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2 TB Caviar Green for Time Machine??

B

budha

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
72
0
USA
OWC has these for 130 bucks...

Has anyone heard any horror stories about these things? I don't let my Time Machine run all the time... I only do manual backups once a night. It's 70 bucks off so it seems like a steal.

Should I pull the trigger?

Edit: They are wayyyy cheaper on Amazon. $110.
 
Be Cautious About buying HDDS from amazon. I am a prime member and I have in the past bought some HDDs but I tend to stay away because their packaging is horrendous. Look at some user posted pictures of some of the popular HDDs.

They basically just put it in a typical amazon box with the HDD in its plastic factor thin plastic case and put in a few air packaging bubbles.

Even though I live in California, I rather pay a little more and for tax to get it from newegg or mwave, I know for sure newegg packages their drives really well so that drives don't suffer a lot of G's during shipping.

Drives can go bad if they suffer a lot of G's during shipping which may be due to bad packing.

just passing on my wisdom. :)
 
No issues with the drives. I have 2 of them in RAID 1 for my Time Machine backups.
 
I have 2 of them. 1 internal and one external in a FW800 enclosure for Time Machine. I carry it to work every day and its fine. Quiet too.
 
budha said:
OWC has these for 130 bucks...

Has anyone heard any horror stories about these things? I don't let my Time Machine run all the time... I only do manual backups once a night. It's 70 bucks off so it seems like a steal.

Should I pull the trigger?

Edit: They are wayyyy cheaper on Amazon. $110.
Click to expand...

That's what I use. 2 1TB Blacks, backed up (via TM) onto a 2TB Green
 
I've been using 1 TB Green WDs in two NAS devices for Time Machine for 8 months with no issues whatsover.
 
I use a 2TB Caviar Green in a OWC FW800 enclosure as my time machine backup drive and it has worked well. Bought the drive from Amazon too. I've bought a lot of stuff from Amazon and have never had an issue.
 
BertyBoy said:
It'll be fine, but Green drives aren't designed for main drive use, they'll be slow, spinning down as often as they can.
Click to expand...

Backup drive is usually not the main drive :rolleyes: IMO Greens or other low-power disks (Samsung EcoGreen for instance) are best for backup purposes since they are quiet and save power.
 
gugucom said:
+1

I've been using a RAID0 2*2TB drive with WDGreens for mass storage for quite some time now. OS X and Windows is on SSDs.
Click to expand...

Your backup solution is two RAID0 disks?

I assume you have another copy which isn't RAIDed as that strikes me as being silly if not. :confused:
 
I'm using two 1TB WD Caviar Blacks RAID0 for my main system and data and one 2TB WD Caviar Green as TimeMachine-HDD. No probs so far....
 
Transporteur said:
How do you figure that mass storage = backup?

If his operating systems are on SSDs, I assume that his working data has to be located somewhere else, hence the RAID 0. That doesn't imply that it is used for backup.
Click to expand...

Even so, strikes me as an odd setup :p

I could RAID 0 my two WD Blacks but I dont see much point tbh.
 
Concorde Rules said:
Even so, strikes me as an odd setup :p

I could RAID 0 my two WD Blacks but I dont see much point tbh.
Click to expand...

I have to say, I've got a very similar setup.
OS on SSD and data on 2 2TB Greens.

The simple reason for using a RAID 0 instead of just single drives is the performance. The RAID 0 makes over 200MB/s read and write.

Personally I don't like spending thousands for a computer an than waiting minutes for my data to be copied. RAID 0 out of two drives reduces the waiting by 50%, so definitely worth it for me.
 
My backup is on a 2TB time capsule for OS, business and private data. Mass data storage are all movies that I collect from many different sources but mainly from satellite TV. I can watch the movies from everywhere in the house. Initially my plan was to backup the 4TB but I have not found a suitable solution for more Sata ports. I need one port for my OS X and another for Windows. Unfortunately OS X does not give me Blu-Ray support which I need for ripping high def movies occasionally. So by the time I have the two operating systems and the blu-ray ODD running there are only three ports left. I have tried an Areca card for more ports (with the SSDs) but it will not sleep which is also essential for me. So the movie archive currently isn't backed up. The drives actually see very little work and mostly sleep. I hope that they prove as reliable as the WDGreens that I have used in the time capsule for several years. If I can find a RAID card that suits my needs I will probably backup the movies as well.
 
I have 2 Caviar Blacks for holding stuff, and 2 Caviar Greens for backup and everything has worked out very well so far.
 
Transporteur said:
I have to say, I've got a very similar setup.
OS on SSD and data on 2 2TB Greens.

The simple reason for using a RAID 0 instead of just single drives is the performance. The RAID 0 makes over 200MB/s read and write.

Personally I don't like spending thousands for a computer an than waiting minutes for my data to be copied. RAID 0 out of two drives reduces the waiting by 50%, so definitely worth it for me.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I never to disk to disk copying so I have absolutely no need for the RAID0 speeds. On the contrary the increased latency would have a negative impact on my work.
 
stix666 said:
What is the performance difference between 2 greens and 2 blacks in RAID 0?
Click to expand...

greens have a 3 year warranty
blacks have a 5 year warranty

since you only need the drive as your receipt the 5 year warranty has real meaning

the blacks are a bit noisier
the blacks are a bit faster

for me the 5 year warranty is big so I buy only hdds with 5yr warranties. I return them around 4.5 years as they tend to die then but you get 9 years since the replacement lasts another 4.5 years. Also after 4 years the exact drive tends to no longer exist wd will always up grade the drive. so by purchasing the 5 yr drives I tend to find I get 9 yrs worth with a midway upgrade..

the above is the single biggest reason why no one with a mac pro should ever buy "apple" 1tb hdds for the 2nd 3rd and 4th bays of the pro . you get a 1 year warranty and if you buy the exact same hdd from wd you get a 5 yr warranty. plus apple charges 150 for the 1tb hdd and wd charges 120 for the kit and newegg charges 90 for a bare oem type. also wd has a customer loyalty program that gives good prices.
 
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