Can I use a NAS drive as a regular hard drive?

[Lee James]

Please could someone advise me?

For a while now I've been desperately low on hard drive space and have been patiently waiting for 8tb drives to get cheap enough.

I've now found a Seagate drive which seems the right price but it's a NAS drive. I really have no idea what "NAS" means, and couldn't understand the Wikipedia article on it. (I'm pretty dumb when it comes to hard drives.)

So… Can I just stick this drive in my PC and use it as a normal hard drive? Is it a good choice? Will it be slower than the drives I'm used to? (My 2 main data drives at the moment are the Seagate ST4000DM000 and Seagate ST32000542AS - I also use an SSD for Windows.)

I do a lot of video and sound editing, so it needs to be able to accommodate that, also quietness is really important - my new PC was specifically built with silence in mind, after my old machine which sounded like a lawnmower under my desk!

(By the way, if anyone is wondering why my new drive *has* to be 8tb, it's because I invented my own policy of always doubling the size of every new hard drive I buy - that way I can leave the last 3 drives in my PC as backups and their total capacity will be always be exactly 88% the size of the new drive.)

 

[Lee James]

LOL, thank you both for your answers (long and short)! But particular thanks to Seagate Surfer for all that excellent information, really helpful. It's nice that Seagate take the time to do this - and as you can see I've been a loyal (and happy) customer! LOL

 

[Lee James]

Just wanted to say that unfortunately I decided not to buy this hard drive (Seagate IronWolf 8TB) because quietness is really important to me and I am concerned about the noise it may make. It would be a nightmare to be stuck with something noisy on my desk next to me for the next 15 years! (That's assuming it lasted the course.)

It would be great to see some kind of comparison with other hard drives in decibels, or a video of the noise it makes, but alas there is none.

I am desperately low on hard drive space but have decided to wait until another model comes out that I'm sure won't be too loud, or until prices drop enough that I can consider other drives such as a WD Red perhaps. (Nothing against Seagate, just that I need a new hard drive.)

I also wish there were higher capacity drives on the market at a reasonable price. 8TB would be good, but it really isn't enough and I don't feel that capacities are going up quick enough. I'm easily ready for 16TB now. I'm saying this in case Seagate are listening!

 

[Lee James]

Any modern drive in good health isn't going to be making any significant noise.

I wish you were correct, but everything I've read about the 8 and 10TB IronWolf drives says that they are much louder than normal hard drives, and much louder than the 6TB and under.

I've read so many people saying they are unbearably loud and can be heard in other rooms of the house, and not one person has reported them as being quiet. I sit in a very quiet room, and I'm a musician, and I like silence. I do not want anything noisy on my desk.

How could you ever judge how loud a drive is by watching a YouTube video? It'll be so far removed from the original sound that it'll be completely meaningless.

Are you saying you don't think it's possible to accurately record the sound a hard drive makes? Not even in a soundproofed recording studio with top-of-the-range microphones? Sorry but I can't agree with that.

I believe it is very possible, even with a relatively cheap microphone. You could record several hard drives from the same distance, allowing a direct comparison to be easily made. Real-life loudness could be easily percieved by including familiar noises in the video, such as tapping the unit, rubbing and clicking fingers together, etc. If I review hardware I always try to including clear recordings of the noises it makes so that people can hear exactly what they're getting.

 

[Lee James]

Seagate Surfer,

Excellent, excellent points! Thank you for your very thoughtful reply. Seagate get 10/10 for reps! Never seen a company engaging customers like this before

Let me first mention Cloud backups… while I can see the value of this service to other people, they are definitely not for me. I don't like other people handling my personal data in any way, even if I've thoroughly encrypted it first. So that is just not an option to me.

The idea of keeping additional backups in separate locations is something I do try to do when I can… just for my most precious data.

Though ultimately the thought of losing my data doesn't bother me as much as it probably bothers most people. My backup system is not done out of fear that my life would be over if I lost anything, I'm really just trying to take reasonable and sensible precautions, because hard drives do go sooner or later (I've had 2 die in years gone by and lost a lot of data - I think they were probably WD, but I don't really recall).

SSDs is something I already use for my boot drive, and I also have a partition on it where I keep stuff like my current work so it loads fast. Obviously, I LOVE SSDs and how silent they are - those drives are surely the future. But right now in 2017, as you say, I do value my kidneys, so not looking to invest in an 8TB SSD!

So finally, onto the idea of buying two 4TBs - yes, excellent idea, and one I have been seriously considering, and still am, especially now you reminded me of the prices. I have also been mindful of the 'safety in numbers' issue too - that issue is becoming more pertinent as hard drives become huge and failure risks increase. I agree with all your points.

There are only really 3 negatives about the idea of getting two 4TBs instead of one 8TB:

1. First, I'm always looking toward the future. In 10 years' time, a couple of 4TB hard drives are going to seem pretty small and useless - like a bit of an irritation to have in my PC - whereas a single 8TB drive (assuming it survives) will seem more useful. So that's one issue.

2. But the main reason is: It's just more drives to run. More power needed, more combined heat and noise. More clutter inside my case. As I said, my policy is to always keep the last 4 storage drives, so right now I have 4 HDDs (plus 1 SDD boot drive which I won't count as it's not mechanical) - so really, 4 feels like enough and if anything I'd like to start consolidating and getting fewer drives in my PC, not more. So that's really the biggest negative. I just like things to be as simple and elegant as possible and don't want too many of those whirring, buzzing little boxes in my PC.

3. Another very minor negative is that every time I buy a new hard drive I always find it really cool and exciting to have a large capacity I've never had before. Buying a 4TB would feel a bit like going back to 2014 for me, if that makes sense?

But I am not ruling this idea out.

And then the other idea is (as you say) I could buy just one 4TB for now which may put me on until higher capacity prices have come down a lot more?

Anyway, I'll post an update on this thread when I've decided. Thanks again for your time! It's nice to be able to talk this stuff through a bit

 

[Lee James]

10 years ??

Well, 10 years was only an approximate figure, but here's the way I see it…

Right now I still have a 1TB drive in my PC which I bought 10 years ago. Sure, 1TB is not negligible, and is certainly useful. But considering that my total storage capacity this year will be 16TB (when I've bought my new drive) - that little 1TB drive is starting to seem *relatively* useless. And if I had two 1TB drives in my PC, frankly I would find that somewhat irritating. I'd be supplying power to two whole drives just for the sake of maybe an 8th of my total capacity.

But that's only the way I see it personally. Everyone's different.

 

[Lee James]

Update:

I've been torn between getting the 8TB IronWolf or a couple of 4TB BarraCudas for a similar price. I have now made my decision and just ordered the Seagate 6TB Ironwolf - so something in the middle of the two options. I'm hoping that the 6TB drives are quieter than the 8tb ones, which is what I've heard.

6TB isn't as much space as I wanted, but it will hopefully be enough just to keep me going for a couple more years, when hopefully higher-capacity drives will be cheaper and quieter, and I'll have a lot more money!

Plus, the "new and exciting" factor still applies to this disk because it's bigger than any drive I've owned before.

Thanks everyone for your advice!