NAS Drives 4/6/8Tb

Trig

Trig

Trig

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One of my WD drives in my 'server' has chucked a bad block, so going to pull it and put something else in there..
However, given WD's SMR/CMR Red issue from a few years ago I'm going to steer clear of WD drives, so thinking Seagate IronWolf or Toshiba NAS drives.

Needs to be SATA, something that's not old and likely to go EOL in the next 18 months or so as I'll slowly swap out my other drives to the same make/model.
5400rpm class drives will do as its mainly just used for file storage, all of my VM's are on an NVMe drive, they will be sat in a Node 304 case and there's 4 of them all sat in the drive bays, they have a pair of fans drawing air over them so don't get overly hot, drives usually report mid to low 30's.


Anyone got any suggestions or recommendations?
 
Western digital have 'cleared up' the smr/cmr drives issues... basically as long as you get a red pro (or plus if it's still around) you should be getting a cmr.... although at current prices you'd likely be better getting an enterprise version such as the deskstar or gold models.

Seagate has a list of cmr/smr but no idea how up to date it actually is these days.... seems the safe bet is 'enterprise' drives again though.
www.seagate.com

CMR and SMR Hard Drives | Seagate UK

See the list of recording technology utilised on our internal hard drives
www.seagate.com
 
Thinking 6Tb Ironwolf Pro, jungle seems to have them cheaper than the standard Ironwolf at the same size...
Theres a Toshiba N300 8Tb that's a bit cheaper, but I think the Ironwolf Pro would be enough, then I can buy a few and slowly swap all existing drives out as they're 3-6 years old anyways.
 
Just an FYI.
I bought:-
8TB WD Red Pro WD8003FFBX, 3.5" NAS HDD, SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 256MB Cache, Shock Sensor, NCQ, OEM 7D912
It's a noisy beast.
I've been assured by WD that the noises it emits are normal.
Squeaky and clunky.
 
Yeah WD are off of the list tbh from the whole CMR/SMR thing.

Just weighing up how much storage I might need moving forward vs the pro/con of having the normal Ironwolf vs the Pro..
 
All WD Drives above 8TB are CMR afaik.

All Seagates above 10TB are as well.

Personally speaking I'd just buy an external and shuck the drive, so WD Elements, MyBook, or Seagate Expansion portable. Of the 3 the Seagate one is the found I found hardest to open up without breaking.

I'm running a good number of the above 3 types, no failures or issues yet, all CMR drives, but my minimum size is 10TB.

I know you don't want WD but it's between them and Seagate for me, I wouldn't use Toshiba drives.
 
I have a WD 8Tb that I shucked a few years back, probably the newest drive in there tbf..

I'm thinking the Pro tbh, yes its a 6Tb over an 8Tb but the Pro is a bit faster, having a better warranty and 200k MTBF more over the normal Ironwolf...
At the mo I have 24Tb of space and have (well, had until I had a drive die) more than enough spare space and had my important stuff triple replicated so 6Tb is enough as I can go 4x6Tb and give me the same space I have now (2xWD 6Tb, 1x WD8Tb 1x 4Tb Seagate) as well as a good few Tb of spare space..
 
Yeah match to your sizes, but don't forget there isn't usually much in it in terms of running costs.

I've got 2 x 18TB WD on the way, £200 each, but they will use the same power as an 8TB drive would :)
 
These shucked external drives, how are they on the 24/7 front which proper NAS drives are marketed on? Or are they literally the same model designation drive as the NAS drive just shoved in an enclosure?
 
Bubo said:
These shucked external drives, how are they on the 24/7 front which proper NAS drives are marketed on? Or are they literally the same model designation drive as the NAS drive just shoved in an enclosure?
Click to expand...

They're pretty much the same drives you wind up with if you buy retail, but typically white labelled Ultrastars in the case of most of my WD's, and the Seagates I wound up with Exos.

Some people say they're drives that haven't quite lived up to some kind of internal test that the manufacturers do on them, but not seen that proven or disproven one way or another.

Most of mine been running about 2 years no problems so far (touch wood). You save a bit on the drives but yes warranty won't be quite as good I suppose.
 
HungryHippos said:
Yeah match to your sizes, but don't forget there isn't usually much in it in terms of running costs.

I've got 2 x 18TB WD on the way, £200 each, but they will use the same power as an 8TB drive would :)
Click to expand...

Running costs I'm not hugely bothered by, its not going to make much of a difference I wouldn't have thought.

Matching sizes I'm just doing for OCD reasons tbh, I use Windows 10 at my OS these days and use Stablebit Drivepool which allows any drive, regardless of size or interface to make the pool.

18Tb would be tempting, if they weren't WD drives tbh..
 
HungryHippos said:
They're pretty much the same drives you wind up with if you buy retail, but typically white labelled Ultrastars in the case of most of my WD's, and the Seagates I wound up with Exos.

Some people say they're drives that haven't quite lived up to some kind of internal test that the manufacturers do on them, but not seen that proven or disproven one way or another.

Most of mine been running about 2 years no problems so far (touch wood). You save a bit on the drives but yes warranty won't be quite as good I suppose.
Click to expand...

My newest drive is a WD White label, at a little over 2 years old, was shucked from when the drives were £135...
 
Trig said:
Running costs I'm not hugely bothered by, its not going to make much of a difference I wouldn't have thought.
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised! I was anyway.

My 8TB WDs were using about 10w idle, vs 7w on my 18TB ones. Doesn't sound like much but does add up when you have a lot of drives, and also using more yet providing less space!
 
4 drives on my setup, 18Tb is overkill though as tempting as those drives might be, as well as the WD thing..
Might order a pair of the IW Pro's though as I can physically fit 6 drives in there, then I can move data around and retire the oldest drives.
 
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