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HGST 2TB Ultrastar

K

KB2008X

n00b
Joined
Sep 16, 2014
Messages
5
Over the past 15 years or so I’ve had a few external hard drives fail. Because I back up my back ups I’ve not lost too much that couldn’t be recovered, but I now want to take the next step and bullet-proof my back up hardware even further.

What I’ve been doing is backing up our PCs to several ExHDs, depending upon content, like Seagate’s Free Agent, and other similar ExHDs, and then periodically backing them all up to a larger ExHD. I don’t want to go to a NAS or some other central style of storage/back up. Our system works for us and I don’t want to change it, but I do want to have more reliable hardware – as in much, much, more reliable.

I purchased a Rosewill USB 3.0, fan-cooled, external enclosure, to stop or slow the failures due to overheating, and a HGST Ultrastar 2 TB HD, for general rock-solid reliability. This will be for testing purposes and if all goes well then I’ll replace the others with this set up. I know the Ultrastar is overkill but reliability is paramount for me.

I suspect most everyone is familiar with one or both of these products, but here are links to each. I actually bought the HGST from Micro Center in the retail packaging, and the Rosewill from Amazon.

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5EM1R02740
HGST Ultrastar 2TB, 7K4000, 3.5”, 6.0Gb/s, SATA, 7200rpm, 64mb cache, MTBF 2,000,000 hours, 5 year warranty
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...osewill_RX-358_U3C_SLV-_-17-182-248-_-Product
Rosewill RX-358 U3C SLV, 3.5” SATA to USB 3.0 & eSATA, 80mm Fan, External Enclosure

I’ve already assembled the HD in the Rosewill enclosure and that went great, the enclosure appears to be top notch and I’m anxious to use it.

So, my concerns are:
Does the HGST Ultrastar, being an enterprise class hard drive, require anything special as far as formatting or set up, to be used with PCs running Win 7 Pro ?
I’ve never used a self-assembled external hard drive before and I’m far from a computer expert, and still fairly new to Win 7, so tips would be appreciated.

Many thanks for your help, Keith
 
Nope, just continue using them as you have, and continue backing up your data and you will be alright. :)
 
I have two of those Rosewill cases but 2.0. The 3.0 had a bad rap, something to do with the chip used, maybe asmedia but it seemed to have quite a few negative reviews.

Another problem is they use a 80x10mm fan which are very hard to find and the fans will get noisy fast if run constantly because they are cheap.
Only 80x10 I can find it made by Evercool.

For backup and then eject/turn off they should last awhile.

If you like externals you might want to look into the new WD My Book duo with built in raid1.
Sadly it does not have active cooling but from what I've read RED drives can take the heat.
 
Yeah, I debated quite awhile whether to spend the extra on a fan cooled enclosure versus just an aluminum box for that very reason, fan being too noisy or burning out, but I finally gave in.
I'm doing manual back ups of new data - mostly photos and music - so the ExHDs are normally off and that will help. Thanks for the heads up on the Evercool, the little that I've run the fan it is OK and surprisingly quiet - so far, so good.
As for the chip, my fingers are crossed.
Thanks for the help.
 
Glad I could help. The first box I got the fan got noisy after only a few hundred hours. I lubed it with some synthetic and it's been good ever since.
I like the Rosewill externals though, easy to take apart to change drives and are fairly solid in construction.

I also have a WD my book duo set to raid1 and it's been good so far as well.

The drives at idle are usually around 107F, hotter then I am used to but nominal without any active airflow.

I does have a fan but WD confirmed it does not kick on until 60C and I just can't see the drives getting that hot ever, even with very long transfers I only peaked at 119F.

When I placed the box on top of my lian-li case with a top blower fan the temps dropped down in the mid-80's so active cooing makes a huge difference.
 
I just saw a Seagate 2TB desktop extHDD for $99 at Best Buy.
Portable 2TB was $119.
 
Gomar said:
I just saw a Seagate 2TB desktop extHDD for $99 at Best Buy.
Portable 2TB was $119.
Click to expand...

Yeah because it's a Seagate consumer drive. Not really designed to take much heat.
Then again the Samsung externals are on sale all the time in 3/4 for around $119 but they too have a Seagate inside.

None of these have active cooling, good for a quick transfer then turning off but I certainly would not leave them on or copy a TB worth of files at one time.
 
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