Using ssd vs had for long term storage

Mike_J_Smith

Mike_J_Smith

Mike_J_Smith

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I’ve built a new pc and am considering storage for files (music, photos, videos etc). I’ve got 1tb of data, so 2tb would be fine for me long term.

I automatically think of traditional HDDs for storage, but is there any reason, other than cost, not to go for an SSD? It would save space.
 
Mike_J_Smith said:
I’ve built a new pc and am considering storage for files (music, photos, videos etc). I’ve got 1tb of data, so 2tb would be fine for me long term.

I automatically think of traditional HDDs for storage, but is there any reason, other than cost, not to go for an SSD? It would save space.
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My OS and Games are also on SSD's but due to the quietness I gained I decided to go further.

I went from 4 Mech HDD's to 3x2TB SSD's then upgraded to 2x4TB SSD's for storage there is no real noise in my PC unlike before.

Putting large files on it and leaving them there will wear it less than using for OS where it has constant small writes going on (you can see this in software).

BUT! as always have a backup with any type of drive, I have Raid 10 Ext caddy with WD Red in it).
 
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Mike_J_Smith said:
I’ve built a new pc and am considering storage for files (music, photos, videos etc). I’ve got 1tb of data, so 2tb would be fine for me long term.

I automatically think of traditional HDDs for storage, but is there any reason, other than cost, not to go for an SSD? It would save space.
Click to expand...

Personally I have had more reliability with spindles and the price per gig is still a chasm, 5400rpm's in a decent case are barely audible, so for storage I would go spindle. My advice though dont buy something new to market, get something that has been out a while, check for reports of failures, if nothing out of the ordinary should be good to go.

I think the big difference for me, is that I have lost data on two ssd's in the past 18 months, with no obvious warning on the first one, and the second ssd I did have a warning but it still got to do the losing data phase quicker than I have ever seen a spindle do that.
 
I have lost 1 SSD and lost many more HDD's but again I had a backup.

Moving large files/folders to and from Mech-HDD's esp. if 5.4k is slow even on 10k VRaptors it was slow (170+MB/s).

Added to fact the new WD's heads all make that PIA click every 4-5sec, thankfully my RED's are 2017 so do not have this feature, the Red Pros I bought did so I got rid of them.
 
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I had backups also thankfully, by data loss I meant crc read errors, so in other words without my backups I would have had data loss.

I expect if I keep using my hdd's long enough they ultimately will fail, but I guess I am managing to upgrade them before it happens, although I still have 2 10+ year old hdd's in service, a old 36 gig raptor and a old 640 gig black (back when blacks were almost like raptors). As good as they are, they not housing anything that is important.

I have a green that I stopped using for a year then when I tired to use again was acting weird. :)

WD have a program that lets you adjust the head parking, I adjust on all my drives.
 
This is not head parking its a feature called "Preventive Wear Leveling" to keep the head moving to keep it lubbed to stop it sticking, there is nothing the end user can do about it.
 
Well I did say stay away from new models :)

Apparently its been a thing a while on WD, just the new models its super aggressive. odd that I dont hear it on my drives though, maybe it was never on all models?
 
Well unless you can get the older models new/sealed on EB I would do without TBH.

Added to the mess they made with the Shingled drives and rebranding models due to the fallout over it, now you have 2 RED's to choose from not including the RED Pro.

I can honestly say I really do not know what to buy next and hope the go back to their roots and stop messing with things as my 4TB's are filling up (Raid 10 so 4x4TB's RED's so 8TB storage).

The Red Pros (2019) even putting that ticking aside were louder than my VRaptors even at idle.
 
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I agree the new techs been added to spindles are disappointing, I am not a fan of SMR e.g. IS a shame ssd's seem to be creeping up in price again.

Right now I am backing up the first of 3 3tb drives (converting back to basic from dynamic disc), and wondering if I am about to eat my words on the reliability.

700 gig in one go, but I think I now should have done it in smaller chunks. This is over lan as well as no spare local empty hdd's to send to.

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I have still to add the rest of my music to C drive but I CBA ripping all the CD's esp on slow external DVD-Writer (I will do one now and then) so it will soon fill up.


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The best HDD's are WD enterprise drives, so RE, Ultrastar, also the HSGT Ultrastars.

These drives are faster than consumer HDD's and more reliable as designed for data centres, there expensive but secret to buy them when there on offer. WD Black drives are good also.

I own many SSD's and many HDD's. For large data writes I still prefer the WD Enterprise drives mentioned above.
 
Thanks all for the replies.

Still not sure which route to go down! But looking at the above it looks to me that either would be OK, but have an additional back up.

If I used SSD in the case; what would a good back up be?

I have 2 new 2tb HDD and one relatively new one with the data on available.
 
As you only have a small amount of data to back up i would suggest SSD as a back up. It will run cooler (keep case temps down) and be quieter.

I actually go further than most people and have a backup of the back up on an external drive for my most valuable data.
Stuff im not botherd about losing (such as movies and stuff i can d/l again) only gets backed up once.
 
Spartacus1972 said:
May i ask what brand SSD's you lost? My Samsung 850 is now 3 years old, used as main system drive.
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To me? Both were samsung. If samsung replace my 970 EVO I plan on selling it and getting one with micron nand. Too much lost trust in them, but I am just one guy, not a reflection on everyone. If they reject the RMA I will be out of pocket and still buying a new drive, wont sell the 970 EVO as it will feel wrong to sell it, unless I am upfront with the problems on it.

The hhd backups and restores did complete, the hdd's had no crc errors, no smart errors 4 hdd's stressed with it and 14TB of data moved to and back.
 
JasonM said:
The best HDD's are WD enterprise drives, so RE, Ultrastar, also the HSGT Ultrastars.

These drives are faster than consumer HDD's and more reliable as designed for data centres, there expensive but secret to buy them when there on offer. WD Black drives are good also.

I own many SSD's and many HDD's. For large data writes I still prefer the WD Enterprise drives mentioned above.
Click to expand...

Those drives its a shame they all noisy 7200rpm drives.

So I have another update and its fair I am truthful after my earlier posts.

So I am using the m.2 again, I could not for all I tried get more errors in the other system, but now my backup spindle has decided to fail, this would make 2 WD red failures in space of 18 months. This is well inside warranty so one of my newer drives, its actually my 2nd newest spindle. Now the coincidence of both spindle failures is they were been used for my backups, so much heavier writes then all my other drives, which is starting to make me think write heavy workloads consumer spindles are not very reliable. I suppose one could argue over the years I was very lucky and its all catching up with me.

Ideally would like a 5400rpm enterprise grade drive.
 
chrcoluk said:
Those drives its a shame they all noisy 7200rpm drives.

So I have another update and its fair I am truthful after my earlier posts.

So I am using the m.2 again, I could not for all I tried get more errors in the other system, but now my backup spindle has decided to fail, this would make 2 WD red failures in space of 18 months. This is well inside warranty so one of my newer drives, its actually my 2nd newest spindle. Now the coincidence of both spindle failures is they were been used for my backups, so much heavier writes then all my other drives, which is starting to make me think write heavy workloads consumer spindles are not very reliable. I suppose one could argue over the years I was very lucky and its all catching up with me.

Ideally would like a 5400rpm enterprise grade drive.
Click to expand...

The noise from WD Enterprise / Blacks appears to vary over the years, I've had a great many of them, the seek noise on latest 2TB Gold / Ultra stars is not loud. I'm a software dev sitting 4 foot away from my computer, case is a part sound proofed Silverstone FT-02, i'm working / programming ok with the noise all day.

I use WD enterprise drives as I do something with AI, and i'm storing very large amounts of data into an SQL Server. Data corruption would cost me a great deal of time, I use WD Enterprise HDD's drives as they are reliable and work well with large amounts of data.
 
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