1tb of samples I couldn't be arsed looking through all that... even half

but yeah, a good backup plan slaughters any HDD advice IMO

 

I tend to use 4TB WD drives and never had an issue. HDD capacity is irrelevant, the important thing is a solid regular back up scheme. If you have no back up in place then you do not value your data.

 

yeah buddy , its the worst disk i could buy , i had already bad opinion for seagate
i didnt do any research before buying and it had a fair price....
its still working but i think it might die sooner or later because of the circuit board
i want to replace it with WD black , but they are quite expensive....

 

I also lost 3 Seagate Suicide disks this year alone. 3TB STS editions are like Chrysler transmissions. They all lasted nearly 3 years to the day. To clarify though, the 3TB is Seagates' biggest failure. I immediately reinvested in Seagate 5TBs across the board - what can you fit on a 3TB anyway???? ;)

Always look at what the server companies are doing. They figured out the 3TB problem after investing heavily in the Seagate 3TBs. When the failure rates started skyrocketing they all switched to 3TB Hitachi drives. (Widely regarded as the finest 3TBs on the market. Very soon after they started switching back over to the 5TB Seagates. Follow the experts, I say. They post the server failure rates online too.

Also, I found Seagate versions on ebay called ENTERPRISE which are for business. They have a guaranteed number of hours on them and are about $40 more expensive than the standard stuff from Best Buy.

To recap. STAY AWAY FROM Seagate 3TB!

 

As a rule of thumb I think the higher the capacity is, the higher the risk is. I wouldn't recommend any drive > 2TB.
My data on my PCs is the most expensive goods I have, when they are lost. So I think a lot about securing them.
When I buy drives, the max is 2TB and I try to select server-disks. The most demanding factors for HDs are temperature and shocks.
While we all can do a lot to save the disks from shocks, almost no one cares about temperatures inside the PC. A normal PC is not made for more then one HD drive. And I have seen some crazy installations where the PC was placed in another non-cooled cabinet. So in most circumstances the drives are operated at much too high temperatures (> 40°C).
My preferred solution for the studio is a PC with no Fans an SSD for programs (500Gig ist way enough) an a Gigabit network connected storage. Best ist NAS with some 1-2 Gig HD at RAID 5. All data (besides the programs) are directly saved to the NAS. I extensively make use of hardlinks, so I've not had any problems with UNC-Paths or mapped network drives.
I have 2 medium sized NASs in two different buildings (risk of fire theft, storm ...) connected with gigabit LAN syncing at nighttime (Thecus). My machines are backed up in the late evening (macrium reflect 6) and start up and shut down automatically. No problems with server HDs so far (5-7 years), but al lot dead standard desktop HDs. A setup like this must not cost more than $2.000 or less depending on net HD space. If you earn money with your data, that's almost nothing.

Stay away from Seagate at all ;)

 

Well I have been in IT for quite a few Yrs and to tell you Seagate used to be the best drives on the market. Now they are bad, really bad.
I have had great luck with Toshiba 3 TB and WD. I would stick to drive that have 3 1 tb platters. They are the best.

If you have a home network forget the installing them inside your PC get a 2 bay NAS and mirror 2 3 TB drives. Or if you can afford a 4 bay nas
get 4 3 TB and raid five them. THen access the samples on the nas.

 

Go with "enterprise" rated drives.

 

For archiving purposes, I use 4TB Western Digital USB 3.0 HDDs.

Internal, everyday use, I use 4 x WD 7200 2-4 TB.

I have 3 backups for everything that's archived.

And no, if you're just archiving, and then storing the disks on a shelf in a closet, 4 TBs are fine.

 

This is obvious. Bigger HD, more data to lose.

see https://audiosex.pro/threads/are-high-capacity-hdds-stable.22631/#post-163786

That's gonna cost a lot, especially new. By server grade, you mean stuff like WD Se/Re, right?

NAS grade like, NAS by ST or RED by WD is gonna be fine.

Yes. <6k rpm HDs should last longer than 7k HDs because they spin slower = cooler. Also, most NAS HD should have some vibration control

Price is the killer. NAS drives only cost about 10% more than 'consumer' grade drives, and more than pay for their power bills & longevity (definitely less of an upfront hit than server-grade drives)

See above & my link.

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2016

for the price it just doesn't make sense to get 2tb over 5tb. Anything can crash so you'll need to backup whatever you have, so why spend $200 on 2 2tb drives with one backing up the other, when you can spend around 40more bucks for 2 5tb drives with one backing up the other. And I've had a few 1 and 2 tb drives crash, so there's no point in trying to play the odds by going smaller when you're backing up anyways.

 

for libraries, kits, samples I ve always thought 1 TB was the limit, if you want it stable.
But actually it depends on the HD and specific, anyway not more than 1.5 TB.
I ve seen some list of HDD and how faulty they can be.
I have 1.5 and 2 TB HDD for audio and multiformat libs, the second one has started giving me problems, it s slow, damn slow... and almost full, maybe a 20% free.
Anyway I think I have 25 HDD, internal, FW400, FW800, USB NEVER A PROBLEM. except that 2 TB one.
I have also a 1 TB FAT32 formatted HD for mp3, FLAC, videos. It s full like 85% and it never gave a problem.
FAT32... stable until 32 GB, but it s a 1 TB one and all ok.