Question HTPC HDDs

[FordFreak2013]

I am going to build a dedicated HTPC that I want to put all of my movies on. I have about 300, and growing, DVD, BR, and HD-DVD discs. What drives would you recommend? I do plan on buying in pairs so I can RAID them. The only reason for that is so I don't have to waste time putting the movies back on the computer if a drive were to fail. FWIW, I do not plan on compressing the movies.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I do plan on buying in pairs so I can RAID them.

In that case, the cheapest for whichever capacity you desire will do. Although I'd recommend having a single drive in your PC, and a backup drive in an external case. With multi-terabyte drives RAID is becoming a bit, not obsolete, but not worth the bother, unless you need really massive amounts of storage (currently 14TB+). The time spent rebuilding the array will be identical to copying from backup. It's essentially doing the same thing after all. This way the drives don't have to be identical either. RAID only helps with availability after all.

I should point out there are multiple issues with multi-terabyte arrays, both hardware and software, which require some planning to get around.

If you're being paranoid, try buying from different outlets, so you (hopefully) get drives from different production batches.

 

[FordFreak2013]

I was planning on doing raid one. Possibly starting off with 2x 10TB drives, Then adding 2 more later down the road when I need more space. I was thinking a couple of these would probably work. Just pull the drives out so they can be installed in the case. That seems to be the cheapest way to get 10TB drives unless I want WD Red or Purple drives.