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Question HDD vs SSD on External Enclosure

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bagusa4

Mar 16, 2023
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Dear TomsHardware Community
I'm new in here so hallo.

I would like to ask some questions, i have 2.5 inch orico sata enclosure I would like to put storage in it.

But I have questions about durability for the data, some people say HDD more durable some statistics like Blackblaze say SSD more durable so I confused.

I have options on my budget that,
  1. Seagate Barracuda 2.5 1TB 7200 RPM 128MB cache
  2. WD Black Scorpio 2.5 1TB 7200 RPM
  3. TeamGroup Cx2/Ex2, Dramless"No Dram Cache", SLC Caching, Wear leveling, 3DNand, and 800TBW
  4. Another options ?
Which one should I buy ? My use is for storing data, and some edit video, or watch video in it.

Thanks :)
 
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Mechanical drives are rather fragile.
If you accidentally drop your external mechanical drive, it gets damaged for sure. Either dead instantly or becomes partially unreadable/deteriorating rapidly.
SSD would not care about being dropped. If will be fine (unless you smash with a hammer or something).
 
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SkyNetRising said:
Mechanical drives are rather fragile.
If you accidentally drop your external mechanical drive, it gets damaged for sure. Either dead instantly or becomes partially unreadable/deteriorating rapidly.
SSD would not care about being dropped. If will be fine (unless you smash with a hammer or something).
Click to expand...
But someone said because they have limit write cycle, it can be bad if the chip has problem, and some say the data will not stay if not used for long time? I'm confused here to...
 
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How much stuff do you have and how much can you spend? Hard drives are good if you need a large quantity of storage for less.

Don't worry about durability. SSD longevity is so far out that I don't think anyone has actually worn out an SSD under normal use. And as far as HDDs go, they're not as fragile as people believe. 2.5" ones for instance have drop sensors on them and I can't imagine that wasn't given to 3.5" just because. And while you shouldn't, I have moved hard drives around while they were doing something and they didn't suffer any apparent problems from it.
 
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The chief benefit of a hdd is the cost per gb.
For storing videos, you will be accessing mostly sequentially, and the limiter is more likely to be the usb speed to connect to it.
My inclination would be to use a HDD for such use.

Mechanical devices will be more prone to failures than solid state devices.
The quality of the vendor plays a part; do not rely on cheap ssd's.

The viability of the media is hard to test.
How do you determine that it actually exceeds 10 years?
If you truly value what is stored, you will make a second(or third) external copy.
 
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Based on your description of the application, I would recommend using an HDD unless your budget allows you to purchase an SSD with the same capacity. As for lifespan, both HDD and SSD have a long lifespan as long as they are used normally, but they can also fail suddenly. Therefore, if your stored data is important, I would recommend backing it up or using RAID 1 to automatically backup your data.

For video editing, SSDs have an advantage, but for simple data storage, HDDs offer better value for money. So, it depends on how much you need for different applications. Perhaps you could consider buying a small-sized SSD specifically for editing purposes and another HDD for data storage. After editing the video, transfer the data to the HDD for storage. This way, you can enjoy the benefits of both.
 
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For all user that reply I really appreciate and thanks.

But I have two experience with HDD my Former used internal laptop 500gb give external enclosure is not working after almost one year not use because I already replace it with larger one, and that make me consider about durability on HDD.

But on SSD that on my budget as on my options I didn't know about the durability, as far as I know
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/team-group-ex2-sata-ssd-review
It can be bad if slc cache fully filled and the speed is slow only 15mbs

I hope more advice 🙂
 
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Considering the uses you are putting this to, I suggest that you might want to consider some manner of enclosure, with a fan, etc.

I have used several of the Orinco and similar enclosures, and they are great for portability and quick R/W of data that isn't sustained long. I personally have had both the controller fail, as well as having drives fail in them. I suspect heat in both cases, but cannot overlook the possibility of damage moving them around. I typically will use HDD that got pulled from laptop with SSD replacements. There should also be some consideration (at least on my use case) that these are ~99% of the time used disks.

I still use them for things like restore points/backup for Windows and such. One of the biggest things I could suggest is to be sure when using HDD to "eject" the media and wait for it to completely spin down before grabbing it and moving it. Great way to break a drive.
 
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bagusa4 said:
But I have two experience with HDD my Former used internal laptop 500gb give external enclosure is not working after almost one year not use because I already replace it with larger one, and that make me consider about durability on HDD.
Click to expand...
And I've had 2.5" drives laying around in that are doing just fine.

If you wanted to go by the only company keeping score of hard drive reliability, Backblaze, a hard drive that's 4-5 years old in constant use in a server environment has a ~1.3% chance of failing that year. It'll increase over time, but again, it's being used constantly. And no, keeping it plugged in all the time isn't being used constantly; the hard drive will park the head or spin down.

I'm not trying to convince you hard drives are better than SSDs for reliability. But I feel like the (lack of) durability of hard drives seems overblown.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
And I've had 2.5" drives laying around in that are doing just fine.

If you wanted to go by the only company keeping score of hard drive reliability, Backblaze, a hard drive that's 4-5 years old in constant use in a server environment has a ~1.3% chance of failing that year. It'll increase over time, but again, it's being used constantly. And no, keeping it plugged in all the time isn't being used constantly; the hard drive will park the head or spin down.

I'm not trying to convince you hard drives are better than SSDs for reliability. But I feel like the (lack of) durability of hard drives seems overblown.
Click to expand...
I see HDD not fragile as people thought, how about those two options HDD, Seagate Barracuda vs WD Black Scorpio which more durable? since its not big difference on price in my country....
 
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punkncat said:
Considering the uses you are putting this to, I suggest that you might want to consider some manner of enclosure, with a fan, etc.

I have used several of the Orinco and similar enclosures, and they are great for portability and quick R/W of data that isn't sustained long. I personally have had both the controller fail, as well as having drives fail in them. I suspect heat in both cases, but cannot overlook the possibility of damage moving them around. I typically will use HDD that got pulled from laptop with SSD replacements. There should also be some consideration (at least on my use case) that these are ~99% of the time used disks.

I still use them for things like restore points/backup for Windows and such. One of the biggest things I could suggest is to be sure when using HDD to "eject" the media and wait for it to completely spin down before grabbing it and moving it. Great way to break a drive.
Click to expand...
Do you mean enclosure controller can cause drive failure ?
 
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Bigiba said:
Based on your description of the application, I would recommend using an HDD unless your budget allows you to purchase an SSD with the same capacity. As for lifespan, both HDD and SSD have a long lifespan as long as they are used normally, but they can also fail suddenly. Therefore, if your stored data is important, I would recommend backing it up or using RAID 1 to automatically backup your data.

For video editing, SSDs have an advantage, but for simple data storage, HDDs offer better value for money. So, it depends on how much you need for different applications. Perhaps you could consider buying a small-sized SSD specifically for editing purposes and another HDD for data storage. After editing the video, transfer the data to the HDD for storage. This way, you can enjoy the benefits of both.
Click to expand...
The drives options that I show have not big difference on price is under $100, but I confuse to choose....
 
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geofelt said:
The chief benefit of a hdd is the cost per gb.
For storing videos, you will be accessing mostly sequentially, and the limiter is more likely to be the usb speed to connect to it.
My inclination would be to use a HDD for such use.

Mechanical devices will be more prone to failures than solid state devices.
The quality of the vendor plays a part; do not rely on cheap ssd's.

The viability of the media is hard to test.
How do you determine that it actually exceeds 10 years?
If you truly value what is stored, you will make a second(or third) external copy.
Click to expand...
I want at least 6 years the drive fine, because for now I didn't work yet and money is limited....
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
hotaru.hino said:
How much stuff do you have and how much can you spend? Hard drives are good if you need a large quantity of storage for less.

Don't worry about durability. SSD longevity is so far out that I don't think anyone has actually worn out an SSD under normal use. And as far as HDDs go, they're not as fragile as people believe. 2.5" ones for instance have drop sensors on them and I can't imagine that wasn't given to 3.5" just because. And while you shouldn't, I have moved hard drives around while they were doing something and they didn't suffer any apparent problems from it.
Click to expand...
I just need 1TB for now, and on my options is there drop sensor Seagate Barracuda vs WD black Scorpio?
 
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