WD External Drives.

[rando]

@Shadders having potentially helped cure Chris of posting tech gossip site links as if they were reputable news sources. LTT is quite honestly bubble gum kiddy flavored chewable Ritalin nonsense.  

 

@sphinxsix Have to question the futility of buying in at every storage level. If one 6TB is going to grow into two. Why not start with 10 or 12 TB?  

 

Could you clarify if this external drive will see active use or serve in a backup capacity?  This is possibly the most important factor leading on from what mansr said.  For long term unpowered storage, SSD are a reversal on what I said above per storage level.

 

2x 4TB SSD safely stored eliminates the "in a hurry" problems you appear to have encountered. Zero degradation of data or ability to function after years of inactivity is hard to argue against. 

[rando]

You'll kindly note lack of disagreement with the meat of your post. Whether or not I felt there was an argument against it in some relevant quarter.  

 

Consumer format HDD production is prone to a very high level of variation simply unheard of in true server/data center equipment.  

[rando]

Best of luck getting your data off the old drives in time @sphinxsix  

 

[rando]

41 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

Ditto for the suggestion of 2x 4TB SSD .

 

For long term unpowered storage.  Where an indisputable advantage over spinning drives exists.  No slow decline of unacessed data or parked heads means full data recovery after 10 years gathering dust in a bank vault. 

 

Barring comment on the idea to go with 10TB drives (the poor guy has a backlog of purchases to work through you wouldn't believe) instead of 6TB. These will be active drives and the solution I brought forth including SSD doesn't apply. 

[rando]

Hope it works out for you. 

 

@mansr I think both of us agree spinning hard drives 2/3 full have greater chances of retaining data than 5.5/6 full drives.

 

We may be split down the middle on documentation and practical real world usage of SSD for infrequent backups.    Everything I've read about brief to months long retention ability has been positive though. Good controllers do help alleviate the weak points of NAND flash. 

[rando]

I am indeed positing HDD are impacted negatively after reaching very near to full capacity. Especially where rarely to never again accessed data is concerned.  SSD that had all memory written over a few times beforehand are statistically more robust.  

 

Suspect we could continue here all day and of the two of us I'd be the more likely to come away learning something concrete.  In the end this is probably as efficient as debating SQ, too broadly, between the two hard drive types. Or quality between film and digitally shot movies. 

 

 

[rando]

In parting, and admittedly going in the complete opposite direction. 

 

Have you ever seen this ongoing Russian (take whatever security actions you feel are necessary if following the link) SSD write to failure test?  It doesn't attempt to fully tackle running manufacturing changes or test large numbers of independently procured sample sizes from various sources.  Both concerning for consumers paying for thought quality goods or dealing with a profusion of model numbers being shuffled around.  It does highlight some aspects of the manufacturer programmed interaction between controller and NAND flash pairings in SSD of note for sale internationally.  

 

So not the most scientific method.  Certainly a test you couldn't publish without legal complications in most countries currently.  Also it's kind of fun witnessing the slow onslaught of destruction to see how everything performs.  

[rando]

Some mfrs assign a custom metric or two that nonproprietary programs may not read. The other benefit of the WD software is it can probably update the drives firmware. 

 

The most popular 3rd party software is CrystalDisk Info. A good solution when you have discs from multiple mfrs in use. 

[rando]

Reserves of cash and free disc space always on the decline is a complaint I've heard from you once or twice. 

 

Getting to the point again I need to consider the predicament you find yourself in.  Can't imagine some here with half a lifetime head start have it anywhere near as simple as three copies across six discs. 

[rando]

Congrats on not quite screwing up badly enough to erase the data.  When you get back I would run the software suggested upthread to check the health regularly.