Comments on: Storage Wars – Hard Drives Reach 2TB – Good or Bad http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2009/02/10/storage-wars-hard-drives-reach-2tb/ Hard drive recovery data recovery resource center with how to guides for windows RAID Snap server file system repair NTFS partition recovery tools tips and tricks to recover data Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:43:29 -0500 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: freakqnc http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2009/02/10/storage-wars-hard-drives-reach-2tb/comment-page-1/#comment-7341 freakqnc Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:04:39 +0000 http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/?p=883#comment-7341 I did a lot of research, digging, reading, as well as waiting and found out a while back that while it is risky to venture out in the "multi-tera" (for now only 2) perpendicular technology, at the moment that's the only possible solution to handle the massive amount of data for those users who find themselves in the "above-average Joe" public. Short of spending money in costly advanced systems that are often out of the available budget, these users really have very little choice for their needs. Users with lots of data to store, such as Digital Music collection, Video captures, Digital film collections, high-res photo/scan archives and so forth, were pressed to find a solution that would be secure, reliable, and economically viable within the constraints of the currently available technologies. In other words they had finally reached a point where they had to make a decision and commit themselves to something. Being one of such users, I ended up opting for a QNAP TS-639 Pro NAS unit, loaded with 6 2-Tera Western Digital Drives in RAID5 configuration, for which I also bought an additional two 2TB drives that I keep as replacement in the event of HDD failure. My research led me to purchase the "enterprise-grade" RE4-GP, not the less expensive consumer version. The decision to invest additional funds in the purchase came from the fact that since the NAS would be running more often than not, the drive would have to be the highest grade available in order to prevent faults that could be caused by conditions that consumer-grade products are not usually exposed to, such as prolonged use in a multi-drive enclosure. Although the whole system is not exactly a low-budget (with a price tag between 3K and 4K) the purchase it was the most viable solution for my current needs. With some luck, the system should be enough to match my needs for the next 3 years (and hopefully longer). Although I don't plan to go past the 5-year mark and I will deem myself lucky if by then all drives will be still healthy and in working conditions. As the risk of failure increases with use, I plan to pass the data to a new system possibly an even larger, more reliable and affordable one that, with mild optimism I can say that it may become available in the near future (such as holographic storage, nano technology, etc.) Some tips about the pre-purchase process: The tricky part is really to do your homework as best as you can: read a lot of reviews and testing, check benchmarks, go to more than just one forum where users have been writing about their experience with Tera drives (and that includes weeding through customer reviews on online stores)... in other words, get all the information you can gather that can put you in condition to make the best informed decision. This hard work may spare you the failures and headaches others have already been through... believe it or not there are tons of knowledgeable people who take the time (my thanks to them!) to write about products they have bought. Usually one can find both negative and positive reviews... read and judge for yourselves the value of what you are reading. Beside the enthusiastic users who leave a positive review after 1 day he/she used a product, there are many who go through the process of testing for longer times and under different conditions and configurations, many product (especially computer related ones). In addition you may find out that often reviews are left by users who are from above-average to advanced, or even professional. My advice is to take advantage of such a wealth of precious information and use it to avoid known pitfalls like becoming an unfortunate owner of the above mentioned Seagate 7200-11 series. Good luck with your multi-tera storage hunt! I did a lot of research, digging, reading, as well as waiting and found out a while back that while it is risky to venture out in the “multi-tera” (for now only 2) perpendicular technology, at the moment that’s the only possible solution to handle the massive amount of data for those users who find themselves in the “above-average Joe” public. Short of spending money in costly advanced systems that are often out of the available budget, these users really have very little choice for their needs.
Users with lots of data to store, such as Digital Music collection, Video captures, Digital film collections, high-res photo/scan archives and so forth, were pressed to find a solution that would be secure, reliable, and economically viable within the constraints of the currently available technologies. In other words they had finally reached a point where they had to make a decision and commit themselves to something.
Being one of such users, I ended up opting for a QNAP TS-639 Pro NAS unit, loaded with 6 2-Tera Western Digital Drives in RAID5 configuration, for which I also bought an additional two 2TB drives that I keep as replacement in the event of HDD failure. My research led me to purchase the “enterprise-grade” RE4-GP, not the less expensive consumer version. The decision to invest additional funds in the purchase came from the fact that since the NAS would be running more often than not, the drive would have to be the highest grade available in order to prevent faults that could be caused by conditions that consumer-grade products are not usually exposed to, such as prolonged use in a multi-drive enclosure.
Although the whole system is not exactly a low-budget (with a price tag between 3K and 4K) the purchase it was the most viable solution for my current needs. With some luck, the system should be enough to match my needs for the next 3 years (and hopefully longer). Although I don’t plan to go past the 5-year mark and I will deem myself lucky if by then all drives will be still healthy and in working conditions. As the risk of failure increases with use, I plan to pass the data to a new system possibly an even larger, more reliable and affordable one that, with mild optimism I can say that it may become available in the near future (such as holographic storage, nano technology, etc.)

Some tips about the pre-purchase process: The tricky part is really to do your homework as best as you can: read a lot of reviews and testing, check benchmarks, go to more than just one forum where users have been writing about their experience with Tera drives (and that includes weeding through customer reviews on online stores)… in other words, get all the information you can gather that can put you in condition to make the best informed decision. This hard work may spare you the failures and headaches others have already been through… believe it or not there are tons of knowledgeable people who take the time (my thanks to them!) to write about products they have bought. Usually one can find both negative and positive reviews… read and judge for yourselves the value of what you are reading. Beside the enthusiastic users who leave a positive review after 1 day he/she used a product, there are many who go through the process of testing for longer times and under different conditions and configurations, many product (especially computer related ones). In addition you may find out that often reviews are left by users who are from above-average to advanced, or even professional. My advice is to take advantage of such a wealth of precious information and use it to avoid known pitfalls like becoming an unfortunate owner of the above mentioned Seagate 7200-11 series.

Good luck with your multi-tera storage hunt!

]]> By: Joseph Whitehead http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2009/02/10/storage-wars-hard-drives-reach-2tb/comment-page-1/#comment-6776 Joseph Whitehead Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:04:15 +0000 http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/?p=883#comment-6776 You should point out the average $/GB for fixing a 1TB drive. Yes, I'm probably somewhat evil to think of that. You should point out the average $/GB for fixing a 1TB drive. Yes, I’m probably somewhat evil to think of that.

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