Shopping for new harddrive

[Rainbow_7]

Follow-up to my last question: my internal storage drive is failing, need a new one. Am open to advice!

No solid-state, need it to be at least 3TB (prefer it to be 4TB or more), and I'll be using it for gaming and VR so performance should be a factor I guess. I have a separate OS drive already. Willing to pay up to about $250, but cheaper is obviously better ($150, maybe?) so long as the damn thing is still reliable.

 

[Ralston18]

Reliability is a matter of statistics. Any given device is likely to fail at any given time. However, some brands (manufacturers/models) fail less often.

Start by reading product reviews. Both within this forum and elsewhere. Then select, for example, the three HDDs that meet your requirements (i.e., 4 TB) and other requirements.

Then go online and search for more reviews, verified customer reviews, etc. Check the manufacturer's website for product related FAQs and forums. Read the product User Guides/Manuals.

As for price, many components are being made as cheaply as possible to reduce (perhaps) the price of the assembled product. In your case a 4 TB HDD.

Price can be an indicator of quality and reliability but not a guarantee. Take a look at the warranties and guarantees being offered by the manufacturers - always lots of wiggle room to get out of a warranty requirement. Look for complaints about return policies, the return process, and the end results. Overall though a good product simply costs more to make/support and the price will be indicative of that.

Feel free to email possible vendors questions or do an online chat. How they respond may provide you with some addiltional insight. Ask some technical question: if you get a response such as "is it plugged in?" then looking elsewhere is probably a good idea.

Known manufacturers and sellers have the most visibility. And thus more on the line if their image or brand gets tainted.

You will soon develop a sense that one or more products have some assurance of "reliability". Still subjective though...

 

[Rainbow_7]

Thanks, solid advice. But, like, for example: I found two WD drives that might work: a 4TB / 64MB cache "Red" for $150 and a 5TB / 124MB cache"Black" for $200. On the face of it, I'd think $50 isn't worth one extra TB. But is a double-sized cache a significant difference? Also, I've no clue what the difference between "Red" and "Black" models are. Customer reviews suggest that Red models are optimized for RAID and Black models are optimized for Performance (no idea what that means in practical terms); given that this is going to be my primary storage and software drive, I'm leaning towards shelling out more...?

Also, in terms of reliability and failure rates, maybe I should have been clearer. Do you guys have any specific manufacturers to look out for/ avoid? I've heard bad things about Seagate drive reliability lately (which is what I had previously) and while my latest backup drive is also a Seagate, I'm thinking maybe I should branch out this time.

 

[Ralston18]

Unless you really have a definite known requirement/need for RAID just set that aside.

The tricky part is determining which drive descriptions, features, etc. are truly meaningful and relevant versus just some marketing speak to put the proverbial "lipstick on a pig".

You may have race car performance but that means nothing in a traffic jam......

As for drive cache there are numerous online explanations and discussions.

Here is an example from within this forum - just a starting point:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3003760/write-cache-performance-impact-ssd.html

Point being that there are many factors involved.

To determine the differences between the Red and Black models you will need to compare the various specifications line by line in detail. And probably look up what some of those specifications really involve and how they apply or differ. Especially with respect to your current computing environment. Yet you may purchase "ahead" with some future upgrades in mind.

Note: There are some WD folks who regularly participate in this forum. Hopefully one of them will add some explanation and comment. No problem with that on this end.

Any given product can fail so what becomes important is how well will the manufacturer support their product(s) and live up to any warranties. That is difficult to know in advance.

Diversification (aka "branching out) is one way of spreading the risk. Multiple backups are another.

 

[Rainbow_7]

Thanks. I went with the Black, as I need my drive pronto (D drive finally died a few minutes ago) but I'm going to keep checking anyway, since I've got a week to cancel and/or return the new purchase. Have a number of backup drives already, including a 2TB portable drive, a 1TB and a 4TB external harddrive (the latter of which contains most of what was on the now-dead D), my laptop's HD, and a 200GB internal drive mounted in an external housing case which used to belong to my old desktop computer. Most of my important files are in at least two places now (the 2TB and 4TB), but a few of the BIG files are in only one (the 4TB) so I am thinking of cleaning out older archives in the 1TB and replacing them with new backups... "just in case" (fingers crossed!)