# Which HDD would you buy?



## oobymach (Sep 3, 2022)

Multiple votes allowed (3), I am leaning towards another wd product but I want to hear what you prefer, tell me your best/worst experience


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## 64K (Sep 3, 2022)

WD Black always. Never had an issue with one.


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## P4-630 (Sep 3, 2022)

I don't buy spinners anymore, for several years now.


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## Shrek (Sep 3, 2022)

Seagate FireCuda 3.5" 2TB SSHD, the old ones with 8GB solid-state cache; the 3.5" versions are CMR. The new FireCuda hard drive range is not a SSHD.

I would have gone with Western Digital, but they abandoned their SSHD range some time back, but I seem to recall they have or may introduced something similar.


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## A Computer Guy (Sep 3, 2022)

These days the only spinner I buy is for my NAS


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## Count von Schwalbe (Sep 3, 2022)

A quick look on PcPartPicker netted me this. 



			https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K3T5M8C
		


Water Panther makes HDD's for the data center/server market. I wouldn't have any concerns about reliability, but YMMV as with all things.


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## mechtech (Sep 3, 2022)

hmmmmm HDD sometimes it depends where you buy it from.  I recall way back some etailers packaged them quite well, while others did not.  I seem to recall a lot of high failure rates and DOA reviews on some of the etailers website that were 'minimal' on the packaging considerations.


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## ThrashZone (Sep 3, 2022)

Hi,
WD black but if just for not very often accessed data blue series but they also make a blue that is 7200 rpm.


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## kapone32 (Sep 4, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Seagate FireCuda 3.5" 2TB SSHD, the old ones with 8GB solid-state cache; the 3.5" versions are CMR. The new FireCuda hard drive range is not a SSHD.
> 
> I would have gone with Western Digital, but they abandoned their SSHD range some time back, but I seem to recall they are or have introduced something similar.


I was thinking the same thing but in a 2.5" at 2TB .


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## Shrek (Sep 4, 2022)

The 2.5" versions are shingled.

CMR and SMR Hard Drives | Seagate US


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## 80251 (Sep 4, 2022)

The reviews about Water Panther HDD's bring up some uncomfortable questions. Some say they're re-badged WD HDD's others say Seagate. If the SMART statistics have been scrubbed how do you know they really are new HDD's and not just refurbs?


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## ThrashZone (Sep 4, 2022)

Hi,
Yeah 2.5" blacks have changed a lot 
Now some are as thin as ssd's.
3.5" I haven't noticed any design changes.


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## R-T-B (Sep 4, 2022)

80251 said:


> The reviews about Water Panther HDD's bring up some uncomfortable questions. Some say they're re-badged WD HDD's others say Seagate. If the SMART statistics have been scrubbed how do you know they really are new HDD's and not just refurbs?


Yeah I would not touch those drives with a 10ft pole, and no they ARE NOT "established in the server market," nor do they actually make anything they sell.

More info:


__
		https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ko6bp9


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## Count von Schwalbe (Sep 4, 2022)

Fair enough. I spend a whole 30 seconds looking them up so...


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## MachineLearning (Sep 4, 2022)

I like the Seagate Ironwolf. CMR, good HDD speeds, 3-year warranty, nice price.

I have a couple of them, never gave me problems.


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## Zach_01 (Sep 7, 2022)

None...
My last HDD purchase was more than 10years ago. None used now

When I was using them, the last few years I was going for WD black


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## MarsM4N (Sep 7, 2022)

Internal only SSD's. External 2,5" HDD's (WD_BLACK P10 Game Drive) for non daily data & 3,5" HDD's (WD Red™ Plus NAS Hard Drive) for NAS.

WD's *failure rates* are top notch & if you got a broken drive their *RMA handling* is stellar. Had the pleasure with their crappy WD Greens, lol.

_*Backblaze Drive Stats for Q2 2022*_


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## theFOoL (Sep 8, 2022)

I chose Hitachi. They are reliable, cheap and haven't died (yes I buy on eBay used/new)


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## Sombreuil (Sep 8, 2022)

If that can help: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-2021/


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## MarsM4N (Sep 8, 2022)

Sombreuil said:


> If that can help: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-2021/



Notice the _*AFR (Average Failure Rates)*_ of the Seagate drives.  Totally off the charts, lol.


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## Count von Schwalbe (Sep 8, 2022)

MarsM4N said:


> Notice the _*AFR (Average Failure Rates)*_ of the Seagate drives.  Totally off the charts, lol.


The 4tb and 8-12tb is a little high, the 6tb is the lowest of the lot, and the 14tb is waay high. Don't knock the whole brand, but be very careful.


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## MarsM4N (Sep 8, 2022)

Count von Schwalbe said:


> The 4tb and 8-12tb is a little high, the 6tb is the lowest of the lot, and the 14tb is waay high. Don't knock the whole brand, but be very careful.



I mean, the numbers speak for themself. __ Seagate drives got *the worst AFR* (Average Failure Rate) out of all.

Out of *11* Seagate drives *only 2 drives* got a lower AFR than 1%.
The worst one has a AFR of 4,79%, which translates to 8-9 times higher failure rate than the average drive. They are just bad, not reliable.


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## wheresmycar (Sep 8, 2022)

Had to select Toshiba... i got a 3TB unit running at the mo. 5 years-on ZERO PROBLEMS!

I guess if i were to pick up another HD might have to revert to you guys with all the nitty gritty stuff... CMR...SMR...cache...r/w endurance... and more, basically the stuff i've seen you TPU geeks buzzing on about over the years. The poll should have 2 more choices... "ask the TPU gang" and "none, SSD-for-life"


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## 80-watt Hamster (Sep 8, 2022)

Went with the last three types I actually bought, since my general belief and experience is that (almost) any model or manufacturer is a dice roll.  Use case matters, too, though.  I'm not opposed to data center-oriented drives, but 7200 RPM models tend to run pretty warm in enclosures that aren't well-ventilated.


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## freeagent (Sep 8, 2022)

I've got the first gen WD Black 1TB. Its got like 100K hours on it   

I have an SN850 and SN750 both 1TB and they are pretty awesome.

Had good luck with Toshiba and Hitachi as well. But I haven't bought a spinner since SSD's came out


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## 80251 (Sep 8, 2022)

My 2 TiB Toshiba HDWD120 died recently. It last 4 years and had no reallocated sectors or spin retries. Unlike any other HDD I've ever had that shuffled off this mortal coil I left it connected to my system for several days while I looked for a replacement SSD in 4 TiB and it came back from the dead three times allowing me to get all the data off it.


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## theFOoL (Sep 8, 2022)

So.... Which one's are reliable? I have a 2tb USB Toshiba I bought from a user here not too long ago and it already shows reallocate sector issues. I selected Hitachi bc they were apart? Of WD plus have not had issues


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## Lei (Sep 8, 2022)

Ultrastar or Blue
For quietness


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## ShrimpBrime (Sep 8, 2022)

Selected black drives - but I'm not certain as to the application of the drive that I'd choose on the list. One of them isn't on there like the WD Green drives, I have a couple that are getting pretty old now and are strictly used for storage. They where also spec'd with a larger amount of available cache of 64mb.

So I picked the Black series in the vote list, but I've had drives from all available on the list as well.

Would buy any of the drives actually if they suited the need at the time (pricing, storage capacity and available cache)


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## Kissamies (Sep 8, 2022)

Anything but Seagate. Voted for WD Gold/Ultrastar, Hitachi & Toshiba.


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 8, 2022)

I guess only the Ironwolf as those are the last CMR spinners guaranteed to be so. WD lost my trust completely with mixing SMR ones in NAS series also and making a complete mish mash.


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## PurSpyk!! (Sep 8, 2022)

Have always been a big fan of WD, and in most cases purchase the Black drives. Recently though a 1TB drive that was only used for weekly backups gave bad sector messages. Odd considering the drive is barely used. Had serious bad luck with the Green and Blue drives. Had 2 Green 4TB drives fail within a week of each other, now the BIOS won't even recognise the drive, all data lost.


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## Athlonite (Sep 8, 2022)

WD gold only for the 5yr warranty or Seagate Ironwolf because Helium and 5yr warranty and 3yr data recovery


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## Nuckles56 (Sep 8, 2022)

Unlike half the people here, I've never had an issue with any of the 10 seagate drives that I've got running in my systems, with the oldest now 6, and the youngest are 2 years old. They're a mix of barracuda and ironwolf drives. I'd go with the ironwolf drives as they're generally pretty cheap and are solid, fast drives


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## arni-gx (Sep 8, 2022)

i am still using, WD blue 1tb 7200rpm, hitachi 2tb 7200rpm, toshiba 2tb 7200rpm.... 

WD blue right now, has only 5400rpm.....


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## Lei (Sep 8, 2022)

arni-gx said:


> WD blue right now, has only 5400rpm.....


That's exactly why I like it. It's quieter this way. 
I'd rather pay more for a slower rpm.


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## Frick (Sep 8, 2022)

Lenne said:


> Anything but Seagate. Voted for WD Gold/Ultrastar, Hitachi & Toshiba.



It's not 2010 anymore. Seagates are fine.

Toshiba P300 has good bang per buck. Some say they're loud, but I haven't had noise issues with my 2TB model.


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## puma99dk| (Sep 8, 2022)

@oobymach it depends on how much you want to spend on a HDD and what size are you going for?

I have tried WD Gold, Purple, Red, Black, Blue and so on even Whitelabel Red drives I current is running a 10TB version of the whitelabel Red driver it's alright just remember you might need to stun it before it works.

I also run a Seagate Exos 16TB for data and I choose to try a server drive this time and the exos drive by Seagate is good value and performance at least in my country.



Lenne said:


> Anything but Seagate. Voted for WD Gold/Ultrastar, Hitachi & Toshiba.



@Lenne Seagate's Exos server drive are fine I had countless WD Gold/Ultrastar with Hitachi and Toshiba drives being the worst to fail at the place I work.

But it all comes down to the price you want to pay for a HDD. I dropped the WD Gold tax for a 1TB drive I use for random stuff, place most of it on a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB and got a 1TB Purple.


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## Athlonite (Sep 8, 2022)

arni-gx said:


> i am still using, WD blue 1tb 7200rpm, hitachi 2tb 7200rpm, toshiba 2tb 7200rpm....
> 
> WD blue right now, has only 5400rpm.....


That's because WD in their infinite wisdom decided that Green drives should now be Blue instead 
where once the only difference between Blue's and Blacks was the warranty and cache size now it's warranty, cache and speed


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## MarsM4N (Sep 9, 2022)

Ferrum Master said:


> I guess only the Ironwolf as those are the last CMR spinners guaranteed to be so. WD lost my trust completely with mixing SMR ones in NAS series also and making a complete mish mash.



WD wasn't alone doing this.  At least WD got clean now & is using a new branding.










						Western Digital adds “Red Plus” branding for non-SMR hard drives
					

Update: Western Digital responds to our pricing questions—sort of.




					arstechnica.com


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## Shrek (Sep 9, 2022)

Ferrum Master said:


> I guess only the Ironwolf as those are the last CMR spinners guaranteed to be so.



Some SkyHawk also
CMR and SMR Hard Drives | Seagate US

Not sure why Barracuda Pro is not on the list


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 10, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Some SkyHawk also
> CMR and SMR Hard Drives | Seagate US
> 
> Not sure why Barracuda Pro is not on the list



Well surveillance disks are surveillance. Don't use what's really not intended for general usage, while I have used SV35 with great success, but an experiment on my own accord, I cannot recommend to do it. We don't buy disks to be be BOOT/OS drives anymore thus I don't see point in Barracuda/WD Black series. For Backing up, storing, that's the path for magnetic spindles now. So NAS drives are great. But please don't cheat like WD does and change randomly same series even model drives to SMR without warning. SMR is shit. Especially if you try to RAID it.

General rule for longevity is to take largest single platter drive. Two heads single plate. BlackBlaze actually doesn't have statistics for Ironwolves, they actually sport still DM series ie Diamond Max that are Maxtors with one of them being really lively example they do not die. They are now using super large drive and helium, that are still too much for home user. I think 3-6TB is enough for a home user. I manage even 2TB still. Blackblaze kinda goes out of scope for home user for useful statistics.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 10, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Some SkyHawk also
> CMR and SMR Hard Drives | Seagate US
> 
> Not sure why Barracuda Pro is not on the list


I believe the Barracuda Pro series has been discontinued unfortunately, so looks like it now is either Ironwolf Pro or plain Barracuda.


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## HD64G (Sep 10, 2022)

Athlonite said:


> WD gold only for the 5yr warranty or Seagate Ironwolf because Helium and 5yr warranty and 3yr data recovery


WD Black HDDs also get 5-year warranty. And Hitachis (now the Ultrastar models of WD) are the most reliable ever.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 10, 2022)

puma99dk| said:


> @oobymach it depends on how much you want to spend on a HDD and what size are you going for?
> 
> I have tried WD Gold, Purple, Red, Black, Blue and so on even Whitelabel Red drives I current is running a 10TB version of the whitelabel Red driver it's alright just remember you might need to stun it before it works.
> 
> ...


I have an old Ultrastar in my desktop myself (purchased like 8 years ago but it has spent most of its life as an offline backup drive) but read a while ago that it is not a good idea to use a server drive in a desktop because they lack certain protection features and are basically optimized for an entirely different use case. Supposedly it is better to use normal consumer drives but I am always wary and skeptical of most consumer stuff. I am not sure exactly how NAS drives fit in here but it seems to me that may be a good compromise. I think I would get either an Ironwolf Pro or N300 if I needed to buy a new HDD right now but I am pretty broke and my Ultrastar 7K3000 is still in good health (and I am using two old laptop drives as (offline) backup drives for now, in addition to planned optical media backups of my most important data) so I am not buying a new HDD for the foreseeable future.


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## arnold_al_qadr (Sep 10, 2022)

after losing almost 800gb of data, and several gbs of my work file, I will not return to hdd..


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 10, 2022)

arnold_al_qadr said:


> after losing almost 800gb of data, and several gbs of my work file, I will not return to hdd..



SSD die too, and yes on same scale. You maybe lucky only when it enters write lock, but usually it is numb and dead.

BACKUP IS YOUR ONLY FRIEND.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 10, 2022)

Lei said:


> Ultrastar or Blue
> For quietness


I assume the quietness only refers to the Blue because I can tell you that an Ultrastar is anything but quiet...


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 10, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> I assume the quietness only refers to the Blue because I can tell you that an Ultrastar is anything but quiet...



Both of them aren't.

I used 2,5inch greens some moons ago, and those were the most silent ones.

Ah wait... I just remembered WD scam scheme... old Greens are now Blues?


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## arnold_al_qadr (Sep 10, 2022)

Ferrum Master said:


> BACKUP IS YOUR ONLY FRIEND


agreed..


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## Lei (Sep 10, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> I assume the quietness only refers to the Blue because I can tell you that an Ultrastar is anything but quiet...


Only ones filled with helium are quiet (12tb and up)
They're quieter than blue. Please see this thread
specially this comparison post

They're so quiet that I initially planned to keep my blue, but I sold the blue in a heartbeat after I had firsthand experience with Ultrastar acoustics. 



Lei said:


> Ok, sound meter and Ultrastar in the same place blue used to be:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



And once again I thank @repman244 for his groundbreaking Oscar winning hint. If it wasn't because of him, I'd have bought the 14tb 5400rpm air-filled 


repman244 said:


> The noise due to the RPM of the drive (7200 RPM drives) isn't that big of a problem. The higher noise will come from the head when it's seeking.
> Ultrastars are geared towards enterprise so noise is not a concern.
> 
> The noise from the RPM is much more noticeable if you use 15k RPM drives. YMMV


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## GerKNG (Sep 10, 2022)

None.


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## puma99dk| (Sep 10, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> I have an old Ultrastar in my desktop myself (purchased like 8 years ago but it has spent most of its life as an offline backup drive) but read a while ago that it is not a good idea to use a server drive in a desktop because they lack certain protection features and are basically optimized for an entirely different use case. Supposedly it is better to use normal consumer drives but I am always wary and skeptical of most consumer stuff. I am not sure exactly how NAS drives fit in here but it seems to me that may be a good compromise. I think I would get either an Ironwolf Pro or N300 if I needed to buy a new HDD right now but I am pretty broke and my Ultrastar 7K3000 is still in good health (and I am using two old laptop drives as (offline) backup drives for now, in addition to planned optical media backups of my most important data) so I am not buying a new HDD for the foreseeable future.



Last time my dad cleaned out he found old ATA drives some worked others didn't they where 15years if not older but I won't trust them.



Ferrum Master said:


> SSD die too, and yes on same scale. You maybe lucky only when it enters write lock, but usually it is numb and dead.
> 
> BACKUP IS YOUR ONLY FRIEND.



Agree I have changed some first gen ssd's that were placed in laptops mostly some died out of no where others degraded and I was lucky to get data out.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 10, 2022)

puma99dk| said:


> Last time my dad cleaned out he found old ATA drives some worked others didn't they where 15years if not older but I won't trust them.
> 
> 
> 
> Agree I have changed some first gen ssd's that were placed in laptops mostly some died out of no where others degraded and I was lucky to get data out.


This is a 250 GB SATA drive (Hitachi) that I pulled this year from the Llano laptop in my sig; the other drive is a 120 GB BX500 (when they were still TLC) I pulled from an old laptop that I had installed it in 2019/2020. According to the SMART data the Hitachi is in good health, while the Crucial has not been used that much at all. Is this the optimal backup solution? Probably not, but it's what I have right now and they did not cost me any (additional) money.



Lei said:


> Only ones filled with helium are quiet (12tb and up)
> They're quieter than blue. Please see this thread
> specially this comparison post
> 
> ...


I guess the newer, more advanced ones are different. Mine is a 7K3000 2 TB that I purchased many years ago. I actually believe it was made in 2011 (yes, the year of the infamous Thailand floods).


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## micropage7 (Sep 10, 2022)

for desktop i dunno i always have bad luck with wd blue


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## Vario (Sep 10, 2022)

I really like the Blue WD10EZEX, but 1TB is getting limiting now.  The 2TB Seagate Barracuda are pretty good for a budget option.  Black are always a solid choice.


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## bonehead123 (Sep 11, 2022)

HDD ?  Spinner ?  whahdemiz ?  hehehehe 

Seriously though, I haven't bought rust platterz since way way back, about the time SSD's started to become mainstream available & affordable, long enough ago that I can't even approximate the date....


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 11, 2022)

Vario said:


> I really like the Blue WD10EZEX, but 1TB is getting limiting now.  The 2TB Seagate Barracuda are pretty good for a budget option.  Black are always a solid choice.


What takes up most of the space on my Ultrastar is my photo (and recorded video) library (but my cameras are old so only 10-12 MP and the iPhone only creates 12 MP images too and I only record video in 1080p with it), my music library (mostly FLAC, 128/256 kbps AAC and 160 kbps Vorbis and some 70/160 kbps Opus)  and "movie" library (stuff downloaded from YouTube and some other sites, almost all 720p with some 1080p). I also have some Linux etc images and an ePub/PDF library that take up some space. But overall I do not have a massive thirst for space like some people with huge games and torrented 4K or high bit rate HDR 1080p movies.



bonehead123 said:


> HDD ?  Spinner ?  whahdemiz ?  hehehehe
> 
> Seriously though, I haven't bought rust platterz since way way back, about the time SSD's started to become mainstream available & affordable, long enough ago that I can't even approximate the date....


I hope you plug in that external SSD pretty often then since you cannot rely on flash memory to retain data for a long time offline, especially QLC.


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## Shrek (Sep 11, 2022)

Vario said:


> The 2TB Seagate Barracuda are pretty good for a budget option.



SMR
CMR and SMR Hard Drives | Seagate US

How about the 2TB 3.5" Seagate FireCuda?


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## Athlonite (Sep 17, 2022)

puma99dk| said:


> Last time my dad cleaned out he found old ATA drives some worked others didn't they where 15years if not older but I won't trust them.


LOL speaking of I still have an old (20+ years) Seagate 545MB HDD that was the first HDD I bought myself that didn't come in a prebuilt that still works aswell as the day I bought it which basically means slow as fuck and loud as hell but chkdsk says no errors no bad sectors so hey I'll hang onto it.

It has an win95 install on it and red alert 2


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## 80-watt Hamster (Sep 17, 2022)

Athlonite said:


> LOL speaking of I still have an old (20+ years) Seagate 545MB HDD that was the first HDD I bought myself that didn't come in a prebuilt that still works aswell as the day I bought it which basically means slow as fuck and loud as hell but chkdsk says no errors no bad sectors so hey I'll hang onto it.
> 
> It has an win95 install on it and red alert 2



It's long since retired/lost, but I had a '95-vintage 1.2GB Seagate running in a router box for the longest time. Never showed signs of slowing down or giving up. Sometimes you just get a good unit.


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## 720p low (Sep 17, 2022)

I prefer to buy drives manufactured in Thailand. Over the years, I have just had incredibly good luck with them.


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## R-T-B (Sep 17, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> I hope you plug in that external SSD pretty often then since you cannot rely on flash memory to retain data for a long time offline, especially QLC.


It's good for literally years.  I know there was that study but it's been pretty thoroughly debunked by actual user experience over the years.


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## Athlonite (Sep 17, 2022)

80-watt Hamster said:


> Sometimes you just get a good unit.


yeah they just don't make em like they used to anymore hell I still have a working one of these


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## R-T-B (Sep 17, 2022)

Athlonite said:


> yeah they just don't make em like they used to anymore hell I still have a working one of these
> 
> View attachment 262000


Explain what this thing does, immediately, or I am reporting you to the FBI.


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## Athlonite (Sep 19, 2022)

R-T-B said:


> Explain what this thing does, immediately, or I am reporting you to the FBI.


It's the 16bit ISA Plus Hard Card II XL 105MB hdd this is what they looked like before the integrated controller was small enough to place on the HDD


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## oobymach (Oct 4, 2022)

Forgot to post which drive I got, went with 3.5" WD Purple which is about 4/5 the speed of the WD Black and is NOT shingled (SMR). About 190mb/s sequential read 180write.


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## tripleclicker (Oct 4, 2022)

I have a WD Blue 4TB. It was filling up from all the portable hdds I was backing up to it, so I bought a WD Black 6TB. But here in the tropics, the thing gets really HOT. It exceeds 50° C, so I put a fan on it. The blue is almost always 2 to 4° C cooler. Several months later and there's now an 8TB blue on the market. Hope that is still available when I need one.


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## MarsM4N (Oct 4, 2022)

80-watt Hamster said:


> It's long since retired/lost, but I had a '95-vintage 1.2GB Seagate running in a router box for the longest time. Never showed signs of slowing down or giving up. Sometimes you just get a good unit.



These ancient drives had only 1 platter to move & one 1 header.  Bet that's the reason they just don't die.


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## Nike_486DX (Oct 4, 2022)

MarsM4N said:


> These ancient drives had only 1 platter to move & one 1 header.  Bet that's the reason they just don't die.


exactly haha, also some of those didnt even have smart, so who knows... there might be bad sectors. 
Btw wd 1 and 2tb form 2009-2013 are pretty reliable afaik


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## Wasteland (Oct 27, 2022)

I would go WD Black or WD Red Pro.  Red Pro is guaranteed to be CMR, and IIRC has a 5-year warranty.  I believe the same is true of Black.  "Red Plus" is ok too, though with a lesser warranty.  Avoid "Red" without the plus or the pro, as these drives are usually SMR.

WD Gold is great, but quite expensive.

If Seagate, then stick with Ironwolf.  For what little it's worth, I've had very very bad luck with anything else with Seagate branding over the years.

Also I wouldn't worry about the disk's speed.  These days we have SSDs for speed-sensitive stuff.  A 5400-RPM HDD will give you perfectly adequate speed if its main purpose is mass storage (e.g. media).  (I get ~150 MB/s sequential transfers on my Red Pluses, which is fast enough to saturate my gigabit network; random reads/writes are going to be slower than dirt on any HDD no matter how fast it spins, anyway.)

The most important thing is that you make backups.  Personally I run "live" backups of my file server to internal HDDs in a separate computer, and I run periodic offline backups with external HDDs.  Cloud storage is useful too, but it gets expensive if you want to backup tons of stuff.

I would recommend testing the drive for errors with something like GSmartControl when you first install it.  Automating periodic diagnostics is a good idea too, but all of my knowledge on that subject relates to Linux.  GSmartControl is available on Windows through winget, though, which is nice.

(It's an old-ish thread, but I've had a few drinks and feel like pontificating, lol)


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## xtreemchaos (Oct 27, 2022)

i have 4x 4tb seagate barracudas for data storage 2 hd= 8tb on both my riggs i have them mostly full of solar imaging files which havnt been processed and staxed yet im going to have to buy 2 more just to give me some breathing space.


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