Need some advice on internal hardrives! Would love some help?! Thank :)

[mrmotivator]

I need to transfer 9TB's of data of my multiple external WD Mybook hardrives to mynew computer i have just built.

I was thinking of going with three WD 3TB Cavier Green drives, has any one else have any experience with these drives??

Also since the date wont be viewed much is it best to unplug them from the computer once full with data and just plug them in when i want to use them or do they go to sleep so to speak and only turn on when you go to 'my computer' and click on the drive????

Thanks so much in advance!!

[BarbaricSoul]

the green drives are geared for power conservation instead of performance, so they are slow compared to say a black drive. They are good hard drives that are just as reliable as any other hard drive available today.

If you have a hard drive in your computer, and your computer is booted up, the hard drive will be active. Honestly, I don't think the little bit of money you would save in electricity would be worth the hassle of having to hook them up when you need data on it and dissconnect them afterwards.

[mrmotivator]

Originally Posted by BarbaricSoul

the green drives are geared for power conservation instead of performance, so they are slow compared to say a black drive. They are good hard drives that are just as reliable as any other hard drive available today.

If you have a hard drive in your computer, and your computer is booted up, the hard drive will be active. Honestly, I don't think the little bit of money you would save in electricity would be worth the hassle of having to hook them up when you need data on it and dissconnect them afterwards.

I was just thinking for pro longing there life that's all, as I said I don't need to view it much an didn't want them to die on me after a year or two?! Thanks

[Kreij]

If the data is not accessed regularly, why not keep it on external drives?
Just wondering.

[dark2099]

might look into using a NAS/DAS, something you can turn of when not in use, rather than disconnecting and reconnecting the drive

[lilhasselhoffer]

I'm going to make a couple assumptions, that may be incorrect. Disregard them, or tell me why I'm off base if you'd like some more input.

1) I assume that this 9 TB is backup data that rarely gets accessed, and therefore doesn't need a high performance operational profile.
2) I assume that the 3TB disks are to have as few disks as possible to cover the 9TB or data.
3) I assume that extra costs are of lesser concern than data stability.
4) I'm guessing that you have some experience with system building.


Under these assumptions, I would:
Purchase Atom based server board with 6 or more SATA ports all connected so that they can be RAIDed.
Buy a copy of windows (or Linux if you're feeling balsy).
Buy 5 drives. 4 3TB drives, and one small OS drive.
Create a RAID 5 array of the 3TB drives.
Move your data onto the new 9TB RAID array, but this may take lots of time given the speed of the HDDs.

Profit!



Seriously though, that's the way to do it. A completely separate system that you can attach to the network, with plenty of storage. The RAID 5 protects against sudden loss of a single HDD (not long term corruption or multiple failures). You'll be spending about $350 for the system (sans drives), but you get an amazing backup that doesn't have to be on constantly.

I bring this up because my current array of 2TB HDDs is great, even if the atom based boards hasn't won any speed tests. Of course, I access the stored data relatively frequently (recorded TV/ripped DVDs/etc...).

[mrmotivator]

Originally Posted by Kreij

If the data is not accessed regularly, why not keep it on external drives?
Just wondering.

haha yes thought of that but for the equivalent 3tb drive its £50 more :/

[mrmotivator]

Originally Posted by lilhasselhoffer

I'm going to make a couple assumptions, that may be incorrect. Disregard them, or tell me why I'm off base if you'd like some more input.

1) I assume that this 9 TB is backup data that rarely gets accessed, and therefore doesn't need a high performance operational profile.
2) I assume that the 3TB disks are to have as few disks as possible to cover the 9TB or data.
3) I assume that extra costs are of lesser concern than data stability.
4) I'm guessing that you have some experience with system building.


Under these assumptions, I would:
Purchase Atom based server board with 6 or more SATA ports all connected so that they can be RAIDed.
Buy a copy of windows (or Linux if you're feeling balsy).
Buy 5 drives. 4 3TB drives, and one small OS drive.
Create a RAID 5 array of the 3TB drives.
Move your data onto the new 9TB RAID array, but this may take lots of time given the speed of the HDDs.

Profit!



Seriously though, that's the way to do it. A completely separate system that you can attach to the network, with plenty of storage. The RAID 5 protects against sudden loss of a single HDD (not long term corruption or multiple failures). You'll be spending about $350 for the system (sans drives), but you get an amazing backup that doesn't have to be on constantly.

I bring this up because my current array of 2TB HDDs is great, even if the atom based boards hasn't won any speed tests. Of course, I access the stored data relatively frequently (recorded TV/ripped DVDs/etc...).

Thanks for that long reply

That sounds awsome but i just built a computer and the case has 10 sata drive spaces and and expensive motherboard to cope with nine thinking this was the way to go, i could do everything on one computer.

I will have to re think what im gonna do, but thats a great idea!

[theeldest]

I agree with keeping it external if you're considering unplugging.

4-bay Storage Array (Hard Drives NOT included)

A lot of people here scoff at Drobo but they really do make quality products. Throw 4x 3TB drives in there and it'll protect you against a single disk loss. You don't even need to have the same size drives. It'll ensure any file has parity data written to at least one other drive regardless of drive size.

[Kreij]

Originally Posted by mrmotivator

haha yes thought of that but for the equivalent 3tb drive its £50 more :/

I know that cost is always a factor when purchasing items, but remember ...
If you have everything on external drives you have the flexability to move them anywhere you want at any time.

[nleksan]

Western Digital RE4 drives?