5 year old drives in Raid 1 - Worth it?

[Dw136]

So my 5 year old laptop finally kicked the bucket. The motherboard is completely dead. I salvaged 2 500GB WD Green 2.5"  HDD out of the machine. I'm thinking of formatting both of the clean and setting up a RAID 1 using both of them.  One drive was hardly ever used but one served as a boot drive for 5 years of pretty heavy use. 

 

 

I'm planning to use this RAID as back up storage to my SSD holding RAW photos and videos before editing. So my workflow would be to save raw files to both SSD and RAID, edit the raw files on the SSD, don't touch the RAID, and once I export Jpegs or render final videos I move the edited raw data on my SSD to an external 4tb enclosure and the exported Jpegs / rendered videos to the cloud, then erase the data off both the SSD and RAID. 

 

My question is: Does the age of the drives mean that it's an unstable RAID in the first place and can't be trusted as a back up? I'm pretty much going to rely on that raid to always have my raw photos and videos saved in case my SSD's dies or I horribly screw up the edit to the point it's just easier to restart from scratch.  

[Finn the Potato]

Probably not. They could fail the moment you turn them off from the motherboard having static discharge and that being sent through all the wires when it died.

[Nonco]

Might be a bit dodgy. Maybe use them to get an idea of how to set up a RAID config, but I wouldnt trust them to not die.

[scottyseng]

-snip-

 

I would not risk it. The five year mark is usually when I say it's time to replace the hard drive. But before that, you should not RAID WD green drives. They will drop out of the array / aren't built for RAID.

[Dw136]

Probably not. They could fail the moment you turn them off from the motherboard having static discharge and that being sent through all the wires when it died.

I tested the drives by formatting them and throwing some random files off and on them. Seems fine.

[Finn the Potato]

I'd still say way too risky with drives as old as them.

[Dw136]

I would not risk it. The five year mark is usually when I say it's time to replace the hard drive. But before that, you should not RAID WD green drives. They will drop out of the array / aren't built for RAID.

So should I just junk em or are they still good for anything else?

[Furbodo]

As a test run I would recommend setting them up with a bunch of games on them and playing all the games for a few hours each. Just putting a load on them will reveal signs. The great things about HDDs are that they CAN slowly degrade and warn you. Also to create a similar setup with WD 1tb Blues would only set you back $110 USD.

Hell I would still buy new drives though. A raid setup is great for when you cannot afford a HC SSD.

[Dw136]

As a test run I would recommend setting them up with a bunch of games on them and playing all the games for a few hours each. Just putting a load on them will reveal signs. The great things about HDDs are that they CAN slowly degrade and warn you. Also to create a similar setup with WD 1tb Blues would only set you back $110 USD.

Hell I would still buy new drives though. A raid setup is great for when you cannot afford a HC SSD.

 

From the replies I think I'll have to buy new drives for the back up RAID. Are blues good enough for a RAID config or should I spend a little extra (about $15 more) for Red or RE4 drives?

Oh and can anyone explain the difference between RED and RE4 WD drives? Are they just the same thing with different naming schemes or is one the upgraded version of the other, they seem close in price and performance. 

[QueenDemetria]

 

My question is: Does the age of the drives mean that it's an unstable RAID in the first place and can't be trusted as a back up? I'm pretty much going to rely on that raid to always have my raw photos and videos saved in case my SSD's dies or I horribly screw up the edit to the point it's just easier to restart from scratch.  

So, yes because your drives are older(and used to some extent) they will be less reliable, but since you are using a redundant RAID you should be perfectly fine. If one of the drives dies, good news all of the data is on the other drive, so just backup the non dead drive at that point. RAID 1 isn't hard on drives either(unlike RAID 0), so as long as the drives are in perfect health(you can use CrystalDiskInfo to check the SMART data), they should be fine. I would only use RAID 1 though since its redundant, RAID 0 is super sketchy(even with new drives lol).

 

Judging by some of the replies, I feel like I am the only one that has set up and used RAID before lol.

[scottyseng]

From the replies I think I'll have to buy new drives for the back up RAID. Are blues good enough for a RAID config or should I spend a little extra (about $15 more) for Red or RE4 drives?

Oh and can anyone explain the difference between RED and RE4 WD drives? Are they just the same thing with different naming schemes or is one the upgraded version of the other, they seem close in price and performance. 

 

Yeah, I would buy Red Drives if you want to do RAID. The one green drive that just idled could be used as a back up for important files. The heavily used one...is probably not good for much. Run smart tests / extended tests on both using WD's Lifeguard tool. If they both pass, maybe use the drives separately as a secondary backup drive. But do no RAID them.

 

The RE4 drives are the older series WD enterprise drives. They're called RE drives now.

 

Red Drives are 5400RPM, made for RAID, and designed to run 24/7. However, you can only run up to eight of them in a single case at one time. They can't handle the vibrations safely beyond that. I have six 4TB Red Drives, they get 160MB/s read / write; in RAID 10, they get 500MB/s read / write. They are dead quiet to me / run really cool.

 

Red Pro drives are 7200 RPM, also made for RAID, but can handle up to 16 drives in one case.

 

Se drives are the little brother to the Re Drives. They're directly comparable to the Red Pros, but you can place a large amount of them in one case without worry as they contain the same vibration reduction hardware as the Re drives. If you are planning on getting Red Pros, I would check if the Se drives are cheaper first, if so, get the Se drives.

 

Re drives are their high end enterprise line. 7200 RPM, very fast, made for heavy workloads, have a very low read error rate (lower than the SE / consumer lines), can take a lot of heat, and heavily tested, they're probably one of WD's best lines. They contain software / hardware that can handle vibrations, so you can place a lot of these drives in one case without any issues. Very expensive though. I have two 4TB in my server, they get about 180MB/s read and write for sequential data. They are loud / hot though.

 

I would recommend the Red Drives for you.

 

The Greens, Blues, and Blacks should not be used in RAID. They aren't made for it / don't support it.

[Dw136]

Yeah, I would buy Red Drives if you want to do RAID. The one green drive that just idled could be used as a back up for important files. The heavily used one...is probably not good for much. Run smart tests / extended tests on both using WD's Lifeguard tool. If they both pass, maybe use the drives separately as a secondary backup drive. But do no RAID them.

 

The RE4 drives are the older series WD enterprise drives. They're called RE drives now.

 

Red Drives are 5400RPM, made for RAID, and designed to run 24/7. However, you can only run up to eight of them in a single case at one time. They can't handle the vibrations safely beyond that. I have six 4TB Red Drives, they get 160MB/s read / write; in RAID 10, they get 500MB/s read / write. They are dead quiet to me / run really cool.

 

Red Pro drives are 7200 RPM, also made for RAID, but can handle up to 16 drives in one case.

 

Se drives are the little brother to the Re Drives. They're directly comparable to the Red Pros, but you can place a large amount of them in one case without worry as they contain the same vibration reduction hardware as the Re drives. If you are planning on getting Red Pros, I would check if the Se drives are cheaper first, if so, get the Se drives.

 

Re drives are their high end enterprise line. 7200 RPM, very fast, made for heavy workloads, have a very low read error rate (lower than the SE / consumer lines), can take a lot of heat, and heavily tested, they're probably one of WD's best lines. They contain software / hardware that can handle vibrations, so you can place a lot of these drives in one case without any issues. Very expensive though. I have two 4TB in my server, they get about 180MB/s read and write for sequential data. They are loud / hot though.

 

I would recommend the Red Drives for you.

 

The Greens, Blues, and Blacks should not be used in RAID. They aren't made for it / don't support it.

Okay. Thanks for all the info. Since the RAID's only function is to back up my editing SSD (Samsung 850 EVO 500gb) I think I'll opt for the 500gb RE drives, its only a couple bucks extra over 1TB RED's. You mentioned they run hot. Is it hot enough that it'll require an additional cooling fan to blow intake air over them if I put them in the front of my case? 

[scottyseng]

Okay. Thanks for all the info. Since the RAID's only function is to back up my editing SSD (Samsung 850 EVO 500gb) I think I'll opt for the 500gb RE drives, its only a couple bucks extra over 1TB RED's. You mentioned they run hot. Is it hot enough that it'll require an additional cooling fan to blow intake air over them if I put them in the front of my case? 

 

Well, if you're fine with the size. Personally to me 500GB is quite small by today's standards. The RE drive is kind of severe overkill for a two drive RAID 10 (Expensive too since as you mention, the 1TB Red costs less / the density of the 1TB would be higher = more performance). Both will serve you fine.

 

If you do with the REs, I would recommend having a fan over them. Your case should have a front fan intake fan though right? I did run the RE drives in my array without cooling for 20min under full load (Was coping files) and it started peaking at 53C (Really hot for a hard drive; the RE drives can safely run up to 55C..still not a good feeling though). With fans, it dropped to 49C (Still under full load).

 

Reds ran at 45C without cooling; with cooling, ran at 37-38C under full load.

 

At idle, RE drive is sitting at 41C; Red drive is at 35C.

[Dw136]

Well, if you're fine with the size. Personally to me 500GB is quite small by today's standards. The RE drive is kind of severe overkill for a two drive RAID 10 (Expensive too since as you mention, the 1TB Red costs less / the density of the 1TB would be higher = more performance). Both will serve you fine.

 

If you do with the REs, I would recommend having a fan over them. Your case should have a front fan intake fan though right? I did run the RE drives in my array without cooling for 20min under full load (Was coping files) and it started peaking at 53C (Really hot for a hard drive; the RE drives can safely run up to 55C..still not a good feeling though). With fans, it dropped to 49C (Still under full load).

 

Reds ran at 45C without cooling; with cooling, ran at 37-38C under full load.

 

At idle, RE drive is sitting at 45C; Red drive is at 35C.

Thanks. There's a mount for 2 fans in the front but I have only have one directing air through a ghetto shroud (basically a thin cardboard box channel) towards the graphic card area at the moment so I might pick up another fan while I'm at it. I didn't think they would get that hot, probably just go with Reds then. I guess I can use the extra storage down the line if I get a second Samsung Evo and raid 0 those together. 

[mluton]

I'd risk it, just make sure you backup frequently. I always re-use drives in raid, I doubt both will go at the same time.

[scottyseng]

Thanks. There's a mount for 2 fans in the front but I have only have one directing air through a ghetto shroud (basically a thin cardboard box channel) towards the graphic card area at the moment so I might pick up another fan while I'm at it. I didn't think they would get that hot, probably just go with Reds then. I guess I can use the extra storage down the line if I get a second Samsung Evo and raid 0 those together. 

 

Yeah, the RE drives are enterprise drives...they're designed to be in server chassis with high RPM fans (Trust me, my server would drive most people insane on fan noise).

 

The Reds would probably be a better choice for you (especially since you have less cooling capacity) / the extra space you'll be thankful for down the line.

 

If you are planning to RAID 0 the Evos, make sure they are the same model and size. RAIDing them does make them faster, but twice as likely to fail. RAID also does not support trim (Well, some Intel RAID controllers do) so the SSD speed may drop over time. I would recommend keeping the SSDs separate or getting one larger SSD.

[Dw136]

Yeah, the RE drives are enterprise drives...they're designed to be in server chassis with high RPM fans (Trust me, my server would drive most people insane on fan noise).

 

The Reds would probably be a better choice for you (especially since you have less cooling capacity) / the extra space you'll be thankful for down the line.

 

If you are planning to RAID 0 the Evos, make sure they are the same model and size. RAIDing them does make them faster, but twice as likely to fail. RAID also does not support trim (Well, some Intel RAID controllers do) so the SSD speed may drop over time. I would recommend keeping the SSDs separate or getting one larger SSD.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there Dw136,

 

Generally, WD Green drives are not designed for RAID array usage and have a higher risk of dropping out of the array and corrupting the data. There are people who use them in a mirror array, but I wouldn't recommend that. Moreover, the drives have been used for a pretty long time and I would strongly suggest to check their health before further using them in any way. I would recommend running WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool over both drives and see if both of them pass the quick and the extended tests. Here's a link: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=XmcgvS

 

Captain_WD.