Recommendation for hard disk

horace528 · Jan 16, 2013, 09:36 AM

Hello MacRumors Forums
Today marks my 2nd hard disk to break. I'm pretty much sick of this process happening over and over again.
I want to find a reliable company for hard drives, or just any hard drive. I'm a video editor, so I need a reliable hard disk with high security and one that does not break that easily. Preferably 500GB to 1TB of size. But I would want a product that has a reliable price, not like something of a 200$ price tag.
USB 2.0 is preferred. Not that there would be a USB 1.1 hard drive in the market today.

Maybe even USB 3.0

Hope you can help me.

rpaloalto · Jan 16, 2013, 12:42 PM

I like and trust these
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

designs216 · Jan 16, 2013, 01:51 PM

Any drive can/will fail but I favor Hitachi drives like this one:
7K750

nep61 · Jan 16, 2013, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by horace528

Hello MacRumors Forums
Today marks my 2nd hard disk to break. I'm pretty much sick of this process happening over and over again.
I want to find a reliable company for hard drives, or just any hard drive. I'm a video editor, so I need a reliable hard disk with high security and one that does not break that easily. Preferably 500GB to 1TB of size. But I would want a product that has a reliable price, not like something of a 200$ price tag.
USB 2.0 is preferred. Not that there would be a USB 1.1 hard drive in the market today.

Maybe even USB 3.0

Hope you can help me.

If you're a video editor, USB 2.0 won't cut it.... imho...
I prefer FW800 for editing... and soon, hopefully a Thunderbolt set up.

I like G-TECH drives.... Personal favorites, I have 3... 1 is a 500GB, and 2 of them are 2TB... all hooked up through FW800.

http://www.videoguys.com/Item/G-Tech...303037403.aspx

ChrisA · Jan 16, 2013, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by horace528

Hello MacRumors Forums
Today marks my 2nd hard disk to break. I'm pretty much sick of this process happening over and over again.
I want to find a reliable company for hard drives, or just any hard drive. I'm a video editor, so I need a reliable hard disk with high security and one that does not break that easily. Preferably 500GB to 1TB of size. But I would want a product that has a reliable price, not like something of a 200$ price tag.
USB 2.0 is preferred. Not that there would be a USB 1.1 hard drive in the market today.

Maybe even USB 3.0

Hope you can help me.

If you need reliable then what you want is some type is RAID. The simplest is a mirror (aka "RAID-0"). These systems can continue to operate after a drive fails. I think most video and audio editors are using RAID. The bigger systems are using something like RAID5 or RAID10 but for smaller systems RAID0 is the best option.

The price can be steep but if your job depends on it what is an extra $200? The company to look at is "g-tech". maybe one of these
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid.cfm

jtara · Jan 16, 2013, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisA

The simplest is a mirror (aka "RAID-0").

Actually, mirror is RAID-1.

RAID-0 is striped. It can be as much as n times as fast (at thorughput) as a single drive where n is the number of drives). The downside it it cuts reliability by a divisor of n, since if any one drive fails, you have data loss.

RAID-1 is mirrored. It's a naive' attempt at improving reliability, but not much used any more.

Higher levels of RAID can improve reliability dramatically. With the right hot-swap equipment, you can remove a drive, replace it with a blank drive, while the system is running, and not lose anything. With the right hardwae controller, it can also improve throughput.

You will need an internal PCIe card (needs Mac Pro) or Thunderbolt for maximum transfer speed. USB2 makes pretty-much all this moot.

Fishrrman · Jan 17, 2013, 10:09 AM

Have you thought of trying a USB3/SATA docking station?

Some to check out:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...usb3+sata+dock

I noticed "security" in your post. If you want to physically secure the drives, just eject them from the dock and lock them in a desk drawer or safe.

A docking station makes it easy to replace a failing drive. Just get another bare drive, put it in.

There are now dual docks that can "replicate" disk drives, as well.

jtara · Jan 17, 2013, 10:25 AM

There are many great carrier-less docks for SATA drives. I have two in my Linux system (which uses an internal, non-docked SSD for the system and user filesystems), and an external "toaster". I'm a big fan of these, and they are all relatively inexpensive. Much better than the old days when you needed to screw drives into some goofy and expensive carrier if you wanted to be able to easily remove and replace them.

durruti · Jan 17, 2013, 06:50 PM

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1527250

throAU · 07:41 PM

If you want reliability, you want a RAID-1 enclosure with 2 drives at least, so that you can tolerate a drive failure.

ALL drives will fail at some point. ALL manufacturers have a percentage of drives that fail early. Buying brand X because it is considered more reliable and relying on that may end in tears.

If your data is important, don't trust any single drive with it - ensure you have at least 2 copies at all times.

Note: RAID is not a replacement for backups. Human error happens, and so does theft.

And as to RAID1 being naive and not used very much any more? BS. It is often used in enterprise SANs combined with RAID0 (striping across a RAID1 mirror) to give a good mix of speed and reliability. It is often used as the system drive RAID level for maximum reliability.

For write heavy workloads it is much faster than RAID5 or RAID6. It is more reliable than RAID5. Higher RAID number doesn't automaticlly mean more reliable.

RAID10 is more reliable than RAID50 for example.

The big problems with RAID5 vs RAID1 mirroring are write performance, time to rebuild and array performance whilst degraded.

Yes, it "wastes" more space than RAID5 and other RAID levels. But disk capacity is cheap. Speed is not.

edit:
I am an enterprise storage administrator...

horace528 · Jan 19, 2013, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisA

If you need reliable then what you want is some type is RAID. The simplest is a mirror (aka "RAID-0"). These systems can continue to operate after a drive fails. I think most video and audio editors are using RAID. The bigger systems are using something like RAID5 or RAID10 but for smaller systems RAID0 is the best option.

The price can be steep but if your job depends on it what is an extra $200? The company to look at is "g-tech". maybe one of these
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid.cfm

Thanks for your suggestion. I was thinking of getting that G-RAID mini, since I can't really spend that much money, but I wanted to ask a really n00b question. How fast can FireWire 800 trasfer files? The reason is that I really never used FireWire 800, and I want to know how fast it is before I watched it.

Jan 16, 2013, 09:36 AM	#1
horace528 macrumors regular Join Date: May 2011	Recommendation for hard disk Hello MacRumors Forums Today marks my 2nd hard disk to break. I'm pretty much sick of this process happening over and over again. I want to find a reliable company for hard drives, or just any hard drive. I'm a video editor, so I need a reliable hard disk with high security and one that does not break that easily. Preferably 500GB to 1TB of size. But I would want a product that has a reliable price, not like something of a 200$ price tag. USB 2.0 is preferred. Not that there would be a USB 1.1 hard drive in the market today. Maybe even USB 3.0 Hope you can help me.
	0

Jan 16, 2013, 12:42 PM	#2
rpaloalto macrumors 6502a Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Palo Alto CA.	I like and trust these http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go __________________ Mac Pro, ACD, iMac, Dell Mini Hackintosh, iBook g3, eMac + several iPods
	0

Jan 17, 2013, 06:50 PM	#9
durruti macrumors regular Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Jersey	See "Cougar extreme" Thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1527250
	0

Jan 17, 2013, 07:35 PM	#10
throAU macrumors 68020 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Perth, Western Australia	If you want reliability, you want a RAID-1 enclosure with 2 drives at least, so that you can tolerate a drive failure. ALL drives will fail at some point. ALL manufacturers have a percentage of drives that fail early. Buying brand X because it is considered more reliable and relying on that may end in tears. If your data is important, don't trust any single drive with it - ensure you have at least 2 copies at all times. Note: RAID is not a replacement for backups. Human error happens, and so does theft. And as to RAID1 being naive and not used very much any more? BS. It is often used in enterprise SANs combined with RAID0 (striping across a RAID1 mirror) to give a good mix of speed and reliability. It is often used as the system drive RAID level for maximum reliability. For write heavy workloads it is much faster than RAID5 or RAID6. It is more reliable than RAID5. Higher RAID number doesn't automaticlly mean more reliable. RAID10 is more reliable than RAID50 for example. The big problems with RAID5 vs RAID1 mirroring are write performance, time to rebuild and array performance whilst degraded. Yes, it "wastes" more space than RAID5 and other RAID levels. But disk capacity is cheap. Speed is not. edit: I am an enterprise storage administrator... __________________ MBP (early 2011) - Core i7 2720 2.2ghz, Hires Glossy, 16GB, Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Mac Mini (mid 2007) - Core2 Duo 1.8, 2gb, 320gb 7200 rpm iPhone 4S, iPad 4 Last edited by throAU; Jan 17, 2013 at 07:41 PM.
	0

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Jan 16, 2013, 01:51 PM	#3
designs216 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: On the way to M-83	Any drive can/will fail but I favor Hitachi drives like this one: 7K750
	0

Jan 17, 2013, 10:09 AM	#7
Fishrrman macrumors 68020 Join Date: Feb 2009	Have you thought of trying a USB3/SATA docking station? Some to check out: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...usb3+sata+dock I noticed "security" in your post. If you want to physically secure the drives, just eject them from the dock and lock them in a desk drawer or safe. A docking station makes it easy to replace a failing drive. Just get another bare drive, put it in. There are now dual docks that can "replicate" disk drives, as well.
	0

Jan 17, 2013, 10:25 AM	#8
jtara macrumors 65816 Join Date: Mar 2009	There are many great carrier-less docks for SATA drives. I have two in my Linux system (which uses an internal, non-docked SSD for the system and user filesystems), and an external "toaster". I'm a big fan of these, and they are all relatively inexpensive. Much better than the old days when you needed to screw drives into some goofy and expensive carrier if you wanted to be able to easily remove and replace them.
	0