HDDs/Data Storage Solutions.

[Vectraat]

I require more storage but I'm not sure what direction I should be heading.  

1.) Looking to buy an always-on drive that will likely be in use day and night. 
a.) 8-10 TB's minimum. 
b.) Can't buy 8 TB EasyStore's in my area or online.
c.) Some recommend HGST drives, while others recommend enterprise. HGST drives are difficult for me to obtain locally and I generally prefer to buy local in case there's a problem and I need to return the drive. Also, HGST and enterprise drives are very loud. So I'm thinking on this one. Currently I use a 10 TB IronWolf in my desktop and it can get kinda loud at times depending on the activity level. 

2.) I need an archive drive. Basically looking to fill it up with data and throw it in a corner some where until I need to use it--which may be years. I may need to delete/replace data occasionally, but once It's full I probably won't be using for a long time or very infrequently. 
a.) Minimum 8-10 TB. Seagate external SMR drives are pretty cheap, so I was looking at those. 

Ok, now you know my requirements, but here's my dilemma... Currently I have 10 external hard drives ranging from 2 TB to 8 TB. I preferably don't want to deal with anymore cords and power bricks for obvious reasons. So I'm wondering if there's a better solution than continuing to buy more and more externals for my backup storage requirements. I already have a 4 Bay NAS that's filled up. I can buy an expansion unit for it, but I don't think I want to go that route--I see no point in using it to store archival drives. 

So, should I be looking at investing in a 4 bay hard drive docking station instead? A rack of some sort? I like the idea of being able to hot swap too. The always-on drive I can install inside my desktop PC, but I guess I just don't want another loose external HDD laying around. Basically, I want to compartmentalize better so there isn't so much clutter/won't have to find a free plug/cords etc. I've seen in some videos where people have 4 drives hot-swappable in the front of their desktop, but I assume that required some modding or a specifically designed case. Either way, It's appealing to me because I hate having to take my case off to unplug/unscrew my drives.   

On another note, when buying HDDs for a NAS, I've read that they should preferably all be the same brand and same type of hard drive--does that even matter? Like can I use a Seagate IronWolf with a WD Gold in a NAS? Size differences can matter as well, but this can be dealt with to some extent depending on the RAID configuration you're using. 

These are some of the potential solutions I've been looking at when trying to avoid more external HDD clutter, but maybe you guys can come up with something better.
 

 

 

[Enderman]

Transfer your data to large 8-12TB drives to consolidate it and then sell all those extra smaller HDDs.

I would recommend WD, at least for the always on drive (assuming you can't afford 8TB of SSD space) and I think seagate has some slow but affordable archive drives which linus used in one of his servers.

[Vectraat]

3 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Transfer your data to large 8-12TB drives to consolidate it and then sell all those extra smaller HDDs.

I would recommend WD, at least for the always on drive (assuming you can't afford 8TB of SSD space) and I think seagate has some slow but affordable archive drives which linus used in one of his servers.

Well, I don't think there's much point in trying to sell older 3-4TB externals since they're so cheap right now. Some are literally 7-8 years old, but I haven't used them all that much and there's no bad sectors or anything like that. However, It's probably not worth the hassle of trying to sell them for the amount of money I'd make. Better off to just have them laying around to use them for storage if needed then tuck them away some where. 

8 TB of SSD space sounds like It'll be crazy expensive. Got any links? Even if I were to buy more 8 TB+ externals and get rid of the 2-5TB externals, I'm still dealing with more and more external HDD clutter and it never ends. Why not just buy a 4+ bay dock such as the one that's in the video? That way I can consider buying a higher quality drive and I'll have the option of installing it into my NAS later on if required. I dunno, I'm just floating options here. I really don't know what way I should head. 

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, Vectraat said:

Well, I don't think there's much point in trying to sell older 3-4TB externals since they're so cheap right now. Some are literally 7-8 years old, but I haven't used them all that much and there's no bad sectors or anything like that. However, It's probably not worth the hassle of trying to sell them for the amount of money I'd make. Better off to just have them laying around to use them for storage if needed then tuck them away some where. 

8 TB of SSD space sounds like It'll be crazy expensive. Got any links? Even if I were to buy more 8 TB+ externals and get rid of the 2-5TB externals, I'm still dealing with more and more external HDD clutter and it never ends. Why not just buy a 4+ bay dock such as the one that's in the video? That way I can consider buying a higher quality drive and I'll have the option of installing it into my NAS later on if required. I dunno, I'm just floating options here. I really don't know what way I should head. 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178748 ?

[Electronics Wizardy]

16 minutes ago, Enderman said:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178748 ?

those are the old models, these are the replacement. https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST8000DM004/dp/B075WYBQXJ

 

There smr with 2tb platters.

 

Or get the externals that are much cheaper with the same drives.https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB8000100/dp/B01HAPGEIE/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430289&sr=1-3&keywords=8tb+external

[Enderman]

also

The HDD ^

[Vectraat]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

those are the old models, these are the replacement. https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST8000DM004/dp/B075WYBQXJ

 

There smr with 2tb platters.

 

Or get the externals that are much cheaper with the same drives.https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB8000100/dp/B01HAPGEIE/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430289&sr=1-3&keywords=8tb+external

Yes, that's the one I've been looking at (The Seagate in your second link), but again, It's an external and I just don't know if I want even more externals laying around.
So both the drives you linked are the exact same?

Are these the same? 

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB8000100/dp/B01HAPGEIE/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430289&sr=1-3&keywords=8tb external&tag=linus21-20

https://www.amazon.ca/Seagate-STGG8000400-Drive-Storage-Ports/dp/B072QH2JCL/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430326&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=8tb+xbox+external

https://www.amazon.ca/Seagate-Backup-External-Desktop-STEM8000400/dp/B01JS7OJG6/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430802&sr=1-5&keywords=8tb+external


Also, given the option, would you rather get these drives over the Seagates? They're not too much more expensive. 

https://www.amazon.ca/Western-Digital-External-Drive-USB-3-0-WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN/dp/B01LQQHLGC/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430870&sr=1-6&keywords=8tb+external&dpID=31RlBoWL6uL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.ca/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-Drive/dp/B07D5V2ZXD/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430870&sr=1-9&keywords=8tb+external

I'm just thinking in terms of shucking at some point and using them in my PC. I'd think the WD's should be faster?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Vectraat said:

It's an external and I just don't know if I want even more externals laying around.

You can take them apart and you get a normal 3.5 hdd.

 

2 minutes ago, Vectraat said:

I'm just thinking in terms of shucking at some point and using them in my PC. I'd think the WD's should be faster?

What WD drive? What are you using it for?

 

The performance on there should be fine. If you need speed, get a ssd, a hdd is gonna be slow no matter what model you get.

[Vectraat]

22 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can take them apart and you get a normal 3.5 hdd.

 

What WD drive? What are you using it for?

 

The performance on there should be fine. If you need speed, get a ssd, a hdd is gonna be slow no matter what model you get.

So the 3x 8 TB external Seagates I linked are all the same? All SMR?

The 2x WD drives I linked I'd use for regular data transfers--read/write. I'd think they should be faster than the Seagate SMRs. 
 

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Vectraat said:

So the 3x 8 TB external Seagates I linked are all the same? All SMR?

they should be.

 

3 minutes ago, Vectraat said:

The 2x WD drives I linked I'd use for regular data transfers--read/write. I'd think they should be faster than the Seagate SMRs. 

the seagate smr are fine for just copying files. SMR is only very bad with heavy random write. There is a large write buffer that is normal non smr

[Vectraat]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

they should be.

 

the seagate smr are fine for just copying files. SMR is only very bad with heavy random write. There is a large write buffer that is normal non smr

Well, the Seagate I'd likely use just for archival. But If I ever needed to shuck one, then I would use it for seeding torrents. Same with the Western Digital externals. So I didn't know if one would be better than the other for that purpose. Lots of constant heavy always-on reads involved. Maybe I should just buy a NAS drive or an enterprise drive for that purpose though, I dunno. They're more expensive and louder and I don't know if they're necessary. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Vectraat said:

Well, the Seagate I'd likely use just for archival. But If I ever needed to shuck one, then I would use it for seeding torrents. Same with the Western Digital externals. So I didn't know if one would be better than the other for that purpose. Lots of constant heavy always-on reads involved. Maybe I should just buy a NAS drive or an enterprise drive for that purpose though, I dunno. They're more expensive and louder and I don't know if they're necessary. 

the seagate drives will be fine for torrent seeding. SMR doesn't hurt reads, and if your disk limited there, get a ssd cache

[Vectraat]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

the seagate drives will be fine for torrent seeding. SMR doesn't hurt reads, and if your disk limited there, get a ssd cache

What do you mean by "disk limited there" ?

So what exactly is SMR bad for then--just "heavy random write" or is there other stuff SMR is bad at? And what do you mean by "heavy random write" ?

If SMR isn't as good as the WD, maybe it makes sense to be pay the small difference in cost. Besides, I may be able to get a RED out of those WD's if I shuck. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Vectraat said:

What do you mean by "disk limited there" ?

So what exactly is SMR bad for then--just "heavy random write" or is there other stuff SMR is bad at? And what do you mean by "heavy random write" ?

If SMR isn't as good as the WD, maybe it makes sense to be pay the small difference in cost. Besides, I may be able to get a RED out of those WD's if I shuck. 

what wd drive? There are many models, same with seagate.

 

SMR is only really bad at long random writes. During reads and sequentical writes and short burts of random writes(normally 15gb buffer) your fine.

[Vectraat]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

what wd drive? There are many models, same with seagate.

 

SMR is only really bad at long random writes. During reads and sequentical writes and short burts of random writes(normally 15gb buffer) your fine.

The two WD drives I linked previously:

https://www.amazon.ca/Western-Digital-External-Drive-USB-3-0-WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN/dp/B01LQQHLGC/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430870&sr=1-6&keywords=8tb+external&dpID=31RlBoWL6uL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.ca/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-Drive/dp/B07D5V2ZXD/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540430870&sr=1-9&keywords=8tb+external

Yeah, ok, what is a "long random write" ?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Vectraat said:

eah, ok, what is a "long random write" ?

random writes for over 15gb with most new smr drives.

 

1 minute ago, Vectraat said:

The two WD drives I linked previously:

those 2 are normally white drives, but exact models vary. There fine nothing special. Id just get the cheaper seagate here.