Hard drive opinions please

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

reviving a thread from spring. Has anyone heard anymore about this SMR drive rubbish? Is it as bad a problem as some of those reports say for things like a heavy read-write SageTV server box?

Basically, don't buy WD Red drives between 2-8TB without knowing what you are buying. Some models are SMR and other are not, and it's not easy to tell the difference.

SMR drives are OK for storage, but write rates can very wildly, I personally would never use them for active (read & write) storage, only backups of backups, because they do trimming and cleanup in the background. I really wouldn't even recommend them for storage when the data rate matters (SD and DVD videos would be OK, but I wouldn't trust them for BR data rates.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Hitachi wins!!!

True, but they have been owned by WD for about 8 years. I wonder if there is a difference between HGST branded drives and WD? And I thought they were getting rid of the Hitachi brand:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article...arket-shuffle/

[MattHelm]

Personally, I'm sticking with either HGST (RAID) or Toshiba (desktop/external) going forward.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Personally, I'm sticking with either HGST (RAID) or Toshiba (desktop/external) going forward.

I’m currently running HGST in two of my three drive slots, but I heard WD bought them out, so maybe that leaves Toshiba, depending on this SMR stuff.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I’m currently running HGST in two of my three drive slots, but I heard WD bought them out, so maybe that leaves Toshiba, depending on this SMR stuff.

HGST is RIP it was rebrand under WD and only server drive line is still aorund

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by SHS

HGST is RIP it was rebrand under WD and only server drive line is still aorund

‘Brand’ doesn’t concern me as much as this SMR stuff. WD, Toshiba or HGST are fine, if they aren’t restricted by that.

[xjim1]

I discovered I own an smr drive. It explains the extremely slow write rate. I'm migrating to 2.5" drives and can't find anything that isn't, save for the Toshiba l200, which I can't find anywere.

Manufacturers are starting to come clean on the recording method of each class/size of their drives, Toshiba included.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by xjim1

I discovered I own an smr drive. It explains the extremely slow write rate. I'm migrating to 2.5" drives and can't find anything that isn't, save for the Toshiba l200, which I can't find anywere.

Manufacturers are starting to come clean on the recording method of each class/size of their drives, Toshiba included.

Yup you are going run in to that with small 2.5" drive as the platter max out at 500GB per disc anything over then will be SMR

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by xjim1

I'm migrating to 2.5" drives and can't find anything that isn't, save for the Toshiba l200, which I can't find anywere.

Be careful about using *laptop* drives for storing Sage videos/recordings. In their attempt to save battery life, most laptop drives are very aggressive about parking the heads and spinning down. This usually results in annoying delays and spinning circles in Sage playback. Hard to estimate the impact on recording.

[xjim1]

Originally Posted by SHS

Yup you are going run in to that with small 2.5" drive as the platter max out at 500GB per disc anything over then with be SMR

Heck, even the 1tb I have is smr, according to Seagate.

Originally Posted by JustFred

Be careful about using *laptop* drives for storing Sage videos/recordings. In their attempt to save battery life, most laptop drives are very aggressive about parking the heads and spinning down. This usually results in annoying delays and spinning circles in Sage playback. Hard to estimate the impact on recording.

'Sage' advice, for sure. I'm using 3.5 drives for recording dir's, but 2.5 for the library. A lot easier to make them portable by popping them into an enclosure when I travel. Thanx for the reminder, though. I checked the timeout on my Sage drives and they were set to 20 minutes. Up'd that to 60.

1tb's a nice size for me. I don't do anything fancy like NAS or RAID. I have several smaller drives (500gb or less), so that if I do happen to lose a drive, it's only a small portion of the library. And they seem to have a low failure rate. I just repurposed a 300gb drive from an old DTV DVR, circa 2007. It'll be a sad day when I retire my last ATA drive. All a proud part of my antique collection.

[Telecore]

Originally Posted by JustFred

Be careful about using *laptop* drives for storing Sage videos/recordings. In their attempt to save battery life, most laptop drives are very aggressive about parking the heads and spinning down. This usually results in annoying delays and spinning circles in Sage playback. Hard to estimate the impact on recording.

I tried shucking 4-5TB Seagate 2.5 USB drives and using them for SageTV and in several destkop PCs. I used hdparm to adjust settings to keep them from excessive head parking. Almost all of the drives died within a couple of years and I have since gone back to only using 3.5 drives.

[tvmaster2]

What are TiVo using for drives, surely they aren’t using SMR technology, since some TiVo’s have up to six, simultaneous recording tuners...

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by xjim1

'Sage' advice, for sure. I'm using 3.5 drives for recording dir's, but 2.5 for the library. A lot easier to make them portable by popping them into an enclosure when I travel. Thanx for the reminder, though. I checked the timeout on my Sage drives and they were set to 20 minutes. Up'd that to 60.

The power-saving behavior I mentioned takes place in the drive itself. Tweeking Windows' settings won't override the drive's inherent behavior.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

What are TiVo using for drives, surely they aren’t using SMR technology, since some TiVo’s have up to six, simultaneous recording tuners...

if it an 2.5" then is most likely it the tall 15mm drives that holds up to 5 platter up to 3TB or tad bit a more but I think your ref to Toshiba 2.5 3TB MQ03ABB300 or MQ03UBB300 which has 4 750GB platter 8 head but there really unknow drive but I thought TiVo was using standard 3.5" drive.

Your better off 2TB SSD or can afford it 4TB as they come way down in price

[xjim1]

Originally Posted by JustFred

The power-saving behavior I mentioned takes place in the drive itself. Tweeking Windows' settings won't override the drive's inherent behavior.

Right. I was referring to my 3.5 recording hd's. But I do consider any auto spin-down on 2.5's a plus for my use. My library drives sit idle most of the time anyway.

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

What are TiVo using for drives, surely they aren’t using SMR technology, since some TiVo’s have up to six, simultaneous recording tuners...

Found this on the Tivo forum, fwiw:

https://www.tivocommunity.com/commun...#post-12091700

Some specs on the WD Black series:
https://documents.westerndigital.com...ack-pc-hdd.pdf

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by xjim1

Right. I was referring to my 3.5 recording hd's. But I do consider any auto spin-down on 2.5's a plus for my use. My library drives sit idle most of the time anyway.

Found this on the Tivo forum, fwiw:

https://www.tivocommunity.com/commun...#post-12091700

Some specs on the WD Black series:
https://documents.westerndigital.com...ack-pc-hdd.pdf

Good find - lots of SMR discussion and possible solutions

[tvmaster2]

Found this article from April passed. WD seems to be releasing more info about SMR drives:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd...smr-techNOLOGY