Most Reliable Hard Drive

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jon_k

Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
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567
So recently I had a hard drive die on me. I back up my data, so all is not lost, but I lost about 2 weeks worth of work, and it's causes me to rethink how I store and backup my data.

What is the most reliable series of hard drives? Is there a hard drive that is specifically designed for server use and mission critical application? Or should I just set up a RAID array? If so is there like an external box I could set up a hot swappable raid array in?

thank.

(btw the drive that died was a samsung btw)
 
All hard drives die and even SSDs can fail. If you want my opinion, do what I did: buy or build a windows home server.

It will back up your PC every night (or however often you want it to). If you have any type of failure, all you do is boot your PC with the WHS recovery CD (or usb stick) and in about 10 minutes you are restored.

It's the easiest option for "set it and forget it."
 
I don't keep my PC on 100% of the time so how exactly would that work? Could I set it to back up my files every time I shut down my computer?

I was planning on just doing a RAID 1 array, but this might be a better option.
 
jon_k said:
I don't keep my PC on 100% of the time so how exactly would that work? Could I set it to back up my files every time I shut down my computer?

I was planning on just doing a RAID 1 array, but this might be a better option.
Click to expand...

You can set WHS to wake your computer out of sleep/hibernate and back it up and set intervals. There are lots of options -- google it up and have a read.

If you are not going to build your own I would recommend trying to find a good deal on either the Acer or HP pre-built WHS models. I own the HP.
 
Don't try to seek a hard drive that can never fail; you will never find it. If you want to be safe, then you should always assume that a hard drive will fail. In other words: always have backups.
 
They all will fail but If you're only gonna get one for a single external case, I'd probably go for a WD enterprise drive.

Five yr. warranty should tell ya a little something. :)
 
Old Hippie said:
Five yr. warranty should tell ya a little something. :)
Click to expand...
It tells me that when (not if) my original WD enterprise drive fails, if I'm lucky my replacement will also fail before my warranty period is up. ;)

Personally I've had more Western Digital enterprise drives fail then every other HDD failure I've experienced combined. Bad luck, who knows. That said, I've personally found Hitachi drives to be the most reliable in the past 4-5 years. If I was going for reliability, I would buy something from Hitachi's Ultrastar line (A7K1000 500GB-1TB or the new A7K2000 500GB-2TB).
 
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Cyberbeing said:
It tells me that when (not if) my original WD enterprise drive fails, if I'm lucky my replacement will also fail before my warranty period is up. ;)
Click to expand...

There's gotta be at least one kill-joy in every thread or it wouldn't be normal! :D
 
So, I think the best option is for me to make a backup server. After doing some basic research I have a few questions if you don't mind.

I have a technet subscription so the cost of the software really isn't a problem. Basically that means I could use Windows 2008 R2 or Windows Home Server PP1. Would Windows 2008 R2 be a better OS for what I'm trying to do, or does Windows Home Server just make the whole thing easier.

I looked at some of the pre-built WHS computers, and to be honest they didn't look half bad for the price. Basically I want about 1TB of storage space that is composed of two 1TB Hard Drives running in a RAID 1 array. I'll probably connect 3 computers at most to it and have the server preform a daily backup. Could I put together a server for cheaper myself? Or maybe I could buy a pre-built and add in another HD and run a raid array (none of the prebuilt's had raid on them)?

Also, if I build it myself:

-How much RAM should I get?
-What kind of CPU am I gonna need?
-If I set up a RAID array, will one of the integrated ones (ICH10R for example) do the trick or should I buy a good raid addon card?
-what's a good motherboard too look at?

again, It's only gonna be a backup server.
 
You really won't need anything fancy if this file server is just going to take the occasional backup and stream some data as well. Many people here undervolt their processors to save energy as well.
 
Just gonna preface my response: You generally do not need RAID with WHS. Some people do use WHS on a RAID setup but it is a bit overkill IMO and has some minor compatibility issues AFAIK. Thats why those prebuilt WHS does not have RAID. Please read the stickied WHS FAQ for more info on WHS.

1) WHS would be easier for you to setup

2) You could put together a WHS server for cheaper if you have some spare but decent parts lying around or plan on using shitty parts. A WHS server with hot-swap capability, 1TB drive, and support for 4 hard drives can be had for as low as $370:
$370 - Acer Aspire Easystore H340 Windows Home Server

3) RAM wise, I've ran WHS on 512MB of RAM and it worked fine. With that said, 2GB is the sweet spot in terms of price to performance for WHS.

4) CPU wise, I've run WHS on a Pentium III 866Mhz just fine. Many people have run WHS on Atom CPUs. SO you really don't need that much horsepower for WHS.

5) For simple file serving duties, the ICH10R fakeRAID will be sufficient as long as you have a decent CPU like the E5200 or Q8200.

6) Really depends on what CPU and case you want first. Do you want a mini-ITX setup? or mATX setup? or ATX setup?

EDIT: Hmm, now that I think about it:: Since WHS is effectively free for you and if you don't want hot-swap capability, you can build WHS setup for cheaper than the prebuilt Acer above:
$120 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard Combo FS
$26 - Corsair VS2GB667D2 2GB DDR2 667 RAM
$85 - Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA Hard Drive FS
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU FS
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case FS
----
Total: $321 plus tax if you live in NJ, TN, or CA

Roughly $50 cheaper than the prebuilt WHS but with higher performance should you want to use WHS for something else. The case can support up to 7 hard drives without additional add-on bays but this is slightly offset by the fact that the Gigabyte mobo only has 5 SATA ports. For basic backup duties, the X2 240 is a bit overkill but from a price to performance standpoint, the X2 240 is an excellent choice alongside that motherboard. The Corsair PSU is more than enough power for 7 to 12 hard drives (the case can fit an additional 4-5 hard drives if using a 5in3 or 4in3 5.25" adapter) even assuming that you stick with the above CPU/mobo combo and WD Green HDDs.

However if you want something smaller and with hot-swap capability as well as lower power usage or pretty much specs that match the linked Acer above:
$84 - Intel BOXD945GCLF2 Atom 330 CPU Intel 945GC m-ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
$26 - Corsair VS2GB667D2 2GB DDR2 667 RAM
$85 - Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA Hard Drive FS
$175 - Chenbro ES34069 Mini-ITX Home Server/NAS Chassis
-----
Total: $370 plus tax and shipping.

Roughly the same price as the above Acer so it might not be a good idea to build a mini-ITX hot-swap capable setup yourself.
 
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If you want this to be as painless as possible, grab yourself either an Acer or HP WHS and throw in a couple 1tb or 1.5tb drives.

I also saw this deal for the HP WHS today if you prefer that over Acer: http://bensbargains.net/deal/113265/

If you are comfortable building PCs and you have your house wired for cat5 and are just going to toss it into a closet somewhere, build yourself a server with old cheap parts. It doesn't have to be powerful or have a lot of ram. And definitely use WHS not Server 2008... it will just be easier that way.
 
Hmmmm.... I really like the idea of having hot swappable hard drives so the Acer at $400 is really appealing, but I had a few questions about WHS that I didn't see answered in the FAQ thread. I'm going to ask them here (though maybe posting a question in the FAQ thread might be a better place?).

Folder duplication seems like an interesting concept, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. I'm curious what happens when a hard drive fails, and more specifically when the master hard drive (the one the OS is installed on) fails.

So if one of the secondary hard drives fails, you just disconnect it via the software in the console, and hot swap the thing, and all the folders you have folder duplication turned on will still be there? You won't even have to power the system down, correct?

Say the master hard drive fails (the one the OS is installed on). Can you just hot swap it like one of the secondary drives? Or is your system basically hosed.


The main reason why I'd like to buy the acer is because it offers hot-swapping for such a cheap price. However, in a few months when I upgrade my main rig, I'll have a BadAxe2 mobo, 4GB of RAM, and a Core2 E6600 lying around doing nothing. Is there a fairly compact ATX case that isn't too expensive that has hot-swapping on it?
 
anonuser said:
If you want this to be as painless as possible, grab yourself either an Acer or HP WHS and throw in a couple 1tb or 1.5tb drives.

I also saw this deal for the HP WHS today if you prefer that over Acer: http://bensbargains.net/deal/113265/

If you are comfortable building PCs and you have your house wired for cat5 and are just going to toss it into a closet somewhere, build yourself a server with old cheap parts. It doesn't have to be powerful or have a lot of ram. And definitely use WHS not Server 2008... it will just be easier that way.
Click to expand...

holy crap $400 for that thing is a steal.

edit: coupon code doesn't work :( Maybe I should call newegg.
 
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heh, couple more questions (sorry if I'm asking too much, I'm a curious person by nature).

If I buy the HP, does the motherboard use a standard socket like the LGA775? If so, I could easily upgrade the thing in the future with an old Core2 chip.

Also, if I just want a PC to have access to the shared network drives, do I need to have the client software installed on it as well?
 
jon_k said:
heh, couple more questions (sorry if I'm asking too much, I'm a curious person by nature).

If I buy the HP, does the motherboard use a standard socket like the LGA775? If so, I could easily upgrade the thing in the future with an old Core2 chip.

Also, if I just want a PC to have access to the shared network drives, do I need to have the client software installed on it as well?
Click to expand...

I don't believe it's standard -- the cpu has been upgraded that I know of in the older version ( see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mediasmart-ex475-hack,2171.html ). You really do not need to upgrade it honestly as WHS requires very little cpu/ram.

And yes, you can access the files over the network just like any NAS or shared folder without the software. The software is required for backup though.
 
jon_k said:
So if one of the secondary hard drives fails, you just disconnect it via the software in the console, and hot swap the thing, and all the folders you have folder duplication turned on will still be there? You won't even have to power the system down, correct?
Click to expand...
Correct to both questions.
jon_k said:
Say the master hard drive fails (the one the OS is installed on). Can you just hot swap it like one of the secondary drives? Or is your system basically hosed.
Click to expand...
I believe it is hosed. Not too sure. Haven't had a OS HDD failure yet with WHS. However all of your data will still be there. even if the OS drive is hosed. In fact, you can easily take a drive from WHS, hook it up to another PC, and still be able to get those files off that WHS drive. So the data is rarely unrecoverable.

jon_k said:
However, in a few months when I upgrade my main rig, I'll have a BadAxe2 mobo, 4GB of RAM, and a Core2 E6600 lying around doing nothing. Is there a fairly compact ATX case that isn't too expensive that has hot-swapping on it?
Click to expand...
Something like this isn't too expensive:
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$74 - Norco SS-550 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA Backplane
----
Total: $114 plus tax and shipping

However the best bang for the buck case with hot-swap capability is this case:
$290 - NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case
 
Having to reconfigure WHS from scratch if the OS drive fails seems like such a serious oversight on MS' part to me... Couldn't they make it play nicer with RAID so people could possibly create a RAID1 array for the OS drive, or simply build in some redundancy for the OS config files so it can be rebuilt in case of failure?

Oh and the most reliable hard drive is the one you haven't used yet... :p
 
Danny Bui said:
Correct to both questions.

I believe it is hosed. Not too sure. Haven't had a OS HDD failure yet with WHS. However all of your data will still be there. even if the OS drive is hosed. In fact, you can easily take a drive from WHS, hook it up to another PC, and still be able to get those files off that WHS drive. So the data is rarely unrecoverable.


Something like this isn't too expensive:
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$74 - Norco SS-550 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA Backplane
----
Total: $114 plus tax and shipping

However the best bang for the buck case with hot-swap capability is this case:
$290 - NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case
Click to expand...

Well, I certainly don't need 20x hot swappable bays, but you're right, that's a terrific deal for $250.

I was actually thinking things over, and I think I might do a homebrew system composed of the following parts:

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB - $84.99 x 2
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - $33.99
Intel BOXDQ45EK - $129.99
Intel Celeron E1500 2.2GHz Dual Core - $49.99
CHENBRO ES34069-BK-120 - $174.99

Total w/ shipping - $567.65

It's $150 more than the acer, but I get a much faster processor, an extra 1TB of HD space, and the motherboard also supports a RAID setup. I'd rather use RAID 1 than folder duplication, because RAID 1 would be easier to restore if the thing went ka-poot, and from what I have read RAID 1 performs way faster than folder duplication.

Two concerns:

1) I'm a bit uneasy about running that system on the 120 watt PSU that comes with the CHENBRO case. I have read tests, and the processor won't take up more than 50W max at full load, and the HDs won't take up more than 8W a piece (so let's say 32W total for 4 HDs). So that leaves about 38W for the motherboard & built in components and being a Micro ITX board, I can't seeing it take up that amount of juice. STILL. It makes me a bit uneasy. Plus I like using good quality PSUs, especially with a server. Can anyone with this case vouch for the PSU that it can do the job?

2) I've done research with running RAID on WHS. Apparently WHS simply doesn't load the drivers properly at setup. Is there anyone with RAID experience on WHS that can tell me about how easy/hard it is to run RAID on a WHS setup?

Or could I run Windows 2008 R2 to get rid of the RAID problems, then run WHS in virtualization mode. Would that work?
 
Not that good of a setup for the money. For the same price as that Intel setup, you can go with this AMD setup:
$60 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU
$110 - Zotac GF8200-C-E NVIDIA GeForce 8200 ITX Motherboard
---
Total: $170 plus tax and shipping.

The X2 240 is significantly faster than the Celeron E1500 CPU while having similar power consumption.

1) Hard drives can use up to 2A or 24W at startup. So when the system is starting up, that's 96W right there.

2) Out of my experience and knowledge range.

Oh and I recommend hitting up this link to know more about the Chenbro case:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1313880
 
Impulse said:
Having to reconfigure WHS from scratch if the OS drive fails seems like such a serious oversight on MS' part to me... Couldn't they make it play nicer with RAID so people could possibly create a RAID1 array for the OS drive, or simply build in some redundancy for the OS config files so it can be rebuilt in case of failure?
Click to expand...

You don't have to reconfigure or lose anything... you just replace the bad primary hard drive and do a "repair install." It's a very simple process and you don't lose any of your data (assuming nothing was on the system HD except the OS itself or duplicated files).
 
anonuser said:
You don't have to reconfigure or lose anything... you just replace the bad primary hard drive and do a "repair install." It's a very simple process and you don't lose any of your data (assuming nothing was on the system HD except the OS itself or duplicated files).
Click to expand...

I like your attitude! :D
 
You dont lose your data, but you still have to reconfigure WHS such as if you have addins installed or uTorrent configured.
 
Danny Bui said:
Not that good of a setup for the money. For the same price as that Intel setup, you can go with this AMD setup:
$60 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU
$110 - Zotac GF8200-C-E NVIDIA GeForce 8200 ITX Motherboard
---
Total: $170 plus tax and shipping.

The X2 240 is significantly faster than the Celeron E1500 CPU while having similar power consumption.
Click to expand...

I decided to go with this:

2 x Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AADS 750GB 32MB Cache - $59.99 x 2
Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - $26.99
INTEL DG45FC mITX Motherboard - $114.99
Intel Celeron E3300 2.5GHz Dual Core - $63.99
CHENBRO ES34069-BK-120 - $174.99

Total: $500.94

I like (especially for a server) using Intel motherboards. I've found that Intel components are in general rock solid stable. Have never had a single problem with one. VIA, nForce, realtek, etc is another story.

One problem with the CPU you linked to is that it's an AM3 socket, and I couldn't find any m-ITX motherboards that supported an AM3 socket. So I decided to go with the E3300 which is a really nice CPU for the price. Has a lot more cache than a typical Celeron so it performs more like a Core2 Duo, and it supports virtualization. So if I ever wanted to I could use this machine as a virtualization server and do other stuff with it too.

Overall, I'm really happy for what I'm getting for $500.
 
jon_k said:
One problem with the CPU you linked to is that it's an AM3 socket, and I couldn't find any m-ITX motherboards that supported an AM3 socket. So I decided to go with the E3300 which is a really nice CPU for the price. Has a lot more cache than a typical Celeron so it performs more like a Core2 Duo, and it supports virtualization. So if I ever wanted to I could use this machine as a virtualization server and do other stuff with it too.

Overall, I'm really happy for what I'm getting for $500.
Click to expand...

Umm, socket AM2 is backwards compatible with socket AM2+, which is the same socket as the Zotac ITX mobo I linked to. In addition, the X2 240 is still faster than the E3300.
 
Danny Bui said:
Umm, socket AM2 is backwards compatible with socket AM2+, which is the same socket as the Zotac ITX mobo I linked to. In addition, the X2 240 is still faster than the E3300.
Click to expand...

the CPU you linked to is a socket AM3, right?

I'm totally unfamiliar with AMD CPUs, so I could be totally offbase here, but a AM3 CPU won't work in an AM2/AM2+ mobo, right?
 
jon_k said:
the CPU you linked to is a socket AM3, right?

I'm totally unfamiliar with AMD CPUs, so I could be totally offbase here, but a AM3 CPU won't work in an AM2/AM2+ mobo, right?
Click to expand...

Yes an AM3 will work in a AM2/AM2+ mobo. It was part of the design specs for those AM3 CPUs.
 
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