Suggestions for a replacement drive

[Stux]

True, though the WD Red Pro isn't as warm as the Seagate NAS drives I have.

Is it helium filled?

 

[danb35]

Is it helium filled?

I don't believe so; there are no markings suggesting this is the case.

 

[joeschmuck]

I don't believe so; there are no markings suggesting this is the case.

Pop the top and take a good sniff, let us know the results ;)

And I guess prices varry quite a bit around the world, just crazy. But if I could save $20+ per drive, I'd consider the IronWolf. I'm looking at replacing my six 2TB drives with maybe three 6TB mirrored drives. I talk myself in and out of different configurations all the time. All I know for certain is I desire ~6TB of space (current size is 5.7TB and I'm at 3TB Available still) and I want to reduce it down from six hard drives to 3 or 4 drives, with 3 being the real goal.

 

[andrewjs18]

I'm only using HGST drives in my FreeNas box at the moment (I'll likely be using a few WD Green drives for less important data in the near future) and I've been very happy with them.

 

[Evertb1]

and use the old disks as backup ones? Other ideas?

I am a bit strict on backups but I would never use old drives for backup purposes. I would rather put them in a less important system. And yes I consider my backup box ( a NAS with WD red drives) to be important. I don't have the enormous amounts of data some of the members deal with. Though I am working at an Rsync solution for local backups, at the moment my backups are depending on jobs running from my Windows work station. I use Genie timeline for local and cloud backups. My local backups go to my backup box and for my off-site I have a cloud solution. Maybe a bit of an unusual one but it's working good for me (so far).

I have a Microsoft Office 365 account that is costing me around 85 euro a year. This account offers me 5 separate users. Each user is entitled for 1 TB OneDrive storage. I use two products from StableBit to make good use of that storage. One product called StableBit CloudDrive makes a virtual local drive out of your Cloud storage (most of the major Cloud providers are supported by this product). Your system will see it as a real drive. The product offers encryption and other nice features. I must admit that my first backup (around 600 GB) took some time (less then expected) but maintenance on the backups is a breeze. If I am short on space on my CloudDrive no worries. With StableBit DrivePool I can combine more CloudDrives in one pool. And I have the bonus of redundancy -on folder level even- if I want to.

 

[NASbox]

I'm a big fan of the WD Reds... been running a set of 4x6TB for just over 2 years and they have been great... fast, cool and quiet. I just bought an 8TB WD Red and it has been running badblocks for a couple of weeks... also very cool and quiet. (Even the "non-pro" Reds are He filled.

I haven't tried the new Iron Wolf drives, but I'm not a big fan of the older Seagate drives-quailty control just isn't as good IMHO.

 

[farmerpling2]

The disk analysis spreadsheet gives you some general ideas on what to choose. The power usage is usually minor in the big picture, IMHO.

If prices are somewhat close (i.e. 10% - 20%) I would go enterprise. Sometime the enterprise are faster and use less power... Enterprise a usually made of better technology / materials. They usually have 5 year warranties rather than consumer/commercial 3 year warranties. Manufacturers are not going to increase warranties unless it makes fiduciary sense.

I tend to believe in averaging possible failures, when possible. This could be averaging based upon year of vendor, lots, RPM, etc.

If I wanted to have 8 drives, I would like to have 8 drives that are:

• Each made 6 months a part
• From 2 or more different manufacturers
• From different lots
• Mixture of the above

The goal is not to have a lot of failures because of some defect that affects a large number of drives at roughly the same time.

I have seen a "specific lot" of drives from a manufacturer suddenly start failing at around the same time (e.g 2 years later) because of a manufacturing defect.

IMHO, It is better to buy a drive that is one generation older than the newest drive with an extra 20% more storage for same money. Example: That new drive has not had many hours of run-time to see what failures might occur because they are using a new alloy for the armature than the old drive. The new drive armature is more brittle and will fail after 600,000 armature movements.

 

[farmerpling2]

(Even the "non-pro" Reds are He filled.

I have not heard of this. (Not that means anything). Can you provide some documentation where is says which drives have He?

In my experience the manufacturers call out which have He as a big benefit and sales tool.

 

[Ericloewe]

Even the "non-pro" Reds are He filled

Only the extreme capacities.

 

[NASbox]

Only the extreme capacities.

I believe you are right... Certainly the 8TB does.... my 2.5 year old 6TB drives are NOT. I don't know if that's changed or not.

 

[farmerpling2]

I have not heard of this. (Not that means anything). Can you provide some documentation where is says which drives have He?

I did some digging around ad came across this article. The manufactures are not calling it out that much, for some reason...

A quick way to tell if the drive is possibly helium filled is ti look for any round "stickers" on the top of the drive. Helium filled drives should be a flat piece of metal. Non-helium will have 1 or more stickers on he top.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/western-digital-helium-8tb,31305.html


Internal Hard Drives Using HELIUM

WD Purple – Engineered for 24/7, always-on, high-definition surveillance security systems that use up to eight hard drives and up to 32 cameras.

WD Red – Optimized for personal, home and small business NAS (network attached storage) systems.

WD Red Pro – Optimized for small business and enterprise class NAS systems with high performance and reliability.