WD purple, encryption?

[Acronis]

Hi, I am looking to buy WD purple (or Red) disk,
I read that this disks have different error checking,
is that a problem, can I fully encrypt this drive with true crypt?
I would not use this disk for system, only for storage in my desktop PC.

 

[Mattios]

If you're using it for standard desktop PC use then go for Blue, Black, or Green. Maybe Red. Purple is not designed for home PC use, rather surveillance recording 24/7.

All those drives can be encrypted when used in a Windows PC.

 

[Acronis]

OK
What would be disadvantage of using purple for desktop? I would store HD movie files on it.

I dont have many options to buy right now, only WD green and purple (and maybe WD Red)
but I would want to avoid green because of bad reputation.
I assume purple is of better quality and would last longer than green?

 

[Mattios]

WD purple is set up to complete data transfer in a specified time period, rather than by maintaining data integrity. This means that in surveillance, your recording misses a few frames, but with data, you get corrupted files.

There is nothing wrong with green as such; for home use they are fine. Remember you can check here http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp to see what warranty your drive will habe.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, Acronis!

Mattios is right. WD Purple HDDs are strictly designed for surveillance use. They are tested to be compatible in wide-range of security systems. They can be used 24/7 always on high-definition surveillance environment. These are all features, you will not be able to notice if you are using it as a desktop drive. The speed and the spin-down might affect your computer's performance.
The WD Red is basically the same thing. Even though the speed would be better, you won't be able to experience all its advantages because it's a NAS/RAID drive with specific features that can't be noticed if it's working as a standalone drive on your PC.
We have WD Greens for massive secondary storage solutions. I'm not sure what is the bad reputation about those. People often get disappointed with them because most of them are not aware of its purpose, i.e. using it as an OS drive or for gaming.
HDDs are very sensitive, thus every drive is highly likely to fail at some point of time. That's why it's recommended to always have a backup of your data on more than 1 location (preferably both on-site and off-site).

Hope I was helpful. Let me know if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD