Suggestions for a dependable storage drive

MisterEd said:

It has been speculated that manufactures started using SMR drives because they are cheaper to make.

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Oh I have no doubt about that.

MisterEd said:

Here are my external hard disk drives. I used CrystalDiskInfo to determine what the internal hard drive models were.
1. WDC 6TB My Book: Internal = WD60EZRZ-00RWYB1
2. WDC 6TB My Book: Internal = WD60EDAZ-11U78B0
3. WDC 12TB Elements: Internal = WD120EMFZ-11A6JA0
4. WDC 20TB Easystore: Internal = WD200EDGZ-11B9PA0
5. Seagate 1TB Expansion+: Internal = ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
6. Seagate 2TB Expansion: Internal = ST2000DM001-1CH164
7. Seagate 5TB Expansion: Internal = ST5000DM000-1FK178

Note all drives are 3.5" except #5 which is 2.5".

Click to expand...

I dunno, would something like Hard Disk Sentinel tell you something about those?


I know there are a lot of detailed settings in there so if you decide to try it, you'll have to dig deep in there to see if that info is there.


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cheaterslick said:

Oh I have no doubt about that.



I dunno, would something like Hard Disk Sentinel tell you something about those?

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Monitoring hard disk health and temperature. Test and repair HDD problems, predict disk failure.

www.hdsentinel.com

I know there are a lot of detailed settings in there so if you decide to try it, you'll have to dig deep in there to see if that info is there.


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Click to expand...

Good call. I just happen to have Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Family.
With it I can select each drive and select the Information tab for it.



Here is Drive Recording Type information for my external HDDs I have.
Note #1: No entry for The Drive Recording Type. Blocked by the drive firmware?
Note #2: Shucked 2TB Seagate Expansion Desk

Desktop Computer #1

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . : WDC WD200EDGZ
USB Device Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : easystore 264D
(Note #1)

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . : WDC WD120EMFZ
USB Device Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Elements 25A3
Drive Recording Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : CMR

Desktop Computer #2

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . : ST5000DM000
USB Device Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Expansion Desk
Drive Recording Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SMR

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . : WDC WD60EDAZ
USB Device Name . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . : My Book 25ED
Drive Recording Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SMR

Desktop Computer #3

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . : WDC WD60EZRZ
USB Device Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : My Book 25EE
Drive Recording Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : CMR

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . : ST2000DM001
USB Device Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge (Note #2)
Drive Recording Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SMR

Laptop Computer #1

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . : ST1000LM024
USB Device Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Expansion+
Drive Recording Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : CMR

Click to expand...

MisterEd said:

Good call. I just happen to have Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Family.
With it I can select each drive and select the Information tab for it.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear you solved that problem.

Ghot said:

If you haven't done so already, you might want to call WD and ask about removing the encryption.

Click to expand...

I can try that, thanks for the suggestion.

cheaterslick said:

Oh I have no doubt about that.



I dunno, would something like Hard Disk Sentinel tell you something about those?

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Monitoring hard disk health and temperature. Test and repair HDD problems, predict disk failure.

www.hdsentinel.com

I know there are a lot of detailed settings in there so if you decide to try it, you'll have to dig deep in there to see if that info is there.


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Click to expand...

I believe they made them as a stopgap to increased space until Helium drives were prevalent. Then they started hiding the fact that they were SMR (that most did not want) and of-course because they were cheaper. Make people think they are getting a deal on high capacity when they are also getting much less performance.

IMO The best monitoring tool is CrystalDiskInfo. It can display information in the system tray on each disk. Since SMR drives support TRIM (they behave internally much like an SSD), It would show TRIM as supported feature.

Never rely on just 1 drive. I'd go for something like a mirrored RAID set - so if one fails you've still got the other one. Don't use though RAID 0 for this because if one disk goes you've lost the whole array.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Never rely on just 1 drive. I'd go for something like a mirrored RAID set - so if one fails you've still got the other one. Don't use though RAID 0 for this because if one disk goes you've lost the whole array.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Note that a RAID1 setup is not really backup, it's just possibly more reliable storage medium. If your software removes files, they're gone from both disks. My NAS has mirrored drives, but I consider it a single slightly more reliable drive.

Any hard drive are bound to fail beyond their rated TBW and percentage usage. They don't last a lifetime. My advise is not to mix your media files and documents. Keep them on separate drives. Hard drive used for media files are likely to fail faster because they are subjected to more wear due to continuous read and write when you are streaming/watching/listening.
When you start to hear a clicking sound, that's a sign of a dying hard drive.

badrobot said:

When you start to hear a clicking sound, that's a sign of a dying hard drive.

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When you hear the clicking sound, it's usually too late! Also, SSD's don't make any sounds, they just fail!

gunrunnerjohn said:

When you hear the clicking sound, it's usually too late! Also, SSD's don't make any sounds, they just fail!

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Not necessarily, but a clicking hard drive is a serious warning sign.
Who's talking about SSD?

Here you go.

I had planned to point to Backblaze, but @hdmi beat me to it. Good job!
Thanks,
--Ed--

badrobot said:

Not necessarily, but a clicking hard drive is a serious warning sign.
Who's talking about SSD?

Click to expand...

In case you didn't read the subject of this thread, it states the following.

Suggestions for a dependable storage drive

Last time I looked, an SSD fits the description of a "storage" drive.

Almost universally, when I've had a clicking HDD, it was too late to read anything. The whole point of the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics is to give you advanced warning before that happens.

I would not want to buy a 20 TB SSD with my own money with the insane SSD prices nowadays. *lol*
HDD is way better price / TB and you dont need speed for storage

Meisha said:

Thank you, this is a good suggestion. I don't really went to give WD more business, but if it's dependable, it might the way to go for me.

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Johnny-come-lately here. There is a considerable amount of good, practical advice on this thread already but I thought I might offer my two cent's worth. The old WD Black spinners (mechanical hard drives) had a reputation for durability and longevity. I wouldn't count on it these days. To be fair I have an ancient WD BLACK (Caviar) sitting in a toaster that I'm checking out because it just refuses to die. Why WD no longer seems to make these anymore is anyone's guess but I concur with not giving WD more business. They are simply NOT the company they used to be.

External drives can be dicey. IF you insist on using one I recommend staying in the habit of keeping it turned off until you need it. The USB bridges in these units are generally weak and thermals are a well-known issue. I have a number of external drives that I keep turned off until I need them. They serve as secondary and tertiary back ups. My primary backups are in RAID. My work station runs both RAID 1 and RAID 10. If setting up your own RAID from scratch is not appealing to you then I recommend setting up a NAS. Many of these units can pretty much do all the RAID configuration for you. Having your own NAS is like having your own cloud.

With respect to mechanical hard drives (spinners) I would recommend using CMR hard drives. My personal experience has been that SMR (shingled magnetic recording) is not your best choice for making back ups. CMR generally costs a bit more but tends to last a good deal longer. Toshiba X300's are fairly reliable drives if you aren't in the market for helium filled drives. Seagate Iron Wolf drives are another consideration. I'm currently using all of these (among others) and I've found them to be quite reliable.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Almost universally, when I've had a clicking HDD, it was too late to read anything. The whole point of the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics is to give you advanced warning before that happens.

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I've had considerable success retrieving data from clicking spinners with a "toaster".

Toaster

I suspect the switch to USB interface is the reason for this, but yeah, once that drive starts clicking the idea is to replace it immediately. Software such as Kaspersky Premium will work with SMART to notify the user that there is a problem with the drive before it starts clicking.

gunrunnerjohn said:

In case you didn't read the subject of this thread, it states the following.

Suggestions for a dependable storage drive

Last time I looked, an SSD fits the description of a "storage" drive.

Almost universally, when I've had a clicking HDD, it was too late to read anything. The whole point of the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics is to give you advanced warning before that happens.

Click to expand...

SSD as a storage. Get real.