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Most Reliable Hard Drive

1K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  Arch 
#1 ·
The drive in my Synology NAS just shit on me - I hadn't set it up in a raid yet, so I am transferring everything I can to a USB HDD for backup.

I had a Seagate Barracuda Model ST3750528AS SATA 3Gb/s 750GB 7,200 RPM
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...a8dce110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US

And the question is - what is the most reliable drive? Ideally I would like to raid (2) 1T drives for (1) redundant 1T server, with a back up to a 1T USB HDD. So what is the drive I should get next? I think my first step would be to look at 5400 RPM drives - since this is mostly for streaming music (mp3) or movies (mpeg / ISO) over the home network.

I assume the home network would be the limited factor not the drives, but give me whatever input you have.
 
#3 ·
WD Black or Raptop is awesome

I personally have always stuck with Seagate and have had great luck with them, I've had them take a shit then a few mths later work again (true story.) When I was with my old company we got the momentus as a demo hdd to test it out, was fantastic... until it heated up and started bsoding... but that was when the first started working on it... their Cheetah series is equivilant if not better (my opinion) than black or raptor from WD...
 
#4 ·
hdd are a crapshoot - just run raid 5 and be done with it
what was a good brand at one time was a shit brand another
ssd has less mechanical failure but the $/m is out of line and you probably are looking for nas stuff

disks are cheap enough to have a cold spare if it's for business.. that's what I have been doing
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the input guys - Time to Raid. Is the WD Black series the same as the Caviar Black?

Since I can only have (2) drives on my setup im limited to RAID 1 which should be fine - since I can run one drive while the drive is repaired.

Second question (maybe this is dependent on my raid controller/software) I am going to get the 750Gig i have repaired by Seagate. Can I use raid 1 with a 750 gig and 1 or 2T drive? Obvious I will be limited to mirroring a max of 750 gigs.

Third question, if yes to above, can I swap out the 750Gig drive when I get the next 1 or 2T drive without formating the original 1 or 2T drive?

Fourth question, if I have less than 750 gigs stored on a RAID 1 of 1 or 2T can I swap out a single 1 or 2T drive for the 750G and keep on running?
 
#5 · (Edited)
Any hard drive is a mechanical and electrical feat of extremely small proportions. The scale at which things are happening is almost uncomprehensible. If there was a reliable drive out there, raid and data backup would not exist, and computer manufacturers would guarantee your data. Backing up your data regularly is the only solution. Buy the cheapest fastest drive available and be done.
 
#9 ·
the drive in my synology nas just shit on me - i hadn't set it up in a raid yet, so i am transferring everything i can to a usb hdd for backup.

I had a seagate barracuda model st3750528as sata 3gb/s 750gb 7,200 rpm
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...a8dce110vgnvcm100000f5ee0a0arcrd&locale=en-us

and the question is - what is the most reliable drive? Ideally i would like to raid (2) 1t drives for (1) redundant 1t server, with a back up to a 1t usb hdd. So what is the drive i should get next? I think my first step would be to look at 5400 rpm drives - since this is mostly for streaming music (mp3) or movies (mpeg / iso) over the home network.

I assume the home network would be the limited factor not the drives, but give me whatever input you have.
ssd
 
#10 · (Edited)
There should be RAID software out there that will let you do all of that. Not sure about the Black and Caviar. Side note, the only other issue is your OS/file system. Use NTFS to see all 2T.
 
#12 ·
As someone else has said, hard drives are a crapshoot. I run several machines in my basement 24/7. My home file server has 6 Seagate harddrives in RAID. I've run Seagate, western digital, even Maxtors for years with great success.

These days, I'd only buy WD or Seagate. They've proven themselves time and time again. That being said, there's no such thing as a 100% reliable hard drive... always assume a hard drive could take a shit on you at any time.
 
#13 ·
Buy the cheapest one and make sure you back up your date every once in a while. There is no full proof drive, if there was then there wouldnt be so many brands of drives to choose from and you wouldnt be asking this question. I personally stick with seagate or wd.
 
#16 ·
If you are looking for the most reliable HDs look at the WD VelociRaptor, Seagate Cheetah, or Hitachi UltraStar drives.

Don't listen to these guys about buying cheapo drives. Yes, all HDs can fail everyone in IT should know that but the drives listed above ARE some of the most reliable/best drives on the market. I'm pretty sure they all carry a 5 year warranty... I know the WD does for sure. I personally never cheap out on hard drives having years and years of service from my drives is important for me personally.. even in my home PC stuff. If you don't want performance and don't care about replacing drives everytime a cheapo fails then go for it.
 
#23 ·
I will NEVER touch a Hitachi, who used to be IBM's hard drive division. Got burned hard by them. IBM was at the top of their game 10 years ago, then released the infamous "Deathstars" which burned me hard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitachi_Deskstar

Never again... they lost my trust.
 
#24 · (Edited)
There are certain models to avoid from just about each manufacturer, that was certainly one of theirs to side step at the time. I was running WDs in that era and was getting bit hard. Prior to that, Maxtor... bit as well as seagates both before and after that... bit. If it's important, have backups and/or redundancy. Shit happens and eventually it will.
 
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