Recommended bare HDD

**p38arover** · 25th December 2012, 11:06 AM

My Seagate Barracuda 320GB boot HDD has failed after about 5 years and I need a replacement. I'll probably use the replacement for data as I've already reused one of my 500GB data HDDs to be the new boot drive.

I'm not sure whether to go 1, 2, or 3TB - the bigger they are, the more data I can lose.

Anyone have any recommendations for a replacement - both brand, model, and size?

I'm thinking of moving the 500MB internal HDD I use for data to my external NAS device and reconfiguring it to a 2-drive RAID system. The NAS currently has a single 500MB HDD and backs up pics and data. The problem with it is that it's a Cisco LinkSys NMH405 MediaHub Linksys NMH405 Media Hub Review - Computer Storage with an awful user interface. At least I got it new for under $200.

I also have an external 1TB (for data) and an external 2TB drive (for backup).

For backup, I have NovaStor NovaBackup software so I hope I can use it to replace the LinkSys software.

**clubagreenie** · 25th December 2012, 03:46 PM

Go to anything enterprise/server based. I had a 3tb (and full) seagate fail after 6 months, friend has had 5 fail (incl wty replacements) in the last year. Seagate starting to get a bad name. WD has a new range, and the prices aren't too bad.

MSY has the seagate 3tb constellation for $249 by memory.

**p38arover** · 25th December 2012, 03:52 PM

I assume you mean that I should buy something aimed at server use rather than home (light duty) use?

I hadn't heard of MSY but I've had a look at their website and their prices seem very good.

**Debacle** · 25th December 2012, 05:39 PM

Don't buy a 3tb drive unless you have a fairly new motherboard that will recognise the full capacity.

Otherwise you will only get 2tb usable space.

**manchild21000** · 25th December 2012, 05:40 PM

Try solid state , i went that way with our laptops and pc-s. Cost a bit more but no more failures and its faster .
George

**p38arover** · 25th December 2012, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by Debacle

Don't buy a 3tb drive unless you have a fairly new motherboard that will recognise the full capacity.

Otherwise you will only get 2tb usable space.

Hmm. Thanks for that. My mobo is about 5 years old Gigabyte 965P-DS3 so I don't know what it will recognise. The board handbook doesn't say. I might need a BIOS update.

Maybe that's why Seagate provide software to access 3TB.

Originally Posted by manchild21000

Try solid state , i went that way with our laptops and pc-s. Cost a bit more but no more failures and its faster .
George

I hadn't considered solid state owing to the $/GB cost

mikehzz · 25th December 2012, 09:21 PM

SSD for the boot drive for speed. The enterprise drives are WD Caviar Black or Hitachi Ultrastar. Both have 5 year warranty and are normal SATA drives. It's hard to have faith in any brand of drive these days. Seagate has dropped to near the bottom of the list. I've replaced 3 in servers in the last few months that weren't even a year old, and they were SAS SATA 15K enterprise drives. The warranty guys reckon they can't keep up.
PS If an SSD fails it drops without much warning so better for system than data.

**Eevo** · 27th December 2012, 01:54 PM

i'll post up what i have for ideas.

256gb ocz ssd pcie card as my boot drive (OS & apps)
2x 3tB hitachi drives for media storage
1x 2tb seagate drive for media storage

128gb ocz ssd drive, currently unused.

4x 2tb usb drives which i use for monthly backups

i also have a nas but they are over rated and i dont really use it.
has 4 drives in it, total about 3tB

remember raid is not a backup
neither is a nas.

**turkeybrain** · 27th December 2012, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by Eevo

remember raid is not a backup
neither is a nas.

While I agree it's not a proper backup, a RAID 1 array has saved all of my data on at least 3 occasions!

On a related note, I'd avoid Samsung drives...

Also, the 965P-DS3 supports 2 TB drives, but I'd be doubtful about 3 TB ones. My folks have the same motherboard and it was happy to accept a new 2 TB after a hdd failure.

-Martin

**p38arover** · 27th December 2012, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by Eevo

remember raid is not a backup
neither is a nas.

My NovaStor backup software does an incremental back up daily to my NAS. The native NAS software also grabs any new or modified files for which I have included the file extension in a parameters file. I edited the default LinkSys file as it didn't back up files I wanted, e.g. my camera RAW files.

I only use the NAS for backup.

I might change the way I do it, i.e., leave the NAS to do its backups and use the external 3TB drive with NovaBackup for the main backup of the whole computer. Best I go and find the thread on incremental vs. differential backups.

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