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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Hard drive recommendations?
Hard drive recommendations?
2019-01-11, 5:08 PM #1
I am in the market for a pair of 4TB "NAS"-grade hard disk drives. I have read that HGST made excellent such drives, but, since having been sold by Hitachi to Western Digital (apparently in order to comply with the rules of the Communist Party of China or something like that??), the drives now are declining in quality (for example, the newer models, rather than running almost silently, apparently emit a deafening clicking sound all the time).

I've bought Seagate in the past. I've always heard bad things about Western Digital. Any suggestions?

Edit: per this comment, I have tentatively decided to buy a pair of these refurbished drives, since they seem to be the older, better version of the HGST drive, before WD changed it.
2019-01-12, 3:50 AM #2
Really? Damn, I guess the next time I'll upgrade my computer, I'll have to go with SSDs only. I haven't had any complaints with my Samsung T3 external SSDs (1TB and 512GB), or with the internal "950 PRO" for that matter.

No idea what NAS is.

But yeah, HGST was pretty good. I have a 2TB Western Digital HDD in this computer as well, yet it used to run without oddities until I carried out my catastrophic UE4 experiment and, due to how UE4's editing tools work, a lot of random data on it got corrupted.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-01-12, 4:58 AM #3
Since my last 4 TB drive died I've kept it in the freezer, waiting for a price drop in 8 or 10 TB drives. That has been about 5 years ago or so...
Sorry for the lousy German
2019-01-12, 5:59 AM #4
Ironically, this "good" HGST you guys are talking about is the only drive I've ever owned that died.
2019-01-12, 11:57 AM #5
Originally posted by Nikumubeki:
Really? Damn, I guess the next time I'll upgrade my computer, I'll have to go with SSDs only. I haven't had any complaints with my Samsung T3 external SSDs (1TB and 512GB), or with the internal "950 PRO" for that matter.


Just to be clear, the new "HGST" drives might be great, even if (for all we know) they are totally different drives than what was being called HGST before. I think the biggest complaint I'm reading about the new drives is the deafening clicking noise they seem to constantly make.

Quote:
No idea what NAS is.


It stands for Network Attached Storage. I was assuming that something marketed as an "NAS drive" would be more reliable, since it would be intended for things like backup and see heavy use.
2019-01-12, 12:00 PM #6
back when HGST was IBM we used to call that the “click of death”. That meant it was time to put your hard drive in the freezer overnight and then back everything up.
2019-01-12, 12:14 PM #7
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
It stands for Network Attached Storage. I was assuming that something marketed as an "NAS drive" would be more reliable, since it would be intended for things like backup and see heavy use.


I see. Also reminds me of how my backup drive (a partition of the only HDD on my backup computer) is a Western Digital one, so I guess it's more or less a ticking time bomb.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-01-12, 1:34 PM #8
WD might actually be alright, you can panic if it's Maxtor (****, I guess I mean Seagate)
2019-01-12, 1:37 PM #9
Originally posted by Jon`C:
back when HGST was IBM we used to call that the “click of death”. That meant it was time to put your hard drive in the freezer overnight and then back everything up.


Even if it's not the click of death in this case, it certainly doesn't instil confidence in the manufacturer. If they think that insanely loud clicks are within acceptable parameters, I have to wonder what other cost-cutting measures they consider "acceptable".
2019-01-12, 1:49 PM #10
WD is fine, Seagate is fine. It doesn’t matter. They’re the same thing. Some of them will fail early, all of them will fail eventually. Plan accordingly and don’t pay attention to any *****in.
2019-01-12, 2:39 PM #11
Older harddrives used to click all the time. I've come to associate the sound with "my computer is working on something". So to me it's a positive sound. I kinda missed it when I got my first HDD that was more silent.
Sorry for the lousy German
2019-01-12, 2:40 PM #12
Of course, it is distinctly different from the click of death, which anyone could identify as broken.
Sorry for the lousy German
2019-01-13, 10:14 AM #13
I've had this drive sitting in my cart for a few months now. I really just want one to aggregate a bunch of old externals to although I would also like one to backup photos and videos to. I'm not particularly worried about speed.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-01-13, 1:24 PM #14
Just don't forget to keep the other drives around, unless you plan to get two new drives and mirror the data, or simply do a cloud backup.
2019-01-14, 5:33 AM #15
The data on my externals is relatively trivial. Mostly just high quality MP4s of most of my DVDs. For my photo and video backup I will most likely follow up with a NAS solution at some point.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-03-03, 12:10 PM #16
So I ended up getting two of those 4TB drives when I saw the price at $85 each. Moving files off the old externals I found some huge fraps recordings I made of some streamed Hillsdale College courses a long time back. Adobe Premier wanted nothing to do with the files but good ole Handbrake took about 15 minutes to turn the first batch of 29GB files into around 300MB. I then used Premier to join them but I don't even qualify as a novice with the software yet so I did inflate the size a little. Took about 5 minutes for Premiere to complete the task.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-03-03, 12:23 PM #17
I see what you did there... sneaky to pretend your homemade porn videos are "college course" videos
2019-03-03, 12:29 PM #18
If I had homemade porn videos, and I'm not saying I do, they wouldn't be particularly pretty to look at.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-03-03, 12:31 PM #19
Actually, now that I think about it, if a "Constitution Day" thread by me still exists here, that's how old these video files are. And these quotes aren't meant as wink, wink quotes Dr. Jones!
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-09-09, 10:50 AM #20
Well, I finally got around to my Operation "Transfer Data from my Backup Discs to SSD drives" last weekend, beginning with all my backup discs from 2011-2018 (including the ~10 discs full of backups of DXN map builds).

Managed to break my shredder's disc shredding compartment in the process, so I have to cut the rest of the discs by hand (after transferring their contents to an SSD). Boh!

... Of course, I'm still hoping that external SSDs (Samsung T3/T5 in my case) should be fine for keeping backups and that I shouldn't have to worry about transferring them to a new medium until 2049 or so.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-12, 8:40 PM #21
Oh, putting them in a microwave for a couple seconds is the best. Seriously, try it then you can just toss 'em.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-09-13, 6:27 AM #22
Is it cool if I Boh in here?
2019-09-13, 9:54 AM #23
Can I get a Boh! Yeah!?
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-14, 10:16 AM #24
Today's backup transfer session went pretty well, I should have gotten all the backup discs from 2007-2011 transferred to the SSD (in addition to some discs from 2000-2005).

The worrying part is that some discs were practically full of txt/cog/UC and mat files - up to 40,000 in some cases - so I'm not entirely sure if i should have zipped them first before the transfer... boh.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-15, 7:56 AM #25
Alright, I managed to transfer all the contents from the backup discs from 2000-2018 that used to be housed in these containers to the SSD:

[Unable to find specified attachment]

That should have been it unless I find a stray backup disc from an unexpected stash. Only 4 discs were unreadable, three from 2000 and one from 2004.

... Here's hoping that SSD indeed is a lasting medium (compared to the alternatives, ofc I have to transfer the contents of that SSD to a newer tech in x years).

[Edit Oct 12] Also threw my first AKG K271 MKIIs away, they were already on the brink of breaking down and these days I've got like 5 other pairs of ear/headphones anyway (one of them being an unopened box of yet another AKG K271 MKIIs).

[Unable to find specified attachment]
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-16, 6:42 AM #26
How much total data did you end up with? Any thoughts about copying your ssd so you'll have another backup? The data I wanted to copy was all on aging externals but they hadn't failed yet so for now I'm just leaving them be since adding hdds and copying them.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2019-09-16, 6:58 AM #27
Those discs amounted up to 931 GB.

I'll probably get something like an external 1TB Seagate HDD at some point to make a backup of the SSD at some point, but I'm also thinking about actually going through the drive and only copying the files I really want to save to a separate 500 GB SSD or something. Or maybe both, depends on what kind of sales there will be next.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-17, 5:21 AM #28
You should back up your stuff somewhere online as well. Or at least give one copy to a friend/relative/your bank/whatever so that you have a spare copy somewhere else in case of a fire.
Sorry for the lousy German
2019-09-17, 10:02 AM #29
Yeah, at the very least I'll probably get around to uploading the workfolders and project files for VSTABUSE, TODOA and DXN and the like on Google Drive or sth.

I might actually even go through the backup SSD itself and get rid of stuff like Firefox 0.7 Installer.exe etc. Maybe duplicate all the current files on something like this first. Wild times.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-17, 11:24 AM #30
Ever look into things like backblaze? I'm working to get my (linux-based) workstation backed up there using "b2" because their regular consumer stuff only works on mac/windows. The regular consumer stuff is $6/month and looks pretty nice if you're on a supported platform. The "b2" stuff also looks nice (price-wise) but a little more complicated because you have to find a 3rd-party backup tool to run (which isn't too bad anyway).
2019-09-17, 9:25 PM #31
Oh yeah, I considered something like back in the UE4 attempt days, might reconsider it if the need comes.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-24, 5:55 AM #32
Removing duplicate files and 7zipping megafolders (with 4k+ files, such as the JED directories) freed up some space, now there's 63.6 gb remaining instead of the previous 18.5. Woo!

(Hiding stuff like this is thus easier than going through the effort of possibly removing them)

This post is also a plug for this program called WinDirStat, which has been extremely useful with all this.

[Edit/SEP 25th] Managed to free up even more space (132 gb now) after installing (Search) Everything, removing a lot of duplicates and moving some "lowest priority" files like GOG installers (could always redownload them from GOG.com), DXN editing backups (very likely that I'll never need them again, but eh) etc. to an old LaCie external HDD.

So yeah, plug++ for Everything as well.
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-09-24, 4:42 PM #33
WinDirStat is great, I use it a lot at work when managing our servers.
$do || ! $do ; try
try: command not found
Ye Olde Galactic Empire Mission Editor (X-wing, TIE, XvT/BoP, XWA)
2019-10-16, 3:21 AM #34
Veering back to the original topic, it really is annoying to try to make sense which hard drives would actually last long enough - and generally not suck like GBK's JK level releasing record... but I guess I'll have to try this one https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/18022/dnmnq/WD-Red-4-TB-SATA-III-64-MB-3-5-kiintolevy

Since this drive already started faltering in 2017 and I accidentally physically broke it as well last week, I'm gonna need a 4TB one as a new backup backup drive.

(I'm also not sure what's with all these 4+ TB hard drives that are specifically marketed for "surveillance videos", like, are they any good for general storage/HDD usage or not)
Star Wars: TODOA | DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum
2019-10-16, 7:52 AM #35
Originally posted by Nikumubeki:
Veering back to the original topic, it really is annoying to try to make sense which hard drives would actually last long enough - and generally not suck like GBK's JK level releasing record...

>:(
And when the moment is right, I'm gonna fly a kite.

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