Need higher capacity HDD...raid0 or new single disk

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cicatriz63

Weaksauce
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Oct 9, 2009
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I currently have a 1 TB WD black HDD that is finally reaching its capacity. I've had the drive for about 4-5 years now and had not had any issues with it. I'm looking to jump to at least 2TB of storage and I'm wondering if I should just get another 1TB black drive and raid0 them or if I should just get a new single 2TB drive and retire the old one.
Right now for a single disk I'm looking at the 2TB WD black, only because the 1TB I have has been so good. Does anyone have any other recommendations for a fast reliable 2TB drive?
 
IMO, upgrade and retire/repurpose the existing.

Why?

- power footprint
- lots of miles on the existing drive
- running RAID0 doubles your chance of data loss (and see the point above - one of the pair is far from new)
- generally, technology and performance improve with each model upgrade. Today's WD Blacks should outperform 5 year old ones in every way.

I think 3TB might be the pricing sweet spot, but I didn't look at the black series specifically.
 
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Why not just add the new one and use both without RAID?
 
I would not raid0 the drives. I would just get a 3TB or 4TB drive when it goes on sale and use the 1TB for backups.
 
Well you guys sure did help reenforce my gut instinct to get 1 larger drive. Right now a 2TB black drive is $150 on amazon. Are there any other comparable drives out there to consider? As I said, I'm only looking at the black drive because I have had a positive experience, but I'm open to other options. I have not really followed regular HDDs since going SSD a few years back.
 
I'm only looking at the black drive because I have had a positive experience
Click to expand...

That does not guaranty that the next WDC black will run for years without problems. Most hard drives these days have a 1% or so expected annual failure rate.

Right now a 2TB black drive is $150 on amazon
Click to expand...

I paid $150 shipped (amazon sale) for my 4TB seagate 5900 RPM drive which uses 1TB platters and is for the most part faster than a WDC black drive. Although you can get a 4TB hitachi for $151 at B&H

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/835055-REG/Hitachi_0S03359_4TB_Internal_Hard_Drive.html

This is a 5 platter drive I believe so its not as fast as the seagate 4 platter 4TB.
 
drescherjm said:
That does not guaranty that the next WDC black will run for years without problems. Most hard drives these days have a 1% or so expected annual failure rate.
Click to expand...
True, which is why I was hoping for some other drive recommendations as well. With no experience with other drives I have only anecdotal evidence to go by. The 5 year warranty is nice too.
 
cicatriz63 said:
True, which is why I was hoping for some other drive recommendations as well. With no experience with other drives I have only anecdotal evidence to go by. The 5 year warranty is nice too.
Click to expand...

Well it's mostly luck. Whichever drive you choose it can die. I used to buy drives in bulk, and from 30-40 drives one or two often had problems within a few weeks. If data security is important do backups. No matter what drive you're using.
 
I'd use drive bender and just add another hard drive, they will show up as one drive on windows and you don't have to deal with raid, plus you can chose specific files/folders to be duplicated so they are on two drives instead of one.
 
My personal rule is if the data is important and something you would not want to lose then DO NOT raid 0. Technically speaking a raid 0 has double the chance of failure. If this is not a issue for you then its really up to you and your feelings on price/performance.
 
Well my thoughts on going raid0 were that most of the games I don't play often will be stored on the drive so maybe I could get a slight performance increase by going raid0. There's nothing really on the drive that I couldn't live without. Someone brought up a good point though and I don't know how confident I would be adding a 5 year old drive to a raid0 array.
 
RAID0 will bring you almost no performance increase in desktop use and might actually reduce it in some instances.
 
No Raid
You don't say if primary OS is SSD, but it should be.
2-4 TB HD'd are so cheap today, they are similar, who has best warranty this week?
For sure continue to use the old HD (after testing) I prefer Stablebit Drive pool and Scanner if you want to combine the drives.
If the old one checks out just use as storage.
 
Penance said:
My personal rule is if the data is important and something you would not want to lose then DO NOT raid 0. Technically speaking a raid 0 has double the chance of failure. If this is not a issue for you then its really up to you and your feelings on price/performance.
Click to expand...

Know anyone whose data is not important to them? :D
 
The four TB WD SE is a good replacement for the black. Enterprise grade, 7200 rpm. Its new.

Stay the hell away from raid 0 it is a waste of time and increases rotational latency. Not secure enough for long term storage.

No 7200 rpm drive is suitable for gaming or booting these days.Too slow.
 
Bear in the mind the SE line does not have a locking connector. Most cables are tight so if you don't move your computer around or dig into it often it might not be any issue.
If you just filled 1TB after 4-5 years then 4 is severe overkill, 3TB might be as well.
Anything over 2TB you will have to format it with GPT, if you have 7 or 8 not an issue since this is not your C drive but storage.
The most reliable should be the RE line but they are also the most expensive, of course.
 
Blues never went higher then 1TB for whatever reason. WD can easily have2,3 and 4.
It's their only line that seems to be neglected.
I have a 640 AAKS with around 37K on it doing fine.
Never had an issue with the black drives either. I still have a FASS 2TB doing well, albeit it runs much warmer then I would like and it's hungry too. 4 platters and 8 heads will do that.
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I'm gonna keep the current drive and add an additional 2TB black drive.
 
WD released a new line of HD models recently that you might want to check out.
 
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