3.5" HDD recommendations?

[Asphodelus]

I haven't bought a HDD since 2013, so I'm very out of the loop... What's the price/capacity sweet spot now? How do the various brands/model lines measure up these days? Are there any specific recommendations for a data drive?

 

[Elixer]

Well, HGST or WD or Toshiba are the current favorites. Seagate can be OK, however, their warranty is pretty bad, it starts when they make the drives, not when you bought them.

How big of a HD do you actually need? What is your current size, and how full is it?

Also, you may want to read https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-benchmark-stats-2016/ to get a overall picture of drives.

 

[Asphodelus]

My current (slowly dying) 3 TB drive is about 2/3rds full. I figure if I have to get a new HDD anyway, I might as well get an upgrade while I'm at it, even if I don't necessarily need the extra space immediately.

 

[manly]

IIRC Backblaze's big data sets show there are certain generations of drives that are terrible, but the brands are mostly comparable lately (HGST might be a little better than the rest).

I work for an ISP, and we have Seagate desktop drives dying all the time. I wouldn't buy one personally, even though you have to trust Backblaze's analysis.

Walmart.com had a Toshiba 6 TB drive at a great price point 5 months ago. Not sure if the deal is still around though. I just did a quick search (Toshiba X300) and looks like they've marked it back up by now.

Is this all data that you don't care too much about if the drive dies? If it's even mildly valuable, then you should consider some type of redundancy.

 

[Asphodelus]

The data on this drive is backed up regularly, and on top of that, all of it is "public" data which can be downloaded again if necessary. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this leisurely discussion right now while that data continues to degrade

 

[jkauff]

If this is just a data drive, you might consider WD Blue. Except for the 1TB model, they're basically re-branded WD Green drives. I'm still using Green drives that I've had for as long as 6 years and never had one fail.

 

[jimbob200521]

HGST /thread

Seriously though, when I bought new HD's for my server, I wanted something that could be on 24/7 and a brand that I trusted with great reviews. I settled on HGST and haven't looked back since. I personally also like WD drives and I keep hearing good things about Toshiba drives, although I've never personally had one. I also read a lot and have seen a fair amount of Seagate drives fail, idk what it is but I have a bad feeling about them so I steer clear.

As far as size, 4tb seems to be a pretty good place to start with prices going up a good amount from there.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Also gonna say I've had great success with the HGST Drives, and highly recommend them. After losing 12 or so Seagate 3TB units, their new ones in different capacities are doing much better, but it's left a bad taste in my mouth.