Best large capacity hard drive

[Cynical_Sarcasm]

I am looking at getting a new high capacity hard disk to store all my steam games. Currently I have them spread over two 4TB drives and don't have them all downloaded offline. Due to the number of games (378 games and 5 pieces of software), I am thinking of getting a 10TB+ drive and am looking advice on which one to get.

 

[Tanyac]

Brands of hard drives is a personal choice. Some people swear by one brand and others swear another brand is best.

Having said that, desktop drives (at least in Seagate's case) - Before the release of their pro version - had a habit of failing well before the warranty period. So Seagate lowered the warranty period.

I would go for a NAS drive (These are designed to run 24/7), if you go for Seagate, or WD-RED for western digital. Other brands I haven't used much as they are either to expensive in terms of cost/TB or had a bad reputation at the time.

I have a 10TB Seagate, and it's been fine, but it's only 6 months old. At the time it was on special for <$50 per TB (That's AUD)

 

[seagate_surfer]

As far as our options go, your best bets are:

Single drive:

BarraCuda Pro (either 10 or 12TB model) - 7200 RPM, up to 300TB per year workload rating, 24x7 use, 5 year warranty, 2 free years of rescue services

Multiple Drives/RAID (either 10 or 12TB models):

IronWolf - in those capacities, 7200 RPM, hardware RV sensors, 180TB per year workload rating, 24x7 use, 3 year warranty. 1-8 drive systems.

IronWolf Pro - 7200 RPM, hardware RV sensors, 300TB per year workload rating, 24x7 use, 5 year warranty, 2 free years of rescue services, 1-16 drive systems.

The IronWolf is not your best bet for a single drive because it's firmware (AgileArray) is engineered to work best in RAID, and there is one particular feature called error recovery control that is great for RAID use, but can be a ah heck as a single drive. This feature is pretty standard on NAS drives. Basically, your standard grade desktop drive, when encountering an error, will aggressively try for a long time (if needed) to correct the error so that they don't pile up on the drive. A NAS drive like the IronWolf, on the other hand, will limit the amount of time it spends trying to correct the error, the idea being that the controller can give it the short hook, say "Hey guy, you're taking too much time with that, give it up." and slip that particular data to another drive in the array. Good for NAS performance snappiness. However, as a single drive in a desktop system, it can cause errors to add up quicker than is ideal.


TL;DR:
Single drive - BarraCuda Pro is your friend. RAID - IronWolf or IronWolf Pro and Bob's your uncle.

 

[mundial]

I would also recommend WD RED.

HGST NAS drives is also a reliable choice.

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/nas-desktop-drive-kit