external hard drive size, safety ?

[cSalmon]

I need to buy some more hard drives and I'm wondering if there are any safety concerns with an 8TB vs two 4TB drives. I understand in either scenario that the drives themselves will have a redundant sister.

Any expert thoughts on this?

thanks

 

[Stephen.R]

I understand in either scenario that the drives themselves will have a redundant sister.

If you mean a mirror (ie RAID1, either hardware or software), surely a bigger concern is housing 2 vs 4 drives, because you've specifically countered the reliability issue, to a reasonable degree.

 

[vertical smile]

I am confused about what you are asking. I think we might need more info to give an opinion.

I'm wondering if there are any safety concerns with an 8TB vs two 4TB drives.

Are you asking about one 8TB drive versus two 4TB drives in RAID 0? RAID 1?

What do you mean by "safety concerns"? Potential data loss?

What Mac are you using?

Will these drives be internal? external?

I understand in either scenario that the drives themselves will have a redundant sister.

Even the 8TB?

If using a RAID, would it be software or hardware?

 

[cSalmon]

Thanks guys for taking the time to respond. Allow me add some more details. No, I'm not thinking of any type of raid in this equation. Maybe the misunderstanding comes from me stating two 4TB hard drives. I only stated that because 2x4=8.

I guess my question is: Is an 8TB drive just as reliable as a 4TB drive? Larger 8TB drives are relativity new whereas 4TB drives have been around for quite a while now.

I understand that the question is "generally speaking" no hard drive is a 100% guarantee and that all files would need to be backed up on a redundant sister drive, but I only do that weekly as that drive primary lives away from the computer. Again no Raid system just manually duplicating files.

Using an 2018 macbook pro running Mojave. I could use either internal drives mounted in a dock or external drives in their own enclosure. Obviously this is only for storage so 5400rpm is fine.

 

[BrianBaughn]

The only mass data I've seen over the last few years regarding drive reliability has been from Backblaze and that is particular to specific models. I'm not sure you can make a general 4 v. 8 reliability comparison.

 

[Stephen.R]

Maybe the misunderstanding comes from me stating two 4TB hard drives.

The misunderstanding comes from

I understand in either scenario that the drives themselves will have a redundant sister.

To answer your question: abnormal faults in one range vs another aside, using two drives rather than one doubles your potential failures. Ultimately they will all fail eventually so don't forget to have a backup plan.