Need new 2x data drives but unsure which type to get

[pete_agreatguy]

Hi all,

Situation:

• I had a data drive (seagate 2tb barracuda hdd) fail just before Christmas
• Need to replace it and I've decided to get 2 new drives and put them in RAID 1
• I want to have the drives which will last the longest

Options:

• HDD - more space for my money and less speed
• Hybrid - the inbetweener
• SSD - all about speed

Questions:

Disregard:

• reliability - that's why I have decided to go with RAID 1 for total redundancy
• cost - not a factor but would rather go with the cheapest option due to getting two drives

1) Which type would last the longest? Am I correct in that it would be the HDD?

2) Does a hybrid last the same amount of time as a normal HDD?

Thank you for your aid in advance

 

[pete_agreatguy]

the answer to this question is dependant on the use you will put your drives to
HDD's are mechanical drives, and wear out on a mechanical basis

I would be using it for data files (including documents, pictures, short digital camera videos). Some game files (mainly mods) would also be on this drive and their size can be in the GB range.

Game files would be written to the drives on a weekly basis but they would be read on a daily basis.

Documents would be written and read on a daily basis. Where as pictures and short videos would be monthly on average.

Does that help answer your question?

 

[pete_agreatguy]

All brands fail, so don't be put off just because a Seagate failed - still just as much an option as any other brand.

Granted, I'm contemplating getting either Hitachi or Western Digital. Preferably the former.

Have you got a backup in addition to running these drives in RAID 1? RAID isn't a backup, it doesn't protect you from Viruses, accidental deletion, data corruption (which can end up mirrored in RAID 1).

If you haven't already got a viable backup option, then yes still buy 2 drives, but use one and stick the other one in a USB caddy and use it to make weekly backups.

I got the impression RAID 1 was a case of complete data protection from videos on YouTube and Blogs by Backblaze

My choice of RAID 1 was purely based on "as a backup solution". Have I made the wrong decision here?

With hard drives, look at either NAS drives e.g. WD Red etc, or look a step above at enterprise drives (which are normally even better built - e.g. with 5 year warranties showing the confidence they have in them).

Duly noted

With regards to your other points about SSD or Hybrids, you can immediately rule out Hybrids, as the manufacturers don't provide "enterprise-level" hybrids, and so makes you question their long term reliability. SSDs if you can afford them in the sizes you need make sense, as providing you use a monitoring tool, should have plenty of indication that they are at the end of the life (although the exception being SSDs that are just instantly dead e.g. not recognised, but that is still a better situation than potentially flaky data on a failing hard drive - i.e. at least you know the data on that drive is gone).

Like I said I will be writing large files weekly.

 

[pete_agreatguy]

Hi all,

I've gone and replaced my failed hard Seagate Barracuda 2TB drive with a single internal HGST (Hitachi) 2TB Enterprise Ultrastar 7K6000. Got it for £135 which I thought was a great price considering it's a HGST and an Enterprise drive.

I also got an external 2TB Maxtor M3 USB 3.0 portable for backups. I'll use the Allway Sync to do weekly backups of my important data and data which I want to have backed up. I've already burned a few DVD's of software backups and pdf files I don't want to lose.

Thank you for your help. I also decided not to get 2x internal and put them in RAID. I'll just stick with the weekly backups and keep the 2TB HGST drive.

EDIT:

I did consider the SSD option but the price was too high for me as I'm going to be upgrading my system soon.

 

[pete_agreatguy]

It's not a networked computer (not in a business sense anyway) and there is only 1 user (me). It's my home rig which I use mainly for gaming (though to be precise, simulations), though I will start to learn video editing in the future as want to get back to doing Simulator videos.

 

[pete_agreatguy]

Hi guys,

Just want to pick your brains a bit more:

Currently I have a backup system image of my OS drive (with the use of Backupper - great software - better than Symantec's System Recovery in my opinion).

In your opinion, rather than using Allway Sync software [original plan] to do weekly backups, would it be better for me to simply make a drive image backup of my new HGST drive [containing my docs etc] or would it be better to stick with my original plan?

 

[pete_agreatguy]

Was the Seagate 2tb barracuda that failed under warranty? . . . also was the barracuda mounted in a cramped area where perhaps it overheated?. It's not uncommon for drives to fail but in my experience as a techie at least half the examples of a bOrked drive are when it's not been given adequate ventilation. I've seen some horrible OEM case designs that include extra drive bays buried in a stuffy corner of the case so the inexperienced user crams in a couple of fast WB Blacks 7,200rpm in the expansion bays and 15months down the line curses their bad luck at having a disk fail.

This may not be relevant to you pete but just thought it was worth mentioning, does the mounting point for 3.5" disks have a little bit of ventilation in your chassis? . . . do you have monitoring software to check the drives temperatures?

The drive was out of warranty. Here's what I was told from the data recovery company I used:

The diagnosis has been completed on your damaged HDD and the technician involved on the recovery has advised the following:
Diagnosis results have shown that the head assembly unit has failed. The technician has advised the next stage of the recovery process is to replace the complete head assembly unit, rebuild the HDD and then attempt to extract your data. This is a highly skilled process but unfortunately isn't infallible. The chance of a successful recovery once the process has been completed is approximately 70%.

With regards to cooling, there are no issues there. I've pasted below my setup from another thread on another forum where I was aiding someone with their cooling setup.

Last year I spent 2 weeks researching, developing a spreadsheet and programming some macros to find out which fans were the best for each type of fan [high air flow or high static pressure] (from those available on the market).

Here's what I found:

Useful information - What is PWM and what does it mean?


1. The best Static Pressure fans were produced by Noctua, specifically the industrial PWM fans 140mm. No surprise to us computer geeks.
2. The best (though "most" seems more appropriate) air flow fans were the Bitfenix Spectre Pro PWM series 140mm.

Here's an example for you on how they can affect your cooling ...

I own the Corsair 750D case. It came with 2x front high airflow fans 140mm and 1 more 140mm at the rear. For my full current setup see this post.

After the research, I upgraded my fans (if you want fans with LEDs I'd have to get the spreadsheets out. Off the top of my head I think Xigmatek fans were best when it came to those with LEDs as they had PWM); anyhoo, I digress.

As I was saying I upgraded my fans to the following:

3x Bitfenix Spectre Pro PWM 140mm fans (1 at the rear, 1 in the top [rear slot] and 1 in the front [top slot]) - to cool my graphics card and cpu (high airflow fans).

1x Noctua 140mm NF-A14-industrialppc 2000 ip67 pwm in the bottom front slot - to cool my 3.5" hard drives (high static pressure fan). And you thought graphics cards were named badly lol.

Let's compare ...

Original 140mm Corsair fans:
Airflow = 67.8 CFM
Static Pressure = 0.84 mmH20
Noise = 24 dBA
Speed = 1150 RPM

Upgraded 140mm fan (Bitfenix Spectre pro pwm):
Air Flow = 122.2 CFM <<< --- Highest air flow
Static Pressure = 2.8 mmH2O <<< --- not as much static pressure as the noctua but a considerably higher airflow
Noise = 29.2 dBA
Speed = 1800 RPM ±10%



Upgraded 140mm fan (Noctua):

Air Flow = 107.4 CFM <<< --- not as much airflow as the Bitfenix but a considerably higher static pressure
Static Pressure = 4.18 mmH2O <<< --- Highest static pressure
Noise = 31.5 dBA
Speed = 2000 RPM

RESULTS OF UPGRADING FANS:

Upon stress testing (click the link in the square brackets to see what software I used) [CPU, M/B, GPU, HDD], I found that my temperatures decreased by ... [I've listed the average temperature over a time period of XX minutes and in deg C].

CPU dropped by 27% under load = 34 [idle] to 39 [under load] - tested for 6 hours
GPU dropped by 15% under load = 22 [idle] to 67 [under load] - tested for 1 hour
M/B sensor dropped by 5% under load = 35 [idle] to 39 [under load] - tested for 1 hour
Hard drives dropped by 8-10% under load (3 SATAII 7200rpm hard drives, top one by 10%, middle by 10% [rounded] and the bottom by 8%) - tested for 30 minutes

As you can tell from my results, in my case there was a significant reduction in temperatures. Lower temperatures are always good

So you should certainly consider what I have typed up here

ps: I removed my other hard drive cage from the case as I am not using it. It allows for better air flow onto the GPU and CPU. The hard drive cage/bay is filled with three 3.5" drives but with a high static pressure Noctua fan as described above.

 

[pete_agreatguy]

Ideally you want to automate your backups and set the time when the machine is on and not being fully used, for me that's 9pm Friday. Once its automated you can pretty much forget about it and have one less worry in life!

I'll stick to my original plan then. The bonus of syncing the files every week (automated or manually [when ever I chose to do it]) as well is really useful I find as the software only backs up what needs to be backed up. It's a bit like the briefcase MS developed for Windows but I find it works a lot better. See my post above with regards to cooling and why the Seagate failed

 

[pete_agreatguy]

Hard drives dropped by 8-10% under load (3 SATAII 7200rpm hard drives, top one by 10%, middle by 10% [rounded] and the bottom by 8%) - tested for 30 minutes

You must have just missed it

I was actually, VERY lucky with the recovery. I managed to get back the important data [uni work, college work, photos, documents etc - majority of it all was backed up but I lost some important documents which I did require]. I lost my game backups and game projects that I did [majority projects were uploaded on the net somewhere]. So I lost game data but that I can get over. The only down side was it cost me just over £1000. Thankfully I have savings in place but I'd rather pay a max of £150 for a new hard drive now lol. Hence why I'm getting my backups sorted.

EDIT:

Sorry the temperatures themselves are about 20-33 degrees depending on if under load etc. No higher. That's on the 72000rpm. The SSDs never go above 25 [deg C].