4TB hard drives as safe as 2 and 3TB these days??

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Astaroth, Sep 29, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Astaroth

    Astaroth Active Member Thread Starter

    I used to hear that 4tb hard drives crashed a lot in the beginning when they were introduced but I am curious to know if they are as stable as the 2 and 3TB models. I am thinking specifically of Westgate, from BEst Buy. thanks
     
  2. roughdiamondnickel

    roughdiamondnickel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    I think you mean Seagate. 4 TB hard drives are fine nowadays. And it was actually 3 TB hard drives that were prone to crashing.
     
  3. PearlJamNoCode

    PearlJamNoCode Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia
    Sounds like you're combining Seagate and Western Digital.

    I have had many Western Digital drives and never had a problem.
     
  4. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    They go in cycles. Some years WD are like gold, and Segate is problematic. Some other years you will get the opposite. The sad fact is that there is no one brand that one can rely-on to get a consistently reliable HD.
     
  5. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    I just put 8 4TB drives in my new NAS. As the drives get bigger and bigger, I think there is logic in buying the higher grade drives (WD Red and the like)
     
    Robert van Diggele likes this.
  6. ElvisCaprice

    ElvisCaprice Forum Resident

    Location:
    Jaco, Costa Rica
    Just buy the biggest cheapest ones available and back up. Most failures are because of accidental bumping when running.
     
  7. 56GoldTop

    56GoldTop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nowhere, Ok
    Multiple thousands of revolutions per minute...??

    HAVE BACKUP, WILL TRAVEL.
     
  8. The Pinhead

    The Pinhead KING OF BOOM AND SIZZLE IN HELL

    I wonder if the posters on this forum with tube amps has already outnumbered the ones with SS.
     
  9. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    I use a 4TB Western Digital drive, no issues at all.
     
  10. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    As others have noted, multiple backups are the best insurance.

    As drives get larger and larger, a nice side effect is that smaller drives get cheaper, so it can be relatively cost effective to have a number of redundant backups.
     
  11. Mike-48

    Mike-48 A shadow of my former self

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    I agree that backup is important. I also run large drives in a RAID configuration. For a more objective look at reliability, here is an informal study. I would think that the manufacturer and handling of the drive are more important than the size. For that reason, I buy only from places that will pack the drives well before shipping.

    Hard Drive Reviews: Update on 2015 Hard Drive Reliability »
     
  12. BrewDrinkRepeat

    BrewDrinkRepeat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merchantville NJ
    I just upgraded my audio drives to three WD 4TB MyBook drives. One is the nightly backup, and the other is the offsite backup that I keep here at work (which also means I get my entire collection with me here, too!). I would never go without two separate backups (one of the off-site, whether that is a HD or a cloud-based solution) regardless of the size, brand or the perceived quality level of the drives.

    Backblaze publishes all of their HD failure data, if you're interested. (I didn't bother, I've never had any trouble with WD so I just went with them again as the price was right, $120/drive on Amazon with free same-day delivery.)
    What We've Learned from Running 61,590 Hard Drives in Our Data Center »
     
  13. joannenugent

    joannenugent Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast USA
    As far as I know everything up to 6TB is about the same now. Larger drives, 8TB and above, are gas filled and sealed. New tecnology is all, so not sure yet how these larger drives will be hold up with time.
     
  14. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    I just assume none are safe, do regular backups, and buy whatever is on sale. So far that's worked well for me.
     
    Doug_B, Juan Matus and readingm like this.
  15. readingm

    readingm Senior Member

    Location:
    Redwood City, CA
    I'm with Sid Hartha. 2 backups (one offsite) and let the chips fall where they may.
     
  16. Majestyk

    Majestyk Rush Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I don't think there's ever been a good year for Segate.
     
    JohnO and ls35a like this.
  17. Juan Matus

    Juan Matus Reformed Audiophile

    There are only two types of hard drives those that have failed and those that are going to fail.

    All you can do is plan accordingly. Which you have. I give the same advice to people
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2016
    JohnO likes this.
  18. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    For 25+ years working on computers and using them at home still waiting one failed on me. I guess things are not that bad after all.
    One of them died actually when I dropped a laptop on concrete floor.
     
  19. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    I probably owned hundreds and had a handful die. I had a bunch of IBM GXP75's years ago and they failed at about an 80% clip over a couple years. It's not that they die that often but if you are not prepared for it, it can be devasting.
     
  20. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    The backup is a must regardless of our experiences. No need to be paranoid though.
     
  21. Jerjo

    Jerjo Forum Resident

    I've had both WD and Seagate fail. Waiting for the next time I'm flush to buy a handful. This time one goes in a safety deposit box.
     
  22. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    The Backblaze data is interesting and maybe you can get some very general overviews. But their statistical analysis is amateur and wrong. For just one example, they have one chart there showing over 200% annual failure rate for certain drives. That's quite a trick. I know what they meant - but they don't.
    Overall it looks like the 3tbs were problematic for every manufacturer and the 4tbs are better, overall.
    If, for example, you buy two 4tbs, one to backup the other, for individual use, don't buy the same model at the same time from the same place. If you do, they will probably be from the same batch. They could fail around the same time for a similar reason. You want two different batches, even for the same brand and model drive. Buy from two different places, or buy one, then wait a month before buying another.
    For now I have my offline archived stuff on three plain current WD 4tb externals for convenience, but always fully backed up on Hitachi/HGST 2tb used server grade raw drives, and even double backed up on those and other random old drives.
    I trust a proven used Hitachi 2tb out of a server, even though it was continuously powered on for 3 years, more than I trust anything sold new at retail. But they are not convenient, and very noisy.
     
  23. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I has a wd go bad in my NAS one time. Plug and play replacement. But I have everything backed up. I gave two separate music libraries. One dies, I can replace it pretty easily. But I do not have offsite storage but I'm ok with that.
     
  24. cyclistsb

    cyclistsb Forum Resident

    If you have the ability, backing up to Azure blob storage is fairly easy with the newer NAS software packages. The initial backup can take a week or two but then the incremental safe fairly quick if your media doesn't change that often.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine