Question Best HDD for data recovery, reliability and perfomance

[sabertoothgx]

Read claims from 13 years ago re4 dies within 7 seconds while wd black blue and red and green try to recover bad sectors

I also read other claims we gold is fastest and best and most reliable and long term, which seemed more recent.

So as a home user who cares about their files, longevity and performance, which HDD is going to suit me the best?

This thread is not about SSDs.

 

[USAFRet]

"Data recovery" relies on YOU mainlining a good backup routine.

Any and all storage devices may die. Sometimes, with zero warning.

 

[LuKaWin10]

"Data recovery" relies on YOU mainlining a good backup routine.

Any and all storage devices may die. Sometimes, with zero warning.

Yo you have any suggestions what HDD do I get? I need a decent HDD for storage so I can save ISOs and other stuff (*****)

 

[USAFRet]

Yo you have any suggestions what HDD do I get? I need a decent HDD for storage so I can save ISOs and other stuff and >Mod Edit>...

Given reliability reports from BackBlaze, except for one or two outliers...there isn't a whole lot of difference between brands and models.

Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2024

Read the latest annualized failure rates for the Backblaze drive fleet.

www.backblaze.com

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/hard-drive-test-data

 

[sabertoothgx]

"Data recovery" relies on YOU mainlining a good backup routine.

Any and all storage devices may die. Sometimes, with zero warning.

Too much wasted time. Can't have a routine for everything. Besides I work on the files several times a week. Even if I back them up once every week both the external storage and the internal can die. And the more I replace and update them the more the drives get worn out. My external HDD died already only after 2-4 years. I have internal HDDs working from 7+ years.
So any drive could suddenly die
But not every drive would suddenly die
Therefore use ones who have better chance to last long
And better chance to recover data.

 

[USAFRet]

Too much wasted time. Can't have a routine for everything. Besides I work on the files several times a week. Even if I back them up once every week both the external storage and the internal can die. And the more I replace and update them the more the drives get worn out. My external HDD died already only after 2-4 years. I have internal HDDs working from 7+ years.
So any drive could suddenly die
But not every drive would suddenly die
Therefore use ones who have better chance to last long
And better chance to recover data.

My 100% backup routine takes exactly 0% of my personal time.

Macrium Reflect, full drive Images, saved nightly to my NAS.

Yes, I have had to use that to recover from a fully dead drive.


I have drives that are over a decade old. Others, died at 5 weeks (WD), or 7 months(Toshiba Enterprise), or 3 years(SanDisk SSD).
In each case, the backup routine safeguarded the data.

 

[LuKaWin10]

Given reliability reports from BackBlaze, except for one or two outliers...there isn't a whole lot of difference between brands and models.

Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2024

Read the latest annualized failure rates for the Backblaze drive fleet.

www.backblaze.com

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/hard-drive-test-data

Thanks lol

 

[Lafong]

Therefore use ones who have better chance to last long

I doubt if you can find accurate and statistically valid info on which drives are more likely to last a long time.

The Backblaze studies include only a relatively few models and are not representative of the typical choices currently available.

You can find all kinds of anecdotes about brand/model XYZ and attach credibility to them as you see fit.

 

[USAFRet]

You can find all kinds of anecdotes about brand/model XYZ and attach credibility to them as you see fit.

"My WD drive died at only 5 weeks old! It went from seemingly perfect, to dead in about 36 hours! Avoid WD drives."
"My 7 month old Toshiba Enterprise went from 0 to 14k+ bad sectors in a week! Never buying Toshiba again!"
"My Sandisk SSD died instantly. No idea why. Zero possibility of data recovery! Avoid at all costs!!"

3 major brands.

Those 3 are my personal experience.
In each case, a good backup safeguarded the data.

 

[sabertoothgx]

My 100% backup routine takes exactly 0% of my personal time.

Macrium Reflect, full drive Images, saved nightly to my NAS.

Yes, I have had to use that to recover from a fully dead drive.


I have drives that are over a decade old. Others, died at 5 weeks (WD), or 7 months(Toshiba Enterprise), or 3 years(SanDisk SSD).
In each case, the backup routine safeguarded the data.

This sounds promising, I didn't know about it.

but adds to the cost. From buying HDDs, now to NAS + subscription. Now to ponder...

 

[USAFRet]

This sounds promising, I didn't know about it.

but adds to the cost. From buying HDDs, now to NAS + subscription. Now to ponder...

The "NAS" could be just an external drive or two.

Bottom line, you NEED/REQUIRE data on more than a single drive.

We as humans have not yet designed and built a storage device that will "never fail". So, prepare for that.

Cost? How much is your personal data worth?
Some of mine is literally irreplaceable /priceless.

 

[Misgar]

Read claims from 13 years ago re4 dies within 7 seconds while wd black blue and red and green try to recover bad sectors

Enterprise drives designed for use in certain RAID scenarios may contain firmware which rapidly passes "faults" on to the hardware RAID controller or software RAID application, instead of spending several miutes/hours attempting the "repair" the disk, as on a consumer level drive.

After a few seconds, the RAID controller can disconnect the suspect drive from the array, mark it as bad and rebuild the array from a hot spare, rather than spending ages waiting for the drive to finish its own error checking, with the risk of more sectors going bad in the mean time.

None of this applies if you're running individual drives in a home PC. You choose the drive to fit the application.

 

[faalin]

My go to spindle drive is #1 Western Digital Red Pro drives and #2 Seagate Ironwolf drives. I have Red Pro dries in my computer and 2 servers at home, and Ironwolf's in my NVR

Ive had a few WD blues go bad over the years, started ticking but was able to recover before they died. Had an Intel SSD just up and die out of nowhere before.

We run a paid version of Veeam backup at work, while i run the free version at home. Incremental backups every night rolling into fulls every Sunday night. other then the setup or adding a folder/drive to the backup i dont have to touch it. I keep 2 weeks of backups before they start to rollover.

Also since my brother and i have unlimited internet, we keep external backups at each others houses. My backups will backup to his house and a copy of his backups are at my house.