like to keep them "secure" fot the next 5/10 years. so i was thinking to retire my two drives (15k hours of working on them), keeping them as a backup, and get a new HD to replace it. so here is my questions:
1 which drive should i pick? is the "simple" red the best choise?

2 is there a super ultra cool program that let me join the two old disks and clone them in a new one, or i should do it manually?

i have to tell you that i'm running Windows 10 on a dedicated ssd, but almost all the programs are stored on the hdds, and i'm afraid that Mr Windows get mad if i move them by hand

almost forgot: currently have 3Tb of storage, looking for at least for 4Tb

[GrayTech]

There are two different ways a HDD can record data. SMR and CMR. SMR drives are usually cheaper but CMR is what you want if you consider RAID or running them in a NAS. WD has SMR as well as CMR "red" drives. Finding out which is is which can be done by lokking up the specific model name (e.g. WD60EFAX) on the internet. Make sure you get a CMR one.

 

Normal WD red are 5400rpm drives which are very slow. do yourself a favour and reinstall your programs onto the SSD. It will make a huge difference in how your setup feels. Otherwise for storing data, they are perfectly fine. For gaming I would recommend at least a 7200rpm HDD or a SSD.

 

WD red are very reliable drives, but they are rated for running 24/7 and being able to withstand vibrations from other HDDs around them.
Overall I would move the programs onto the SSD, get a fast drive only for games as well a seperated drive for data. (WD red CMR or a regular desktop hdd).

 

Having a reliable HDD or RAID aren't bad things but the only way to keep your data secure is to make regular backups. Either manually or with a backup software. And splitting your games and data drives can make it easier to back up your important data while games usually don't need to be backed up. (except maybe some save files).

 

On the other hand, 15K working hours for a HDD isn't that much. I already used drives with 60K hours (they were enterprise drives tho). But by retiring them from your main rig you already have your drives for backups.

[mariushm]

Avoid the SMR drives. See https://nascompares.com/2020/04/16/your-wd-red-nas-hard-drives-might-be-using-smr-what-you-need-to-know/

Try to get the drives with 3 years warranty or more. 

 

 

Not sure about Red Plus ... may be CMR Red marked as Plus to differentiate it from the old RED which had SMR drives and they got complaints about it, people were pissed off for adding SMR to NAS drives.

 

partitioning programs  should be able to clone the partitions to the new drive should you need to... but plain copy paste should work just fine. 

Try maybe Macrium reflect , there's a free version available. 

 

[Surcof]

7 minutes ago, GrayTech said:

There are two different ways a HDD can record data. SMR and CMR. SMR drives are usually cheaper but CMR is what you want if you consider RAID or running them in a NAS. WD has SMR as well as CMR "red" drives. Finding out which is is which can be done by lokking up the specific model name (e.g. WD60EFAX) on the internet. Make sure you get a CMR one.

 

Normal WD red are 5400rpm drives which are very slow. do yourself a favour and reinstall your programs onto the SSD. It will make a huge difference in how your setup feels. Otherwise for storing data, they are perfectly fine. For gaming I would recommend at least a 7200rpm HDD or a SSD.

 

WD red are very reliable drives, but they are rated for running 24/7 and being able to withstand vibrations from other HDDs around them.
Overall I would move the programs onto the SSD, get a fast drive only for games as well a seperated drive for data. (WD red CMR or a regular desktop hdd).

 

Having a reliable HDD or RAID aren't bad things but the only way to keep your data secure is to make regular backups. Either manually or with a backup software. And splitting your games and data drives can make it easier to back up your important data while games usually don't need to be backed up. (except maybe some save files).

 

On the other hand, 15K working hours for a HDD isn't that much. I already used drives with 60K hours (they were enterprise drives tho). But by retiring them from your main rig you already have your drives for backups.

i will not get any raid or nas, btw the wd red  pro are 7200rpm, it should be both reliable and fast, should i pick it? the 4tb is just 150€, the simple red is 100€, so look like the right choise

 

[mariushm]

It's not about getting a raid or nas, it's about "nas grade" drives being more reliable .. and some have their firmware optimized to handle vibrations better so you can have a bunch of drives close together and not worry about it. You don't have to use nas grade or raid grade drives in a nas/raid, they can be used like regular drives. 

 

I doubt it's worth paying 50 euro more for the pro ... premature failures and sudden failures could happen regardless if it's a cheap drive or an "enterprise" drive ... you'd be better off buying 2 100 euro drives and duplicating the data for extra safety, if that's more important to you.

 

Do you have only those two drives as options?

 

My latest purchase was a HGST Nas grade 4 TB drive, but the company was owned by WD and now they rebranded the drives with their own name and series, so not sure what naming they're under now. I know the higher end datacenter drives are the WD Gold , Helium drives now.. but not sure what the other series are sold as. 

 

Also look at external drives, sometimes there's good offers, and in the case of WD, the 8 TB and higher drives are CMR and they're decent quality. You can remove them from the external case and use them like regular sata drives. 

For example the WD Elements 8 TB is 750 RON  (152 euro) where I live.  The cheapest internal drive I can buy now at 8 TB is 999 RON or 203 euro. 

 

Sure, opening the shell may void the warranty (if they'd even be able to tell or if they'd even care when you return for warranty) but if your drive is gonna fail in 6 months losing TBs of data, would you really be consoled that they're gonna send you a replacement drive that much? Lost data is still lost data.

 

Keep data you really care about on multiple drives... in a ideal world in different places.

 

 

[Henry2026]

I think you should go full SSD. I think the WD SN550 is the best if you are doing a lot of copying and things that require speed and redundancy.I If not, get 3 HDD's put them in RAID 5 and get redundancy and the best performance. I recommend hard drives that have cache and 7200 rpm drives. You can get WD Black drives, Ironwolf Pro, Firecuda, and other performance drives for the best performance. 

[Surcof]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

It's not about getting a raid or nas, it's about "nas grade" drives being more reliable .. and some have their firmware optimized to handle vibrations better so you can have a bunch of drives close together and not worry about it. You don't have to use nas grade or raid grade drives in a nas/raid, they can be used like regular drives. 

 

I doubt it's worth paying 50 euro more for the pro ... premature failures and sudden failures could happen regardless if it's a cheap drive or an "enterprise" drive ... you'd be better off buying 2 100 euro drives and duplicating the data for extra safety, if that's more important to you.

 

Do you have only those two drives as options?

 

My latest purchase was a HGST Nas grade 4 TB drive, but the company was owned by WD and now they rebranded the drives with their own name and series, so not sure what naming they're under now. I know the higher end datacenter drives are the WD Gold , Helium drives now.. but not sure what the other series are sold as. 

 

Also look at external drives, sometimes there's good offers, and in the case of WD, the 8 TB and higher drives are CMR and they're decent quality. You can remove them from the external case and use them like regular sata drives. 

For example the WD Elements 8 TB is 750 RON  (152 euro) where I live.  The cheapest internal drive I can buy now at 8 TB is 999 RON or 203 euro. 

 

Sure, opening the shell may void the warranty (if they'd even be able to tell or if they'd even care when you return for warranty) but if your drive is gonna fail in 6 months losing TBs of data, would you really be consoled that they're gonna send you a replacement drive that much? Lost data is still lost data.

 

Keep data you really care about on multiple drives... in a ideal world in different places.

 

 

i will use the old drives for backup, i have checked them with crystaldisk , hddguardian and some other programs and they marked them "in danger" so i will not rely on them for daily use but i think they will feet as a backup (some sectors are already lost).
i don't think i need ridondancy, and i am open to any other options you can suggest, i was going straight with WD red because usually i pick them, i had heard some times ago about the SMR-CMR, and now i don't know what to do
i have found a 4tb wd red pro for about 130€ and it comes with 5 years warrantly so it should be a nice choice

[Surcof]

1 hour ago, Henry2026 said:

I think you should go full SSD. I think the WD SN550 is the best if you are doing a lot of copying and things that require speed and redundancy.I If not, get 3 HDD's put them in RAID 5 and get redundancy and the best performance. I recommend hard drives that have cache and 7200 rpm drives. You can get WD Black drives, Ironwolf Pro, Firecuda, and other performance drives for the best performance. 

get 4 tb of ssd is quite expensive, and get 3 hdd may be a choice, but to get 3 hdd 2tb wd black it is almost 400€ (my gpu costed 200€),

 

[Surcof]

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

 

Also look at external drives, sometimes there's good offers, and in the case of WD, the 8 TB and higher drives are CMR and they're decent quality. You can remove them from the external case and use them like regular sata drives. 

For example the WD Elements 8 TB is 750 RON  (152 euro) where I live.  The cheapest internal drive I can buy now at 8 TB is 999 RON or 203 euro. 

 

Sure, opening the shell may void the warranty (if they'd even be able to tell or if they'd even care when you return for warranty) but if your drive is gonna fail in 6 months losing TBs of data, would you really be consoled that they're gonna send you a replacement drive that much? Lost data is still lost data.

 

Keep data you really care about on multiple drives... in a ideal world in different places.

 

 

just read this part, that is very interesting! i have found an 8td WD Elements for just 140€, i have also read the workaround for the power efficency problem, and my last doubt is: do the 7200 vs 5400 rpm do the difference?

[GrayTech]

3 hours ago, Surcof said:

i will not get any raid or nas, btw the wd red  pro are 7200rpm, it should be both reliable and fast, should i pick it? the 4tb is just 150€, the simple red is 100€, so look like the right choise

 

It depends. Just for storing data? go for 5400rpm. (normal red) They are cheaper and they make less noise. For games and programs? You really want to have 7200rpm or an SSD. That's why I recommended splitting games/programs and data. 
Personally I have a M.2 for OS and programms, a 7200rpm HDD for games (I'm planing to get an SSD for my fav games) as well as a 7200rpm HDD for data (I used this HDD for games prior that's why it is 7200rpm). This seperation really helps you to organize and back up important data.

[GrayTech]

3 hours ago, Henry2026 said:

I think you should go full SSD. I think the WD SN550 is the best if you are doing a lot of copying and things that require speed and redundancy.I If not, get 3 HDD's put them in RAID 5 and get redundancy and the best performance. I recommend hard drives that have cache and 7200 rpm drives. You can get WD Black drives, Ironwolf Pro, Firecuda, and other performance drives for the best performance. 

Going with faster drives is no doubt the better experience but for storing data especially if you don't need to access it that often, HDDs are still fine and the way to go from a price to performance standpoint.

 

1 hour ago, Surcof said:

i will use the old drives for backup, i have checked them with crystaldisk , hddguardian and some other programs and they marked them "in danger" so i will not rely on them for daily use but i think they will feet as a backup (some sectors are already lost).

Agreed.

 

1 hour ago, Surcof said:

i don't think i need ridondancy, and i am open to any other options you can suggest, i was going straight with WD red because usually i pick them, i had heard some times ago about the SMR-CMR, and now i don't know what to do

RAID (except RAID 0) doesn't make that much sense for your daily rig. Having recent backups is way more important for various reasons. As for SMR - CMR: Just google the parts number of your drive and make sure that it's CMR. Avoid SMR.