Help with choosing a good 3.5'' HDD

[oneRd]

Hello everyone,

I'm having no luck with storage devices lately and I have little experience with brands. I've just found out the hard way that Seagate is one you should stay away from..
I have a couple of external SATA to USB boxes for 3.5'' HDDs, therefore I was thinking to get these type of drives.

Starting with what @fzabkar said in one of my previous threads:

HGST has been the most reliable, but Toshiba appears to be challenging for the top spot.

I haven't actually understood which brand is HGST, is that Hitachi?

Following some I found :

https://www.amazon.it/Toshiba-P300-HIGH ... 792&sr=8-8

https://www.amazon.it/TOSHIBA-DT01ACA20 ... =8-1-fkmr0

https://www.amazon.it/TOSHIBA-DT01ACA30 ... 92&sr=8-12

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B009AYWYOC/ref ... B009CPDI62

I have found no HGST at a reasonable price.
Is there any particular specs (transfer/rotation speed, chache...) I should go for?

Always thanks for your support

[HGST]

HGST is no more Their drives are still in the production under WD brand like HUH721010ALE604 but they are not as good as old HGST (up to 7K4000).

[oneRd]

HGST is no more Their drives are still in the production under WD brand like HUH721010ALE604 but they are not as good as old HGST (up to 7K4000).

I understand. They were too good I guess..

[northwind]

HGST is no more Their drives are still in the production under WD brand like HUH721010ALE604 but they are not as good as old HGST (up to 7K4000).

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, these drives are under the supervision of HGST and WD is not involved in the production line. These drives are 100% HGST.
WD only benefits from sales

I would vouch for them being top notch in quality, too.

[fzabkar]

Some "HGST" models are rebadged WD drives, so WD cashes in on the brand's reputation.

[fzabkar]

I haven't actually understood which brand is HGST, is that Hitachi?

Following some I found :

https://www.amazon.it/Toshiba-P300-HIGH ... 792&sr=8-8

https://www.amazon.it/TOSHIBA-DT01ACA20 ... =8-1-fkmr0

https://www.amazon.it/TOSHIBA-DT01ACA30 ... 92&sr=8-12

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B009AYWYOC/ref ... B009CPDI62

If the drive's PCB part number begins with G, then it is a native Toshiba. A PCB number that begins with OA or OB is HGST/Hitachi.

Some WD Gold models are native HGST. You can tell them apart by the PCB number (WD = 2060-nnnnnn), or the WWN on the label.

[oneRd]

Thank you! Very useful pieces of info

PCB part number

How can I have access to it?
Is it a courtesy of the seller to let me know it or I find it in the manufacturer web site?

@fzabkar, do you have in mind any 2T model you would advice me?

[fzabkar]

I use Google Images. The HDD manufacturer wouldn't have a clue, and Amazon wouldn't care.

As for my recommendation, my next HDD will probably be a HGST or Toshiba.

[posidon]

HGST is no more Their drives are still in the production under WD brand like HUH721010ALE604 but they are not as good as old HGST (up to 7K4000).

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, these drives are under the supervision of HGST and WD is not involved in the production line. These drives are 100% HGST.
WD only benefits from sales

I would vouch for them being top notch in quality, too.

Thanks northwind
Can you pls. let us know few model nos which are 100% HGST /Hitachi Build and are of top quality. (3.5" -- 1TB ,2TB ,4TB / 2.5" -- 1TB)

[northwind]

HGST is no more Their drives are still in the production under WD brand like HUH721010ALE604 but they are not as good as old HGST (up to 7K4000).

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, these drives are under the supervision of HGST and WD is not involved in the production line. These drives are 100% HGST.
WD only benefits from sales

I would vouch for them being top notch in quality, too.

Thanks northwind
Can you pls. let us know few model nos which are 100% HGST /Hitachi Build and are of top quality. (3.5" -- 1TB ,2TB ,4TB / 2.5" -- 1TB)

HMS5C4040BLE640
IIRC, This is the one we're using in our systems.

[HGST]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, these drives are under the supervision of HGST and WD is not involved in the production line. These drives are 100% HGST.
WD only benefits from sales

I would vouch for them being top notch in quality, too.

Well I don’t know how the new HGST production line looks now And it doesn't matter that they may be 100% HGST ones. 7K600 and later are very different from the previous generations. They are much faster but from my experience not as reliable as older ones. I'm sure that increased data density plays the major role in this.

Posidon remember that it's very easy to reset SMART data in those drives, so be careful not to buy some "brand new" five-year-old-sever-used-drive.

[posidon]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, these drives are under the supervision of HGST and WD is not involved in the production line. These drives are 100% HGST.
WD only benefits from sales

I would vouch for them being top notch in quality, too.

Well I don’t know how the new HGST production line looks now And it doesn't matter that they may be 100% HGST ones. 7K600 and later are very different from the previous generations. They are much faster but from my experience not as reliable as older ones. I'm sure that increased data density plays the major role in this.

Posidon remember that it's very easy to reset SMART data in those drives, so be careful not to buy some "brand new" five-year-old-sever-used-drive.

Thanks a lot HGST for this vital information.

[posidon]

HGST is no more Their drives are still in the production under WD brand like HUH721010ALE604 but they are not as good as old HGST (up to 7K4000).

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, these drives are under the supervision of HGST and WD is not involved in the production line. These drives are 100% HGST.
WD only benefits from sales

I would vouch for them being top notch in quality, too.

Thanks northwind
Can you pls. let us know few model nos which are 100% HGST /Hitachi Build and are of top quality. (3.5" -- 1TB ,2TB ,4TB / 2.5" -- 1TB)

HMS5C4040BLE640
IIRC, This is the one we're using in our systems.

Thanks a lot.

[oneRd]

Thank you for your info!!

So painful to choose. I notice TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 (link 3 and 4) appears to have a similar price to DT01ACA200 (link 2). Any reason in particular you can come up with?

What's the difference btw DT01ACA200 and HDWD120UZSVA (link 1)?

[fzabkar]

ISTM that DT01ACA200 and HDWD120UZSVA are the same drive. All 4 drives appear to be native HGST models.

As for the price difference between the 2TB and 3TB models, I think that's just a quirk of commerce. I would buy the 3TB.

[oneRd]

As for the price difference between the 2TB and 3TB models, I think that's just a quirk of commerce. I would buy the 3TB.

Well I suppose this is what circumstances beg to do..

[bunty]

As hdd business is consolidated there is no trusted friend like Hitachi anymore.
As far as 3.5" I am very much satisfied with Toshiba Enterprise -- read the awesome specs .I am using Toshiba Enterprise over 5 years now an they are very much reliable.
My concern is for 2.5" internal SATA drives Unfortunately Toshiba is not upto the mark in this segment with more failure rates.
I am in a trivial state as of which drive to promote now -

WD Blue /Black etc - basic entry level with no reliability
Samsung -- not been sold as separate product now
Hitachi /HGST -- no more available.
Seagate ---- Dont sell.
Toshiba -- Internal not happy.

Now I want to suggest USB drive to some customers. I would like to know whether someone has worked on Toshiba Canvio Advanced USB 3.0 model ? These drives have 3 year warranty as compared to 2 years of internal SATA.
If someone has done head transplant then he might be able to give more details of internal build quality.

Attachments

[oneRd]

Merry Christmas to all,

first impressions with DT01ACA300 are positive. So very much so that I am considering buying another one and configure them in RAID.

I have never seriously contemplate the RAID until recently.
I know there are different configuration for different purposes.

Is RAID a valid solution to ensure the safety of my data in case one of the drives will fail?

What I am after is preserving an exact copy of my data in case of failure. Hope Toshiba won't be so accurate to make the drives fail at the same time

Would you have any advice in this respect?

Thank you for your time and support

[northwind]

You can use RAID1, which will make a 'live' copy of your data to another drive. (be advised, that it won't protect you from human mistakes -- if you accidentaly overwrite a file then your mistake will instantly follow to your other drive too). You must have this hooked up to a very good power supply and under a UPS/overvoltage protection, because an overvoltage can kill both your drives.
I suggest you take a backup of your files into another drive, for example an external drive which you will keep for this purpose.

You can also consider RAID5 (it gives you one drive failsafe) but requires at least 3 drives, and RAID6 (two drives failsafe) but requires at least 4 drives, in case you have high volumes.

[LarrySabo]

If your raid array gets hit with ransomware, you will be out of luck. I would recommend a back-up drive that gets plugged in only when you are ready to update your back-up, keeping it protected from ransomware. Alternating between two back-up drives would be even safer. Also consider uploading critical files to a cloud service that provides versioning, or keeping one of the two back-up drives off site, lest the place burns down taking all drives with it.