Hard drive recommendations

[Lao Pan]

Thanks Lao. I was looking at those already. Do you know what's the difference between these 2 (apart from £7)?

WD 2TB Green Desktop Drive WD20EARX £75
WD 2TB Green Desktop Hard Drive WD20EZRX £82

Your links point to the same one but I had seen the two you meant

There is a difference - the cheaper one is the EARX model - the more expensive one is the EZRX the differences appear to be that the EARX transfer rate is 110mb/sec whereas the EZRX is 123mb/sec (for an additional 2.2 watts on idle)

[imilne]

I have a few of the Samsung F4 2tb drives (6 I think) and I like them for their quietness and (dare I mention it) reliability. They seem to have been subsumed into Seagate nowadays though (or was it WD?).
I keep looking, but never see them for sale any more.

They were £52 each when I got them in Jan 2011 (I think). Sigh...

Iain

[McBainUK]

Your links point to the same one but I had seen the two you meant

Damn copy and paste :|

There is a difference - the cheaper one is the EARX model - the more expensive one is the EZRX the differences appear to be that the EARX transfer rate is 110mb/sec whereas the EZRX is 123mb/sec (for an additional 2.2 watts on idle)

For a HTPC I would think lower watts is better than a marginal transfer rate increase, right?

[imilne]

For a HTPC I would think lower watts is better than a marginal transfer rate increase, right?

Definitely. Even a laptop drive is more than capable. It's just a shame they don't have the capacity.

Iain

[McBainUK]

Well I bought a WD 2TB Green WD20EARX. Fitted it. Now the PC freezes after resume from standby. Grr Any suggestions on where to start fixing it?

[imilne]

I'd start by taking it back out and confirming it is the cause.

Then it'd be event manager, hdd power profiles, firmware updates, different SATA port, etc...

Or just send it back

Iain

[Lao Pan]

Just a quick thought - What OS are you using - XP has problems formatting modern drives correctly (4k offset) needs to be Vista or later.

[McBainUK]

I'm using Windows 7.

Tonight I will be following imiline's suggestions, starting with hdd power profiles. Havn't looked at it yet because I quickly took the drive out as it caused Mrs McBainUK to miss Strictly Come Dancing!! :eek:

[Lao Pan]

Tonight I will be following imiline's suggestions, starting with hdd power profiles. Havn't looked at it yet because I quickly took the drive out as it caused Mrs McBainUK to miss Strictly Come Dancing!! :eek:

She must be very forgiving - you can still type

I did have to RMA a Samsung 1TB drive (one of a pair) - It would go to sleep and then take 5 mins to spin up - all the while the computer would be frozen - replaced it with a WD - Its twin is still going fine 3 years down the line as the Recordings Drive - Sometimes they're just broke