What do I want to be looking for in a long-term external storage HDD?

[Splashboy3]

For context: I'm a video editor / motion designer and I use an ASSLOAD of storage. 

Raw video files, after effects projects, uncompressed audio, you name it. Like, terabytes upon terabytes.

My main question is as the title states: what are the major factors I should consider in picking a reliable, long-term-storage external HDD?

Besides of course; capacity, brand, and price.

Specifics on that and/or just your best recommendations would be super appreciated.

Thanks!
 

[jaslion]

A active nas that makes sure the drives dont get bitrot.

 

That or a bunch of blurays

[OddOod]

Is this just for moving data from location A to location B? Or is this for backup? For use while editing?
If the first, I'd just grab whatever inexpensive WD/seagate external you can find. If reliability is the name of the game, bring two. 
If either of the latter and you truly use an assload of storage, your best bet in the long run will always be a NAS.

[wONKEyeYEs]

8 minutes ago, Splashboy3 said:

For context: I'm a video editor / motion designer and I use an ASSLOAD of storage. 

Raw video files, after effects projects, uncompressed audio, you name it. Like, terabytes upon terabytes.

My main question is as the title states: what are the major factors I should consider in picking a reliable, long-term-storage external HDD?

Besides of course; capacity, brand, and price.

Specifics on that and/or just your best recommendations would be super appreciated.

Thanks!
 

Make sure you get a CMR  drive and not an SMR drive.

 

https://www.seagate.com/ca/en/products/cmr-smr-list/

 

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/list-of-known-smr-drives.141/

 

[Splashboy3]

1 hour ago, OddOod said:

Is this just for moving data from location A to location B? Or is this for backup? For use while editing?
If the first, I'd just grab whatever inexpensive WD/seagate external you can find. If reliability is the name of the game, bring two. 
If either of the latter and you truly use an assload of storage, your best bet in the long run will always be a NAS.

This would be strictly for archiving. Though im really hunting for a good 2-4TB working SSD too, if you had any thoughts.

[Splashboy3]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

A active nas that makes sure the drives dont get bitrot.

 

That or a bunch of blurays

If I went a NAS/RAID setup, what is a good bay enclosure? I'd likely only run two or four of the seasonic 10TB drives.

[OddOod]

1 minute ago, Splashboy3 said:

what is a good bay enclosure?

Honestly? A used tower server. Every single NAS product I've encountered is overpriced and unreliable. How technical are you?

 

 

4 minutes ago, Splashboy3 said:

a good 2-4TB working SSD

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RK2SR23/ref=twister_B0BRQ9ZZ3D?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
the 980 Pros are *wildly* inexpensive rn

[Splashboy3]

49 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Honestly? A used tower server. Every single NAS product I've encountered is overpriced and unreliable. How technical are you?

Technical enough. If I wanted something compact (smaller than a midsize tower) what would be some of the most reliable options under 1 grand USD?

 

[OddOod]

I'd go with a disk shelf, coupled with an LSI 2 port SAS card in a used SFF workstation running either truenas or Ubuntu with ZFS set up

[Blue4130]

33 minutes ago, OddOod said:

I'd go with an 8bay disk shelf, coupled with an LSI 2 port SAS card in a used SFF workstation running either truenas or Ubuntu with ZFS set up

I'm confused. Why would he need a sas card when using that disk shelf? It's usb...

[OddOod]

12 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

I'm confused. Why would he need a sas card when using that disk shelf? It's usb...

Well that would be because I'm the big dumb
Also, when did 8 bay SAS shelves get so damn expensive? I got mine for 90$

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, Splashboy3 said:

 

Ltt did the perfect nas build for you in a johnsbo n1

 

That or get a random midi tower  with 4+ sata ports

[ToboRobot]

4 hours ago, Splashboy3 said:

For context: I'm a video editor / motion designer and I use an ASSLOAD of storage. 

Raw video files, after effects projects, uncompressed audio, you name it. Like, terabytes upon terabytes.

My main question is as the title states: what are the major factors I should consider in picking a reliable, long-term-storage external HDD?

Besides of course; capacity, brand, and price.

Specifics on that and/or just your best recommendations would be super appreciated.

Thanks!
 

Preserving data is about a well thought out backup strategy that is followed, not by the best drive or storage device.

So, I'd start with some research and planning out how much data, how fast/available it needs to be, where you can store it safe, how to grow the storage pool, how to recover WHEN there are failures, who is going to maintain it etc, and security risks to start with,