Reliable HDD for NAS? Many problems with Seagate ST3000NC000

[andrefm]

Hi,

Can someone suggest any good reliable HDD for NAS? (I have Synology 1813+)

I bought the NAS and added 6x Seagate Constellation CS ST3000NC000 3 TB 3.5". This was around 2 years ago and I believe I already sent at least 6 HDD (lost the count already) to warranty as they crashed (Bad sectors, not starting at all, etc.). My NAS even don't run 24x7 as I setup to sleep when not in use. I bought the constellation model which is more expensive as it was supposed to be "Enterprise" level and I cannot believe that this is normal do die so often. Should I expect this to happen? They are running hot as I also monitor the temperature from time to time.

At work, one of our customers have 5 HP servers and in total over 30 HDD and in 8 years of production (24x7x365) we haven't replaced 6 HDD in total. I know I cannot really compare COMPAQ BD0728A4B4 (SCSI 73GB 10000 rpm) with such "home" HDD from Seagate, but it's really disappointing that such HDD are not lasting. I'm already afraid that soon I will have no more warranty and will have replace all HDD.

Thx

[MegaBrutal]

The Western Digital Red line is especially designed for your purpose.
Although I have no experience with the Red series, I found other Western Digital HDDs very reliable. Actually, I only buy WDC drives, because I don't want to take risk with others. I think you should give it a shot.

[HaQue]

I have used the red and black WD's extensively and have not had a single failure. Though be careful purchasing on single anecdotes.

I would say over around 9 years and approx. 25 servers, nas, etc .. and a 3 year max swapout timeframe. Ive been happy.

[fzabkar]

Backblaze Hard Drive Failure Rates January 1 - March 31, 2015:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/

According to BackBlaze, Hitachi drives are the most reliable with an average annual failure rate of about 1%. Seagate's ST3000DM001 is at the bottom of the heap at 26%. However Seagate's ST4000DX000 model fares much better at 5% and the ST4000DM000 is at 3%.

Western Digital's Red 3TB/4TB/6TB (WD30EFRX/WD40EFRX/WD60EFRX) drives are failing at the rate of 13%, 9%, and 8% respectively.

On the basis of these results, it doesn't appear that enterprise drives are any more reliable than desktop models. In fact the converse appears to be the case. Moreover, BackBlaze have decided to purchase more ST4000DM000 consumer grade desktop drives for their datacentre.

If I were building a RAID, I would mix up my drives rather than sticking with only one model. ISTM that putting all your eggs in one basket defeats the purpose of redundancy. Moreover, if you have a power supply failure, WD's drives fail catastrophically, often requiring expensive data recovery, whereas other brands can usually be rescued with a $50 DIY PCB swap and firmware transfer.

[higgsboson]

what about Toshiba Enterprise disks?
We are selling them for several years and have experienced less issues

[fzabkar]

what about Toshiba Enterprise disks?
We are selling them for several years and have experienced less issues

Could they be Hitachi drives under a Toshiba badge?

[HaQue]

as far as I know WD acquired Hitachi, or parts of it... and I think Toshiba acquired or went into partnership or something with Fujitsu and also got some of the Hitachi pie.

They all kind of blend together really and hard to remember whats what

[fzabkar]

as far as I know WD acquired Hitachi, or parts of it... and I think Toshiba acquired or went into partnership or something with Fujitsu and also got some of the Hitachi pie.

They all kind of blend together really and hard to remember whats what

WD was forced to divest some HGST assets/technology to enable Toshiba to manufacture 3.5" drives.

Just a few days ago a company controlled by the Chinese government bought a 15% stake in WD. Apparently the Chinese government had been standing in the way of a full acquisition of HGST by WD, but this now appears to be on the cards.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -8-billion

It looks like other Chinese companies are making bids for Micron. Not good news. :-(

[Izualim]

what about Toshiba Enterprise disks?
We are selling them for several years and have experienced less issues

Could they be Hitachi drives under a Toshiba badge?

Yeah i have worked with a couple of 3.5" toshibas, they are indeed Hitachi, we have a couple of NAS aswell WD's RED are working just fine, it's always a good idea to check the power supply and the ventilation.

[HaQue]

as far as I know WD acquired Hitachi, or parts of it... and I think Toshiba acquired or went into partnership or something with Fujitsu and also got some of the Hitachi pie.

They all kind of blend together really and hard to remember whats what

WD was forced to divest some HGST assets/technology to enable Toshiba to manufacture 3.5" drives.

Just a few days ago a company controlled by the Chinese government bought a 15% stake in WD. Apparently the Chinese government had been standing in the way of a full acquisition of HGST by WD, but this now appears to be on the cards.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... -8-billion

It looks like other Chinese companies are making bids for Micron. Not good news.

yes aside from the façade that looked like a "we wont hack each other" agreement, one train of thought is that just stealing IP and industrial espionage is getting expensive and bring unwanted heat to the country. instead, a far better looking tactic is to just buy the IP instead. Same result, and probably cheaper in the long run.

The agreement or whatever you call that is purely anything related to economic gain, and I am pretty sure I have some 1980's weet-bix cards that have more value.

I heard it described as "owning the complete IT supply chain" and is a little discomforting when you think about it.

[andrefm]

Thank you very much guys for the feedback.

Something amazing from SEAGATE is that I just received a refurbished (RECERTIFIED - and not my old) hard drive from warranty, it;s not a new one as I was getting in past. Should I contact them or is this something I should expect?
IMO things are getting from bad to worse with Seagate!!! Never again I buy something from SEAGATE...

[data-medics]

@Izualim - there are a number of 3.5" Toshiba drives that are indeed Hitachi drives, however there are also native Toshiba ones. I've had the pleasure of working on a few of them already. I believe the enterprise ones actually are real Toshiba, not re-branded Hitachi.

@Andrefm - Seagate is the worst junk on the market these days, especially the 3Tb ones. WD Red's are good, though personally I prefer HGST drives or Toshiba both of which are fantastic. Don't worry about the fact that the aren't branded as NAS drives, they are more than suited to the task.

[day1data]

I have used the WD reds for over 5 years now ranging from 3 - 4 tb drives in a few different Synology nas's about 23 in service and still no failures. Also as said I find Toshiba very reliable too.

In regards to certified refurbished drives I'm afraid all brands of hard drives will almost never replace a failed drive with a brand new one in warranty. I have never had a new one sent back to me maybe someone can confirm this. So the next question is should you buy a WD red or a WD red pro for your NAS. The red pro has 2 extra years warranty but it's kind of useless if your just going to get a certified refurbished drive sent back to you if you have a drive fail and I wouldn't trust a refurbed drive. Also in a NAS environment I think lower rpm drives transfer less vibrations to the drives nearby which probably is better for the drives in the long term. WD red drives are the intelipower 5200-5400 rpm and red pro are 7200 rpm. The performance difference is minimal so I would take the standard WD red.

I think you should also look at it if the drive fails how is it going to fail. For example I have used ST3000DM001 drives and they just go out with a head crash every time with no notice. But I haven't experienced that with a WD. Don't get me wrong WD's do fail but when they do you tend to get SMART errors and some notice to replace the drive or backup your data before it completely dies.

[taffer]

Another vote for the WD Reds. Had a few running here for years now, 24/7 operation and no failures.