WD SSD Blue vs. WD Blue PC Internal HDD

[_Al_]

Regarding archiving data.

Is it still better to go with those internal HDD to store/archive data? Writing to disk, adding at a time, then just store it. Or simply use those as a clone/one time written as backups?
I think as of now, it is still a good idea to avoid SSD, save some money, am I right?
Those hardisks would be used always as external hardisks, not in any box.

Western Digital 2T WD Blue Solid State Drive:
https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-SA510-Internal-Solid/dp/B0C14TF467?th=1

vs.

Western Digital 4TB WD Blue PC Internal Hard Drive HDD
https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WD40EZAZ-5400RPM-Internal/dp/B087QTVCHH?th=1
and for write/read using this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MVRS38G/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1D68IPVAU1YDQ&psc=1

[aurgathor]

1. If you look at the price/TB ratio, HDDs are significantly cheaper ATM, although they are much bulkier and can be easily damaged by rough handling.
2. If you chart price vs. capacity from, say, 4TB .. 24TB, the result is sort of a bath-tub curve where the best price/TB is usually somewhere in the middle, though closer to the top -- could be at 16 TB, often depending how long ago was the highest capacity drive released. So unless you're sure that you only need 4TB, it's often worth to go up in capacity and get a better, or much better price/TB ratio with a bigger drive.
3. Since you mentioned "archiving data", you need to be aware that the data retention times for both SSDs/HDDs are below of what you can get from an archival grade DVD.

Verified numbers are very hard to come by, but I've seen 1 - 10 years for flash, 10 - 25 for HDDs and 100 - 1000 years for some optical media such as M-DISC. If you pick SSD/HDD, a simple way to 'refresh' data is to copy it into another HDD/SSD once every few years.

Personally, I'm using HDDs for storage with important items also saved on optical media. (BD for the last several years)

[_Al_]

I always thought that , for example, 4TB version for HDD is better than 8TB version, etc., like choosing something in the middle, regarding reliability. But maybe it is an illusion, because double more capacity is obviously also double more chances that something goes wrong.

[Subtitles]

I have been using several WD My Passport 4TB or 5TB HDD for storage. They are cheaper than SSD and the price is reasonable. Also I don't want to use bigger size just in case of disk failure and if that happens I don't lose so much data. Restoring failed disks can be a really hard job and very time consuming.
I use Internal SSD only for the O/S and programs installation and keep an updated cloned SSD in a safe place just in case.

[_Al_]

I'm using them occasionally too, WD passports could have plastic casing, was afraid that it could overheat when moving TBytes on them, so was using a small fan to cool them a bit down (fan standing on different table to not introduce a vibrations to disks). Or lately using only those with metal casing like WD Black, where just thinking that would transfer heat better.

Those 3.5" PC HDD , are a bit cheaper , and it just might last the same.

[Subtitles]

The WD Passport Ultra with metal casing are more expensive than the plastic one.
Using 3.5" Internal HDD would always be with power when the computer is on, and that might shorten it's life.
The WD My Passport is external and it just sits in a box and gets connected to power just when I need to access any of the contents.

[_Al_]

That might be problem to having them spin all the time, using 3.5" PC hardisks externaly, but using those only at times to back up chunks, not connected to pc or laptop all the time.
Using them for archiving, or cloning old back ups. I use NAS for daily, monthly back ups.

[MarkSM]

I think the #1 question to ask is how much data? 1-2 terabytes? SDXC cards, usb drives, portable ssd drives. 4-6 terabytes? The WD 6tb portable hd drives are actually pretty good. 8tb or more? NAS or DAS multi-bay enclosure with SATA drives with RAID hardware (NOT software) support. Personally, I prefer the relatively new TerraMaster D5 Hybrid 5-Bay USB 3.2 Gen 2 Hybrid Disk enclosure, supporting both cold and hot storage. B&H has them. Mine is fitted with two Ironwolf Pro 12 tb drives, and three 4 tb NVMe SSDs. LOTS of toys on their web site. Lol

[_Al_]

Tens of TB.
Lots of of things to choose and play with. but I have two old NAS'es already from Synology. One thing though, I'm done with JBOD, starting to always to mirror data. Disk capacity is big enough now. It is really a chaos and havoc to scavenge data when one disk fails. You always think, all is backed up, but somehow that's never the case. Maybe a good idea would be to just do it right away.

[aurgathor]

I always thought that , for example, 4TB version for HDD is better than 8TB version, etc., like choosing something in the middle, regarding reliability.

Incorrect. The failure rate is so small that there is no clear and obvious relationship between failure rates of comparable, but different capacity HDDs.

But maybe it is an illusion, because double more capacity is obviously also double more chances that something goes wrong.

Dead wrong. The double failure rate applies *only* if you obtain the double capacity with the double number drives -- staying with your prior numbers, an 8 TB storage made with two 4 TB drives will have a roughly double chance of failure compared to a single 4 TB drive.