16TB NAS hdd , what to get ?

[s8n]

hi guys , I am in the market for a NAS hard drive. It's my first one and obviously I need something reliable.

I'm going for a 16TB 7200rpm with many happy users (5 stars).

I'm hoping for multiple replies saying I should go for 'X' drive due to good reviews and reliability

anyways hope for a good turn out

 

[infinitevalence]

failure rates between all vendors are within the same range, get any major MFG, and when you buy a second one, get one from a different MFG.

Some people will have bias based on a personal experience, but as a user of every major manufacture I have seen failures from all of them. WD/Samsung/Toshiba/Seagate...

The 3.2.1 rule should always apply, Have 3 copies of your data, in 2 different locations, and 1 copy should be on a different media format.

So NVME/SSD at home, NAS HD at home, and USB key at friend/parents house counts, or portable USB HD rather than USB key also works.

 

[freakdiablo]

Honestly it's been so long since I've had a *proper* drive failure - as in the drive died with zero outside intervention - in so long I can't remember exactly when. I want to say it was my nas in college which had a stack of Samsung drives, and that was well over a decade ago.

If you want reliability from drive failure, most standalone multibay nas units will do at least raid 1. But like Infinite said, best solution is keep backups of your backups.

 

[Janus67]

Definitely have backups, but I'd generally recommend at least a second drive for a raid 1/mirror in case of failure, depending on what your goals are.

I'd recommend getting something with a decent warranty and meant for being powered on at all times.

 

[s8n]

thanks guys you've been amazing. Really appreciate all responses , i'm going to grab a model i've been wanting for a while now.

 

[Janus67]

For clarity:

Are you looking at a full network attached storage device (mini server with drive bays that you plug-in to the network) or just a bare HDD?

 

[s8n]

Just a bare HDD.......I plan to buy more HDDs as well

 

[Railgun]

failure rates between all vendors are within the same range, get any major MFG, and when you buy a second one, get one from a different MFG.

Seagate is consistently worse than anyone else.

Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2024

Read the latest annualized failure rates for the Backblaze drive fleet.

www.backblaze.com

Plus my own direct experience with Seagate products. If I didn't have some for free, and in abundance, I'd not use them. What I did purchase with my own £ is WD Red Pluses.

 

[EarthDog]

Seagate is consistently worse than anyone else.

Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2024

Read the latest annualized failure rates for the Backblaze drive fleet.

www.backblaze.com

Plus my own direct experience with Seagate products. If I didn't have some for free, and in abundance, I'd not use them. What I did purchase with my own £ is WD Red Pluses.

The difference between best and worst is 6x the failure rate. Sounds scary...

.... the worst failure rate is 1.5%.

You're not wrong, but perspective is needed.


EDIT: Actually, I can't read........ my bad. Ignore what I said above.

 

[infinitevalence]

No you are right, its all perspective.

One zero. For the second quarter in a row, the 14TB Seagate (model: ST16000NM00J) drive model had zero failures.

Of the 16tb drives Toshiba has the highest rate at 1.23%. Individual models may have higher or lower than average failure, but each manufacturer has winners and loosers. Dont gamble on a brand, hedge your bets by mixing brands and using 3.2.1.

 

[EarthDog]

I'm glad someone is awake and conscious when they post (referring to me being alseep).



I probably wouldn't get the ST14000NM0138, but the ST160000NM001G I would.... 0.35% to a max of 1.23% of all their tested 16TB drives.


Also worth noting, this is data center use-scenario. And while it's likely they are powered on similarly in these uses (24/7/265), I'd have to imagine those in the DC are getting beat on more than a typical home NAS. For 16TB, if you want to go by these numbers, get the cheapest.

 

[Slayer2003]

While I've never mixed brands on drives if running a RAID/NAS setup, I absolutely recommend buying your drives from separate vendors if getting more than one. I usually do half from NewEgg and the other half from Amazon or whomever has a similar or competing price, but if you're going to be using multiple drives try and get them from different sources.

I do this for two reasons. The first being if one supplier received a bad batch of drives or screwy firmware that's discovered later down the road, only half of your drives are affected. The second is if during shipping, something happens to one set of drives, say UPS or FedEx or whomever gets a little rough with that box, still only half of your drives are affected. I will even go as far as to mark where they came from in case I have to track down failing drive issues. Overkill? Most likely, but why not put the extra effort in for that much data ya know? Drives aren't small anymore hehehe.

Also, if going with such a large drive as you mentioned (16TB) @s8n , please please PLEASE get a second one and run it in RAID-1, because that's a LOT of data to lose should something happen later down the road. Unless you are going to be using an off-site backup service, a second drive in RAID-1 is like the bare minimum for fail-safes.