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Mechanical HD shopping

lupi

lupi

Lifer
Haven't bought a regular HD in some time except a couple reds for the NAS. Want to get some bigger storage for the desktop data drives, so what type should I be looking at?

Thinking about something in the 6tb range, have recently seen a WD black on sale and see a Toshiba on sale now. What brands are the goodbones now and what model types from those brands should I be looking at for regular desktop use?
 
For storage I like WD red or blue or HGST. I've got the 4TB HGST now and just got a WD red as a backup drive.
 
MustISO said:
For storage I like WD red or blue or HGST. I've got the 4TB HGST now and just got a WD red as a backup drive.
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While I may have implied it, this is not for a true storage drive but rather my non-OS program drive (i.e., mostly games and large utilities).
 
For what it is worth, if cost is not a factor, then I would go with either WD black or Hitachi Ultrastars.
I am leery of WD Reds these days that are not the Helium variety.
Toshiba is in an odd position, they have some Hitachi tech and those drives were as reliable as Hitachi from what I can tell, but, their newer drives are modified, and I just haven't had enough experience with those to judge quality yet.
Seagate I am still on the fence on. They appear to be getting better, so, if the price is right, I would give them another shot.

I suppose the best answer is, get 2 drives, and just do backups regularly, and you won't have to worry about how reliable they are.

BTW, where did the HD salvage guys go? They used to post on this stuff, but, haven't seen them in a long time. Someone was saying they got banned?
 
Well, there's an "intersection" in the advice. I'd look at the WD Black and HGST/Hitachi-Ultrastar first.

For my own workstations, there's no pressure on me to configure with more than 1.5TB of local drives. I use 2TB Seagate NAS drives on my server x4 providing 8TB without any redundant duplication of files and folders -- less because about 1.5 TB is deemed important enough for it. I think the last time I looked, there was some 5TB unused space in the pool.

I was in the habit of picking Black drives for workstations because they were built to last, or so I'd assumed. They may have had a 5-year warranty.

In my digital household fortress, I use RAM and SSD caching on three workstations. So it doesn't mean a hilla-beans difference if I use Blue drives or even 5,400 rpm spinners.

I'm looking at HDDs of a smaller size -- 3 to 4TB. And I've had HGST high on my list. That is, I intend to get two or more over the next year.
 
I will say that on the desktop I recently swapped the data drive from a WD Blue for a Black and it does seem to compliment the SSD a bit better.
 
Elixer said:
BTW, where did the HD salvage guys go? They used to post on this stuff, but, haven't seen them in a long time. Someone was saying they got banned?
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You mean the data-recovery people that were posting here? Phynaz got them banned.

Yet he hasn't said a word about "Captain WD".

Edit: As for the OP's question, if it were a 1TB or a 3TB drive, I would probably go with a Toshiba P300 retail-boxed drive. I have a lot more success and longevity with retail-boxed drives.

That, or a Hitachi 7200RPM 4TB or 6TB drive.

I'm not convinced on the Helium drives, yet, myself.
 
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VirtualLarry said:
You mean the data-recovery people that were posting here? Phynaz got them banned.

Yet he hasn't said a word about "Captain WD".

Edit: As for the OP's question, if it were a 1TB or a 3TB drive, I would probably go with a Toshiba P300 retail-boxed drive. I have a lot more success and longevity with retail-boxed drives.

That, or a Hitachi 7200RPM 4TB or 6TB drive.

I'm not convinced on the Helium drives, yet, myself.
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Lower op temp is always a good thing.
 
Still always use WD Blacks myself in general.

Have 4 X 1TB RE3's still plonking along on one old Areca controller, everything else on the other computers or I have built for anyone are Blacks if not SSD's.
 
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Been a while since I had to buy any, but always went with WD black or Hitachi drives in my raid arrays and they've been solid. Toshiba is good too, I think they are actually mostly the same as HGST. I RMAed a DOA Toshiba once and actually got a HGST. It looked like the exact same drive, just different label on it.
 
VirtualLarry said:
You mean the data-recovery people that were posting here? Phynaz got them banned.

Yet he hasn't said a word about "Captain WD".
Click to expand...
Yeah, those guys.

Well, I don't see the reason they got banned (guess I'll take this to mod discussion), and I didn't notice them breaking any forum rules, so, it is a shame that they got banned, since they did offer good advice and experiences with the different drives they have seen & made recovery attempts on.
 
Just bought a WD Red for my home server. Hope it lasts as long as the WD Greens and HGST drives i have in there going on 6 years 24/7 duty, chugging along happily.
 
lupi said:
~snip~
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Hi there 🙂

If the drive is used for regular data storage and games, pretty much any current HDD should be able to handle the amount of workload and provide the performance needed. You don't need a performance drive with special features for this so you are free to use any drive.

You could check out other features and differences such as the RPM, size of cache, price per GB,warranty and other things that define the different HDDs.

WD Blue is a good choice for a basic HDD with lower rpm and budget-friendly cost.
WD Black is a performance drive which can provide additional speeds if needed and has a pretty long (5 year) warranty.

Although they would work, Surveillance and NAS-class drives such as WD Purple and WD Red aren't really the most recommended choice for you.

I'd personally go with the WD Blue in this case and have a backup drive of the most important data stored on the main drive.

Do post back if you need more info on any of these drives!

Captain_WD.
 
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Looks Like I'll pick up a couple 5tb WD blacks as the egg currently has them on sale so they are about as cheap as the other colors. Seems a pretty high price premium for the extra 1gb to go to a six.
 
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