Recording HDD advice

[Jaggy]

It has come around to time to add "yet more" TB's recording space to our NextPVR server but I am WAY out of date (around ten years now) as to the situation with different HDD manufactures reliability etc. let alone which type (Desktop, NAS, Red, Blue, Black etc.) is the best, most reliable & most cost efficient way to go these days?? Some advice & recommendations would be very very much appreciated.

[pcostanza]

I have a few Blue's in my desktops that I record to as well as all Red's in my NAS and they are and have been working well. Plenty enough speed for me to record multiple recordings at one time.

[psycik]

I use drivebender to create one big pool out of any drives I have lying around. Each folder can be set to duplicated meaning a file is on two drives. They're kept as NTFS so you can pull the drive and add it to a different system - the file structure is weird when you do this, but it's doable. Unlike RAID5 ish, where the underlying data may not be usable if the controller dies.

I used to use Green drives, but have started replacing those as needed with RED or NAS drives. But I haven't has any NAS drives for long enough to know if they're any better than green.

[Graham]

different HDD manufactures reliability etc.

I am also well out of touch ... and I was surprised to read in TechRadar ... "Speaking of brands, there are only three hard disk brands around; Seagate/LaCIE/Samsung, Toshiba, Western Digital/HGST."

The load generated by recording and playback is fairly trivial so just about any disk will do ... My experience has been that I can record fifteen shows at once while a playback is in progress without any symptoms of delay ... If I was where you are, I would buy the cheapest.

[Jaggy]

Thanks guys for your comments.....
(I was hoping for a few more responses from others to see if there was a pattern on what's what these days...but oh well)

This is the list of what I have come up with (NZ$) which was why the original question

Code:

Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s (2 Years RTB Warranty)    $169.99 (3)

Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA3 64MB WD30EZRX (ZC)                    $171.35 (In Stock)

Western Digital WD30EFRX 3TB NAS (red) Drive 64MB (ZC)                        $201.25 (In Stock)



Seagate Barracuda Desktop HDD ST4000DM000 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s OEM            $239.00 (In stock.)

Western Digital WD40EZRX Caviar Green 4TB SATA3 6.0Gb/s 64MB OEM (2 Years RTB Warranty)        $259.00 (4 in stock.)

Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" OEM            $305.00 (In stock.)

[ACTCMS]

For a good few years now, I've been buying Seagate Barracudas - mainly due to price... - but also because they stuck with 7200 RPM...

I've had no problems with them - although I don't have anything over 2TB...

You can go with the brand with the best reputation but it doesn't guarantee that you won't get a duff one...

Alex

[psycik]

I think my last drive was that WD Red 3TB - cos I have a thing about spending more than $200. I have bought a 4tb Green in the past. But I'll slowly go through and replace with Reds as they fail.

[mikeh49]

I have WD Black 500GB and 1TB drives from a few years ago, and have had no problems. In fact, I've never had a drive failure with a WD drive, or the one Seagate I have, for that matter. But, I don't push the envelope on size or early adoption.

[gEd]

(I was hoping for a few more responses from others to see if there was a pattern on what's what these days...but oh well). [/code]

You're not going to establish any statistically meaningful "pattern" from the feedback of ~10 people on this forum. Unless you work for an IT shop or distributor that gets to see all the warranty returns, no one can tell you which are the most reliable drives out there (beyond published MTBF).

I've got 2 x Samsung HDs (1TB + 2TB) that have been running flawlessly for 4+ years but there is bound to be someone here who has had a Samsung drive fail on them and thinks that they are the devils spawn.

you need to consider what capacity you need, price and whether power consumption/heat/noise is a factor to you. The best way to ensure longevity is to keep the disks within operating temps so if you have a small case with restricted airflow, definitely consider a lower powered 5400rpm "green" drive. It seems that the speed of disks is a virtual non-issue for tv recordings as others have commented. Typically the largest capacity drives carry the highest premium so unless you desperately need 4+TB, you usually get a better GB/$ ratio of the 2nd or 3rd highest capacity drives (as can be seen from your prices above (or below if like me you have dicked around with your forum settings to show the most recent posts first) ).

[Jaggy]

You're not going to establish any statistically meaningful "pattern" from the feedback of ~10 people on this forum. Unless you work for an IT shop or distributor that gets to see all the warranty returns, no one can tell you which are the most reliable drives out there (beyond published MTBF).

I was never expecting a hard & fast reliable result.....BUT as we are all doing the same thing with our recording drives if any particular make was failing for not all that old drives it would be nice to know.... waaaaay back in the past when I ran my computer repair business it became very obvious, even with the small number (relative) of PC's I serviced, that Maxtor drives were a thing to avoid at the time.... I do remember a number of years back then I went for one of the "add more TB" server upgrades that Seagate drives were to be avoided at that time (I have always had a good run from Seagate drives over the years) therefore (after a bad experience with an early 1TB WD green that would keep going on a "go slow" & making the NMT re-boot...even though that same drive has been working OK (apart from the slow down) in my using PC for years) I ended up with two 2TB WD Black drives that have been working great, but they were damn expensive at the time...

I've got 2 x Samsung HDs (1TB + 2TB) that have been running flawlessly for 4+ years but there is bound to be someone here who has had a Samsung drive fail on them and thinks that they are the devils spawn.

Again I never had any real problems with Samsung drives in the past

you need to consider what capacity you need, price and whether power consumption/heat/noise is a factor to you. The best way to ensure longevity is to keep the disks within operating temps so if you have a small case with restricted airflow, definitely consider a lower powered 5400rpm "green" drive.

Capacity wise I could struggle with a 3TB added to the 6TB that is already there... noise is no factor (refer photo attached of the current server is it has been for years <grin>)

It seems that the speed of disks is a virtual non-issue for tv recordings as others have commented. Typically the largest capacity drives carry the highest premium so unless you desperately need 4+TB, you usually get a better GB/$ ratio of the 2nd or 3rd highest capacity drives (as can be seen from your prices above (or below if like me you have dicked around with your forum settings to show the most recent posts first) ).

Agree re: high premium for size but the 4TB Seagate is within my price range & should give some years capacity before I need to think about adding more