Question Recommend reliable hard drive

[Fjive]

I'm looking to get either a 4TB or 6TB internal hard disk mainly for storing media files(Photos/Music/Movies).
Prefer reliability over performance. Should I be getting a NAS drive instead? And what are recommended brands? Thanks!

 

[UsandThem]

I use a WD Red NAS drive for my media / backups, and it's worked great so far. It also comes with a 3 year warranty compared to a 2 year with their Blue lineup.

It's kind of the middle ground in their product lineup, with the Blue drives being basic, while the Black lineup is the top with a 5 year warranty. However, they also are much more expensive. I used to use Seagate as well, but the last several drives I bought of theirs didn't last too long, and even the Seagate drive that came in my son's Xbox One died pretty quickly with minimal use.

 

[sdifox]

External drives are cheaper

 

[Charlie98]

I've had about all of them in my HTPC box at one time or another. My observations:

Toshiba drives run hot.

NAS drives are not 7200RPM drives, so they are slower to write to, but work well enough as a media storage drive. I have one of my old Red drives in my main PC... it IS slower to write to, and I'll be swapping it with something else shortly. The one currently in the HTPC runs with the Toshiba... I can't tell the difference in streaming.

I've never had any problems with my Seagate internal drives, and I've had a bunch. I have had problems with my Seagate portable drives... about 50% of them developed bad sectors.

 

[Fjive]

Thanks for all the responses! How about drives from Toshiba? Their X/P/N Series are also available locally in my area.

 

[Charlie98]

Thanks for all the responses! How about drives from Toshiba? Their X/P/N Series are also available locally in my area.

Toshiba drives run hot.

Other than that, they seem fine. I have two of them working now.