The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/JustAnotherPodcaster on 2024-07-05 18:02:00.
I was really set on getting this HDD:
WD Red Plus 10TB NAS Desktop Hard Disk Drive - SATA 6 Gb/s 256 MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD101EFBX (CMR DRIVE)
Normally $329.99 On Sale $274.99
The other option was to save quite a bit of money because I need to get several of them and go for this HDD:
Seagate BarraCuda 8TB 256MB Cache 3.5" Internal Desktop HDD SATA 6Gb/s (ST8000DM004) (SMR DRIVE)
Normally $249.99 On Sale $184.99
I could also go for this one: (though, my friend suggests to save money and go for the SMR one)
Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS Int. Hard Drive – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB 3Yr Warr.(ST8000VN004)
Normally $289.99 On Sale $244.99
His reasoning is that I'm not operating a data center and I'm a simple home user who doesn't even have a NAS setup (I may set it up in the future)
I told him that I thought that SMR drives are less reliable but he said that's BS. He also said Seagate drives are known to be more reliable than WD drives.
My needs are simple. I have several computers and I'm moving data from the computers onto hard drives and I ran out of hard drive space so I need to buy more. I also decided to finally consolidate all the data and move stuff from one hard drive to another until every category of data is on the right hard drive.
That will take me a few weeks to complete and will require a lot of writing to the hard drive. Once all the information is written to the hard drive it will just operate as storage. Storage for me to access and view my files and use them and then disconnect the hard drive again.
It became a little expensive for me because every time I get a hard drive, I have to get two of them. One for the original data and one to backup that data from the first hard drive. If there are no two copies then it's not really a backup, it's just storage on one hard drive which can get corrupted and you won't have that data anywhere else.
So because I have to buy like four or six hard drives right now; he said to just go for the Seagate SMR drives and save money because my needs don't require the features of the CMR drives. Based on what I read online I think I should still go for the CMR drives but can somebody educate me here? I'm trying to understand what I actually need.