Internal 4TB HDDs for MP

[colorspace]

Need to buy some internal HDDs for Time Machine duty in Mac Pros (2010 vintage), they will be TM a lot of media data, probably with a modified schedule (lower frequency). It's been a couple of years since I purchased anything, and none larger than 3TB. I had sworn off Seagate HDDs based on seeing a far too high complete failure rate (mostly from externals, but anecdotally from internals as well). Looked at the reviews on NewEgg and Amazon, and the front runners seems to be the HGST 7200 drives...

any feedback on recommendations or "anti-recommendations"?

Thx

 

[cruisin]

While some brands like Seagate have higher than expected failure rates, all hard drives have a chance to die.

Anything useful should be in 2 places and anything important should be in 3 places with one of them outside outside your home (like a cloud backup service) to protect against fire, theft, etc.

I personally like WD drives, but as long as you find models with 5 year warranties and not 3 year warranties, on average you should do well.

 

[monokakata]

Check out the Backblaze numbers:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/

As cruisin says, all drives have a chance to die.

I won't add to the useless store of anecdotal evidence about which drives are best. I don't see how anything can beat this large sample.

 

[h9826790]

I am useing a WD Red 4T HDD in my cMP, works beautifully.

If just for backup purpose, IMO, reliable is more important than performance.

 

[HDFan]

Not quite the same thing but I had a WD 6 TB Red that failed less than 30 days after I got it. Based upon the Backblaze notes I replaced it with a 6 TB HGST. I'm using it with a HGST Enterprise 6 TB in my Mobius enclosure as duplicate time machine backups and haven't had any problems.

I have had multiple failures of WD standalone drives in the past. And the fact that their drives have a lower spin rate gives me pause.

 

[colorspace]

And the fact that their drives have a lower spin rate gives me pause.

Well for some uses and reason, I think this may be a very good thing, no? Lower power consumption, thermal issues, etc.

 

[monokakata]

Well for some uses and reason, I think this may be a very good thing, no? Lower power consumption, thermal issues, etc.

Yes, and for backup -- who cares? I'm about to order a 4 TB HGST unit (the kind Backblaze likes) for backup duties. I don't care that it's not 7200 rpm.

 

[Fuchal]

I use 2 Western Digital Red 4 TB drives in my 1,1 Mac Pro in an AppleRaid 1, and have had no issues whatsoever.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I'm not sure about what brands to recommend, but I normally use an application to constantly monitor the SMART data on hard-drives. This means that you can identify when the HDD is in the early stages of failure and take some precautions to have it replaced before it dies. I suppose if you were to do this you won't be in for any nasty surprises if the drive begins to fail.

I use SMART Utility on OS X: http://cloudfront.volitans-software.com/smartutility312.zip

 

[colorspace]

My experience with SMART...
if it says it's dead or dying = it is
if it says it's fine = maybe it is, maybe it's not

I've seen lots of struggling drives that report no issues in at all in SMART. I would never trust it to the point where I would only take precautions once SMART says their is an issue!!

I'm not sure about what brands to recommend, but I normally use an application to constantly monitor the SMART data on hard-drives. This means that you can identify when the HDD is in the early stages of failure and take some precautions to have it replaced before it dies. I suppose if you were to do this you won't be in for any nasty surprises if the drive begins to fail.

I use SMART Utility on OS X: http://cloudfront.volitans-software.com/smartutility312.zip