Consumer storage drive recommendation

[bigboxes]

So, I have had two drives on my file server give me problems, both Seagate, within the last couple of weeks. One goes chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.. whirr 3 or four times before calming down, but is not recognizable. Windows Computer Management shows the disc as 3.99TB, but it's only 1.5TB. I'm unable to format the drive. It asks to initialize the disc, but errors out. Not sure what is wrong with the drive, but it seems like toast. Unfortunately, it's out of warranty. It was a replacement (Recertified) RMA drive for another failed drive. It's not like the new ones have that long of warranty any more unless you get WD Black drives. The other problematic drive is another 1.5TB drive that occasionally disappears in Windows. I shutdown, disconnect the SATA cable, boot up, shut down, reconnect the SATA cable, boot up and the drive shows back up, only to disappear later. I wondered if it could be the controller card. Hooked it up to an onboard controller. Same results. Worked for a while and then the drive would disappear. Weird.

Anyways, it seems that I need to purchase some new drives. As I normally do, I plan on migrating towards larger capacity drives. Currently, I've got 4 x 1.5TB HDD, 4 x 2TB HDD and 1 x 128MB SSD (for boot drive). Speed is not a concern at all as this will be for storage only. Reliability is a concern as is cost. What I'm looking for is a recommendation for 4TB consumer drives.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'd try to confirm that the P6T motherboard had no issues with 4 GB drives.

Other than that, I empathize with you. I'm looking around for 3 TB drives and pretty much everything I look at discourages me. Bad reviews, too many DOAs, questionable packing, short warranties, etc.

Roll the dice and hope? Maybe lean toward a vendor that is known to have superior RMA policies.

About all you can find on the net is anecdotes. "I've had good luck with yada yada" or "Stay away from these---4 of 6 were DOA". That's pretty much useless. There's a couple of alleged studies, but how valid they are is another story.

Lower your expectations?

 

[Charlie98]

Windows Computer Management shows the disc as 3.99TB, but it's only 1.5TB. I'm unable to format the drive.

Sounds like it's backed into some sort of RAID setup...

 

[bigboxes]

I'd try to confirm that the P6T motherboard had no issues with 4 GB drives.

Other than that, I empathize with you. I'm looking around for 3 TB drives and pretty much everything I look at discourages me. Bad reviews, too many DOAs, questionable packing, short warranties, etc.

Roll the dice and hope? Maybe lean toward a vendor that is known to have superior RMA policies.

About all you can find on the net is anecdotes. "I've had good luck with yada yada" or "Stay away from these---4 of 6 were DOA". That's pretty much useless. There's a couple of alleged studies, but how valid they are is another story.

Lower your expectations?

It's like you're in my head. I'm not vendor loyal, although I have a lot of Seagate. WD, Seagate, Hitachi, etc. done them all. All drives fail. But like you said there are the horror stories about the reliability of these new drives. I've got a backup drive for each one of my drives. The scary part is that I don't have a copy for the backup drive until I get a new drive. I refuse to use my backup drives unless I have the data in two places.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Honestly, I don't think you're going to find an answer you like.

All of my data is on an internal D. I back up D to another internal E several times a day. I also back up D to an external F through a dock every couple of months. I also back up the most important files on D to a USB thumb drive once a month.

Other than that, my plan is to avoid buying a new drive until the last possible moment on the laughable assumption that when that time comes, the warranty/DOA/packing/review issues will have subsided.

Har-de-har-har-har. Fat chance.

When the absolute last possible moment arrives, I'll move. Like you, I don't care about speed much and am looking for reliability.

Today's candidates: WD Red and Green, both of which have shaky reps and reviews. And the Seagate retail drives, hoping that they may have better packing and are less subject to damage.

Haven't ruled out Toshiba. They appear to be cheap. My thinking being that if you are just throwing darts at a map and hoping, you may as well minimize the up front expense. Don't know if they have 4 TB stuff.

 

[Charlie98]

Today's candidates: WD Red and Green, both of which have shaky reps and reviews. And the Seagate retail drives, hoping that they may have better packing and are less subject to damage.

I bought a 2TB Red, it had bad sectors from the get go... got a 3TB refurb on RMA and it has been solid so far. I have 1 500GB Green in 24/7 video duty, it works OK but I wouldn't buy another. My Seagates have given me very good service... I have 3 of them in service now, plus 2 portable externals; I never considered myself a Seagate guy but I am now. I also have 3 Hitachis... solid drives but slow and noisy compared to everything else (except the Green.)

You can compare brands and read reviews until you are blue in the face... just go out and buy what makes sense to you. HDD's are what they are...

 

[jkauff]

I have six 4TB WD My Book USB 3.0 externals that I use for storage and backup. Bought them cheap at Staples during 20% off promotions. They're Green drives, so the spin-up time drives me nuts when I need to use them, but otherwise they've been very reliable. I leave them powered off much of the time anyway.

For daily use, I have four WD Caviar Blacks, but they're only 1TB and 2TB. They're older than the rest of my system, and I've never had a problem in 2-3 years.