The Big Hard Drive Step

[Tom Saurus]

I am thinking I will probably buy this hard drive:

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/seagate-expansion-desktop-14tb-usb-3-0-external-h...00400/15469301

I usually buy these 2 TB Hard Drives which I can use with the Windows 7 Desktop, media player and Blu Ray Player:

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/seagate-expansion-2tb-usb-3-0-portable-external-h...black/15565584

If I buy the 14 TB hard drive there is an offer at 55 percent off Nord VPN 1 Year & Six Devices and my current one runs out in November. I ran out of hard drive space.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/nordvpn-pc-mac-1-year-digital-download/16448213

I have one 4 TB hard drive and I filled that up. I only use that on a Windows 11 Mini PC and that would be option for the 14 TB Hard Drive. I am rather trepedacious about spending out the money and I know a 2 TB would only tide me over a month or two.

Any advice is appreciated and do you find these 14 TB Hard Drives to be reliable? Thank you in advance for advice and such pertaining to this issue. The sale is on until the eighth and I trust it won't sell it out before then. I think I will put it off until next week whatever decision I make whether to stave off or take the plunge with the 14 TB.

[Alwyn]

If you need 14TB of storage, think about how you are going to back it up.

[Cornucopia]

Given that it is Seagate, it is usually a good bet. However, the adage "don't put all your eggs in one basket" is worth following.

BTW, if this were me, I would:
Buy a Sata/Esata cage for the (internal) drive and repackage it, connect via a Sata/Esata card
or
Buy a shuttle/rack-type hotswap cage for the drive and repackage it, so it can just slot into the desktop

Reason: 90% of the corruption issues with file transfer are down to USB polling interupts or something, so taking the "USB" out of the equation very much improves the integrity of the data on the drive.
But, you do you.


/edit: Alwyn has a good point about backup.

Scott

[Moralez]

Your 14TB HDD is $199 at Amazon. Personally, I would spend a little more and get a Western Digital. Just my personal preference but I think they build a better drive.

[Tom Saurus]

Thank you all for your advice. I think I will buy another 2 TB hard drive and stave off this purchase if I can until November when my Nord VPN runs out. That way I can put my G.S.T. Rebate and Carbon Rebate money away in October and make things a bit easier on myself. My Eset Nod 32 Anti-Virus runs out in November as well so it will be a big month but perhaps Black Friday deals will be available at Best Buy Canada. I do want that 14 TB Hard Drive though and another one down the road. Also another Windows 11 Mini PC this time with 16 GB ram, 500 gb hard drive so I can retire the Windows 7 computer for online use and just have it for encoding and such. I am planning on buying Tubedigger sometime this month which I think will be worth the money for the additional options it provides.

[jagabo]

If you need 14TB of storage, think about how you are going to back it up.

Another 14TB drive, of course.

[Alwyn]

Another 14TB drive, of course.

Bang on, Jagabo.

[Tom Saurus]

14 TB seems to be the size to get and thankfully they put them on sale fairly often. I am really hoping I can my first 14 TB hard drive come November. I always leave at least ten percent free space on the hard drives. It gives you a warning anyway as when you look at the hard drive indications in My Computer it turns red when you get to that level of capacity. I have been advised though that I really shouldn't have hard drives turned on often as it wears them out, but I would be sorely tempted to load my favourite TV Shows and Movies on the hard drives and watch them via the Kodi Interface over even just VLC. I have a tendency to marathon watch shows.

[jagabo]

About the only publicly available reports on hard drive reliability come from BackBlaze:

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/hard-drive-test-data

And their usage case (cloud servers) is probably very different from yours.

[jagabo]

By the way, that Seagate drive uses SMR (shingled) technology. SMR can get very slow with large writes and as the drive fills up.

https://www.howtogeek.com/803276/cmr-vs.-smr-hard-drives-whats-the-difference/

Consider a WD Red Pro CMR drive instead:

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-16TB-Internal-Drive/dp/B0CD2XBZWR/

Of course, you'll need a USB enclosure/dock if want it external.

[frank_footer]

it may be time for someone to prune the amount of porn he has, lol.

i am opposed to using drives that large, unless they are for backup only that is disconnected when not in use.

i have a 6tb drive that is half full and it is only powered on and connected when i am making a 3rd or 4th backup.

what i do is i have my primary nvme for the os(es) and a second ssd on my laptop and 4 ssd drives in my desktop.

i have important files get backed reside on the main disk, backed up to the second drive, or in the case of the desktop copies are made to each drive.

with the laptop backups are also made to sdhc, usb thumb drive, and finally everything is backed up to the 6th hard drive, which is disconnected after backup is done.

[Tom Saurus]

I suppose I will just stick with the 2 TB hard drives then. The Canadian price for that 16 TB hard drive is much more than I want to part with and now I am aware of the drawbacks of that 14 TB hard drive.

[Alwyn]

i am opposed to using drives that large, unless they are for backup only that is disconnected when not in use.

Why?

[frank_footer]

i am opposed to using drives that large, unless they are for backup only that is disconnected when not in use.

Why?

it's because the more data you have in any one place the more data you can potentially lose if something goes wrong.

supposed you have 12tb of data to store and you have 2 options:

1) store all that data on one 14tb drive.

2) store all that data on seven 2tb drives.

if something goes wrong and you have a catastrophic data lose, with the 14tb drive you have lost all 12tb of data, with option 2 you have lost at most 2tb of data.

further, backup copies should not be continuously connected, i connect the drive to backup what i want to backup, then i disconnect and put the drive in a safe place.

in fact, for home use, for some things, i use cheap 2tb 5400rpm laptop hard drives, these drives tend to be very durable, they can be had for $65 and they are easily portable.

i have laptop hard drives that have last for 20 years, so i tend to trust those drives for longevity.

[kyrcy]

in fact, for home use, for some things, i use cheap 2tb 5400rpm laptop hard drives, these drives tend to be very durable, they can be had for $65 and they are easily portable.

i have laptop hard drives that have last for 20 years, so i tend to trust those drives for longevity.

For offline backup, I use 3.5" CMR hard disks ranging from 1TB to 3TB in capacity. These days, 2.5" hard drives are more difficult to find and most if not all, are SMR, thus not trustworthy for longevity. Which cheap 2tb 5400rpm laptop hard drives are you referring to?

[Tom Saurus]

I was thinking the 14 TB hard drive would be to backup the seven 2 TB hard drives but to also have it as your media drive but since that seems like an unwise use it being the media drive I might as well stick with getting 2 TB hard drives.

[Alwyn]

I wouldn't be having 7 HDDs in my box. First, it's hard to use the last ~10% because you don't want to operate right up to the size limit to give yourself wriggle room if you need to create or use a big file eg AVI video capture. Having multiple small drives increases the chance of needing to split up your data more eg family videos spread over two or more drives instead of being all nicely organised on one drive. You also have to have enough SATA ports to accept the number of drives (or add expansion cards to give you the extra slots, if they'll fit. I have had 3TB and 4TB drives in my just replaced box for upwards of 12 years without an issue.

I'm about to up them both to 6TB each and do not expect to have any issues. In two decades of computing and dozens of HDDs, I've lost one. Of a few SSDs, I've also lost one. It went dead, instantly. If you back up your stuff regularly, it doesn't matter if you lose one of your 2TB drives or your 12TB drive. The data is still safe in the backup. And you will have to use a multi-drive backup program that will simultaneously backup all 7 drives, otherwise backing up will become a chore, remembering what needs backing up. Anything that makes backing up easier will be better for data safety.

I'd suggest 3x4TBs, with a 12TB for backup.

[Tom Saurus]

All my hard drives are portable hard drives. The 14 TB hard drive per TB was the best bargain. I haven't bought the 14 TB hard drive and probably won't.

[frank_footer]

in fact, for home use, for some things, i use cheap 2tb 5400rpm laptop hard drives, these drives tend to be very durable, they can be had for $65 and they are easily portable.

i have laptop hard drives that have last for 20 years, so i tend to trust those drives for longevity.

For offline backup, I use 3.5" CMR hard disks ranging from 1TB to 3TB in capacity. These days, 2.5" hard drives are more difficult to find and most if not all, are SMR, thus not trustworthy for longevity. Which cheap 2tb 5400rpm laptop hard drives are you referring to?

something like this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/672221/wd-mainstream-blue-2tb-5400-rpm-sata-iii-6g...smr-hard-drive

also, hard drives that i use for backup are not always connected to the computer.

what i do is i connect the drive when i want to back something up and then disconnect it and store it in a safe place.

backup drive should never be always on, only work drive are always on.

[jagabo]

With about 10TB of videos I find backups are much easier to maintain when the collection fits on one large drive. I use FreeFileSync to sync my backup every month or so, and to run a full file comparison (actually reading every file in the source and the backup and comparing byte-for-byte) to verify the two a few times a year. Having to swap a dozen drives around would be a big hassle. I'm currently using two 16TB drives, one online, one offline for backup. Some important personal videos are stored on other computers in the house too.

[Alwyn]

I will say that there is no way on earth I'd be running my video editing using 7 external HDDs. No way.

[frank_footer]

I will say that there is no way on earth I'd be running my video editing using 7 external HDDs. No way.

i did not say perform video editing with 7 external hard drives.

i said i have a bunch of internal hard drives that i only connect for backup purposes.

what i advise is having 2 separate internal nvme or ssd, one for read and one for write and then connecting one of the other internal drives only for backing up.

there's more than one way to skin a cat and everyone must decide what is best for them.

[Alwyn]

i did not say perform video editing with 7 external hard drives.

I didn't say you did.

i said i have a bunch of internal hard drives that i only connect for backup purposes.

What, you access your case to connect your backup drives, do a backup, then disconnect them? What happens if your case gets stolen or otherwise destroyed?

what i advise is having 2 separate internal nvme or ssd, one for read and one for write and then connecting one of the other internal drives only for backing up.

The OP has 14TB of drives that he uses on external drives. 2 internal nvme or SSD obviously won't work unless they are very large and cost the earth.

[kyrcy]

something like this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/672221/wd-mainstream-blue-2tb-5400-rpm-sata-iii-6g...smr-hard-drive

Is a 2tb 5400rpm SMR 2.5" hard drive considered as durable and at $79.99 as cheap?

[frank_footer]

something like this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/672221/wd-mainstream-blue-2tb-5400-rpm-sata-iii-6g...smr-hard-drive

Is a 2tb 5400rpm SMR 2.5" hard drive considered as durable and at $79.99 as cheap?

The price actually went up, it was $65.

I have had a lot of luck with these types of drives.

[frank_footer]

i said i have a bunch of internal hard drives that i only connect for backup purposes.

What, you access your case to connect your backup drives, do a backup, then disconnect them? What happens if your case gets stolen or otherwise destroyed?

stolen how?

from your house?

i think if someone breaks into your house and has the time to steal your whole computer you probably have bigger problems than losing your backed up data.

what i do is have 1 "grab and run" drive that is dedicated to a backup of my most important stuff, legal and medical documents, pics and video of family events, things like that, important work product, things like that,

this is a drive that is encrypted and stored in a safe place which in the event of an emergency, like a fire, flood, storm, or similar i can just grab it and go.

what companies do is have offsite backups also, drives stored in safe deposit boxes or self storage for the most critical stuff.

it really depends on what you are backing up.

are you backing up porn you have been downloading for years or stuff from file sharing sites, are you backing up dvd and blu rays that you ripped or is it something that actually matters?