Opinions on HDD Reliability

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Archive 2009 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

molson
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p.1 #1 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

I've been using a number of Western Digital 500GB and 1TB "MyBook" external hard drives for my primary file backups. I periodically rotate then so everything is kept on more than one drive and a redundant copy is stored in a separate location. However, I have had two of the 1TB drives fail within the past week, so I think it's time to look at a different system.

I'm leaning towards a DROBO but I am undecided on what brand of SATA HDD I should install in the box. Any opinions on which brand is the most reliable? I think I have just about ruled out WD at this point...

(Just a heads-up, if anyone is using WD MyBook storage devices, check to see that the power actually shuts off when you push the power button. On mine, the disk drive and the fan shut off, but not the power supply, which overheated and cooked the HDD - luckily they didn't melt or catch fire)

Jul 11, 2009 at 02:42 PM

spanishbayonet
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p.1 #2 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

I am by far not an expert, but after some reading, and the unit staying on, I found the only reliable way to shut it down was to use the raid shut down symbol on the lower tool bar. That is always reliable. The power button never worked every time.

Jul 11, 2009 at 05:11 PM

colinm
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p.1 #3 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

At this point I'm a Hitachi backer. They're moving and shaking, and both Seagate and WD have had an uninspiring chain of missteps recently.

They're also making drives considerably quieter and cooler than just about any WD (which isn't hard given WD's history of noise).

Jul 11, 2009 at 06:01 PM

molson
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p.1 #4 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

spanishbayonet wrote:
I am by far not an expert, but after some reading, and the unit staying on, I found the only reliable way to shut it down was to use the raid shut down symbol on the lower tool bar. That is always reliable. The power button never worked every time.

I don't have a toolbar or software installed for this drive (I'm using a Mac). I can eject it from the desktop, but in order to shut it down completely, the only method that works is to disconnect the power cord and the firewire cable (it draws enough power through the firewire to keep going even when the power supply is disconnected!).

Jul 11, 2009 at 10:06 PM

Steady Hand
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p.1 #5 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

Hi,

Thank you for posting your experience with those drives. I was considering purchase of a few in a few months.

I have had similar issues with hard drive failures.

I have loaded up a desktop box with drives. Drives died over time.

I have added a large external Firewire 800 box (with multiple removable HD Trays) and it failed numerous times...to the point I put it on a shelf and don't use it anymore.

I have a "farm" of external enclosures (my current preference) that are identical so I can easily swap the enclosures and just keep one or two power adapters (bricks) on power (and then have redundant power bricks in storage).

One thing I will always do (and recommend) is buy a nice UPS and have the externals plugged into that at all times (when they are used).

I also UNPLUG the externals I am not currently using, even if they are on the desktop.

While the issue of HD reliability comes up every few months and the brands are bashed about, I have gotten to the point where I don't trust ANY of them.

Good luck.

Jul 12, 2009 at 11:05 PM

Photon
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p.1 #6 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

Steady Hand wrote:
...

While the issue of HD reliability comes up every few months and the brands are bashed about, I have gotten to the point where I don't trust ANY of them.

Good luck.
+1 to all of your ideas.

I think it's a good idea to not trust any HD. The only reasonable solution, as far as I can see, is to have any important data on at least three physically separate drives, or two drives and two copies of optical media (if you can afford the time and media to create DVDs).

I had a series of failures of (Maxtor, as it happens) external HDs several years ago. Yet recently, with capacities (and therefore density) much greater, I haven't had any problems with drives, including some terabyte drives. It's all a matter of chance, and redundancy is good! Raid can be nice insurance against loss of what you are currently working on (such as derivative files that will not be backed up until you finish the editing), but is not much use as back up.

Jul 13, 2009 at 04:03 PM

TermV
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p.1 #7 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

I use a ReadyNAS Duo for backups. ReadyNAS devices have similar expansion capabilities as the DRobo, although it's network storage as opposed to locally connected storage. My ReadyNAS is set up with 2 mirrored hard drives from different manufacturers to prevent the chances of having two drives from the same lot die at the same time. I have backup software that automatically syncs any work up to the device in the background.

Network attached storage is pretty slow but it's nice to have the ability to sync up your workstation, laptop, etc. without unplugging things all the time.

Jul 13, 2009 at 05:09 PM

nathanlake
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p.1 #8 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

All harddrives fail eventually and for the most part the differences in life expectancy are not worth considering. Rather than worry about it, you need to set up a RAID 5 NAS box. Not only is it more secure, but it is much less work than rotating drives.

The key characteristic of RAID 5 is that any one drive can fail and you don't lose anything. I use the Promise NS4300N NAS box. It filled it with four-1Tb drives. That gives you about 2Tb of storage. All data is saved on two different drives. If one drive fails, the NAS box alerts you. You can then pull that drive out, replace it with another, and the NAS device will rebuild the dirive as it was before it failed. The chances of two dirves failing exactly at the same time is remote. A pretty safe system.

I don't use this for backup. The NAS box is my primary storage. I back up to DVD and/or other harddives which I have in the computer. When they are full, I pull them out and store them offsite.

Some motherboards have RAID controllers built in and you can set up a RAID array with internal harddivers.

Jul 13, 2009 at 09:05 PM

Brit-007
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p.1 #9 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

I have been using the DROBO 2nd. Generation using firewire and the WB 1TB drives for over a year now. I have had no problems with it as well. It is similar to Raid 5 in that it withstand a drive failure with no loss of data. Yes, I think it is expensive but has similar properties to the Nas. You can get a network adapter to run as a Nas but really if it is connected then there is no problems. It is proprietry which has drawbacks but does have some advantages. If you have a failure then there is a good chance that DROBO might be able to recover data which would be impossible on a Raid 5 Nas with two drive failures.

For complete protection then there is the off site backup plan which needs to be considered.

Jul 13, 2009 at 09:44 PM

oobie
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p.1 #10 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

I keep two mirrored 1.5 tb seagate external HD's. I just had one fail on me last week. I bought another and had everything copied to it in a couple of days. I lost 2 shoots but that was my fault.

I looked at the dobro options, but it was a bit spendy. What I do now is sufficient.

Jul 14, 2009 at 01:47 AM

figmented
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p.1 #11 · Opinions on HDD Reliability

buffalo teralink ftw

Jul 15, 2009 at 06:36 AM

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