What 8-10TB "better" HDD drive to buy...?

Moratorium

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Hello

One my old ordinary HDD is dying, and im looking to buy a new HDD as a replacement for it. After looking at some shops at my country, i decided to go for something slightly better and more spacious this time (my OLD dying hdd is 8,3 years old WD Red 3TB 64MB cache (WD30EFRX)). Looking at the shops and prices in my country (none english), i narrowed the "menu" to:

1) WD Gold 10TB (WD Gold DC HA750 10TB - WD102KRYZ)
2) WD Ultrastar 8TB (WD Ultrastar HC320 8TB - HUS728T8TALE6L4 (0B36404) )
3) Seagate Exos 7E8 8TB (ST8000NM000A)
4) WD Gold 8TB (WD8004FRYZ)

All have (AFAIK, correct me if im wrong) - 2 000 000 MTBF (the gold ones even 2 500 000 (?) ), all have 5 years warranty (in my country)... I SOMEWHAT liked the Seagate Exos 7E8 8TB , cause its also the cheapest (somewhat "visibly") from the list, but i just dont like Seagate that much... Read like years ago that they are not that good (reliability-wise)and that "famous article" from backblaze that they (seagate) fail more... And it just sticked with me (in my mind)... Also its the cheapest which also doesnt give me any additional confidence... Also one online shop in my country has in each HDD product spec on his website that failure rate (i think its the percentage they sold vs the percentage that were sent back to them for warranty issues) they call it "reliability" basically... All the drives from the list have like 96-98%, the seagate one is the only one that has lower - 95%. Although its only 1-3% difference, its still a difference and sits well with the other "ideas" i have about seagate (that it just fails a bit more)). Thats why even though the seagate is the cheapest almost i just dont really want to go for it :-(.

Im eyeing mainly the 1) WD Gold 10TB or the 2) WD Ultrastar 8TB...
The gold is more expensive, but has additional 2 TB... I like the gold 10 TB drive so far the best probably...
But AFAIK the WD Ultrastars are the "ex-" Hitachi drives, and AFAIK, those are (or at least were in its days) the BEST (!), more RELIABLE drives out there... They are also a little bit cheaper where i live than the WD 8 TB gold...So i like that Ultrastar too quite a lot...

So... now what...

From the 4 drives i mentioned, which is the best one? Which has the best reviews, the best reputation and which one would you buy...?? Or from the 4 it really doesnt matter and they all are GREAT drives (just maybe avoid the Seagate)? But I also read the gold 10TB is quite loud...?

So which one?
 
Is this going to be a bulk storage drive (if so, buy the one with the best $/TB rating if MTBF (and Backblaze ratings) show all things being equal between the drives you are looking at.
 
My first reflex (all good brand name), all really great for your usage and go for the best deal (which are common), deals can be quite vast on HDD and make a big difference, so I would wait-and get a 8-10-12TB WD red or others has well, when they get on sale.


And not overthink it too much, like I would if I was buying a lot of them for an professional setting)
 
The MTBF for WDs are the best, I'd go for
1) WD Gold 10TB (WD Gold DC HA750 10TB - WD102KRYZ)
 
Yes I would not wait that much time for the sale, but they are frequent (maybe all irrelevant in his market too)
 
At the sample size you are discussing - 1 drive - you are at the mercy of simple cosmic luck. All of those drives are fine, and ever if one of them has a statistically higher annual failure rate (say 3% instead of 1.5%) you'll still be in the category where it is incredibly unlikely to happen to you and that statistical failure rate won't have anything to do with it. A failure in your hands is going to be random chance, as opposed to if you're Backblaze and you have 10,000 of the drives.

Hard drives brands are like car brands. My buddy drives Chevy vehicles because every Ford he's ever been in seems to fall apart at the wheels, where I've got another buddy who exclusively drives Fords because the doors fall off every Chevy he touches. People working with sample sizes that are small enough are unlikely to be truly affected by relatively minor statistical differences in product reliability, but that won't stop them from forming strong opinions about their product choices based strictly on anecdotal evidence.

I would buy the one that is on sale. Or buy one of mine, I've got some 12TB Seagate drives over in FS/FT. On a personal level I might avoid WD, since I've personally observed them being a dick more often than Seagate, but Toshiba is also a brand you could consider.
 
Is it "safe" (good idea) to buy (brand new) HDD (Helium filled (!)) that was sitting in a warehouse/store/stock shelf somewhere for like 3-4 years, without EVER being turned on/put into PC...? Just forgotten drive, LAST piece in stock which nobody bought...?

So i have found a nice drive, in my country (none english) e-shops, it appears to be the last piece of this particular HDD (its an older model AFAIK, replaced by newer models/revision (that are worse)). AFAIK this is the last HDD (new piece) thats being offered. Its WD Ultrastar 10TB HC510. I was thinking about buying WD Ultrastar HC DC 330, OR WD GOLD 10 TB (those are i think the same drives, but different names)... BUT... I by accident managed to find basically their (better quality/stats) predecessor - the WD Ultrastar 10TB HC510...

Its better in almost everything - Helium Filled (vs Air filled for the DC330 and WD GOLD 10 TB)), its has more MTBF, it consumes less power, should be significanntly quiter (20 dba in iddle vs 32 db in iddle - lol)). Its a better drive (on paper at least) more or less overall.

BUT (!). The problem is that AFAIK its an older model... these are NOT being manufactured anymore (were replaced by the worse HC DC 330 and Gold 10TB), and im not sure but i think that the manafacturing of H510 ended like in 2019 or 2020 (im not sure about that but i think its true)... That would make the drive like 3-4 years old (!!). That means that its a "brand new HDD" (not a "used one"), BUT the last piece in the stock... Simply nobody bought it yet and as far as i can tell it was just sitting in some warehouse/Store/stock shelf for all these years (3-4) :) !!... Nobody touched it, it was never powered on during all these years etc...

My question is: Is it a good idea to buy such "long totally iddle" HDDs...?

Like didnt the helium "leak" - "reduced" during all these years or total innactivity or something...? Dont HDDs have some lubricant or "grease" or whatever that makes them run/spin the platters smoohtly etc... Didnt the years on shelf hurt it somehow... (hardened etc...)...? Wont it hurt the HDD or shorten its future use-lifespan if it sat on a stock shelf somewhere totall innactive for like 3-4 years...

Its hard for me to imagine that it didnt hurt it in some way (or reduce the future lifespan of the drive (HELIUM drive at that))...???

I like the specs of the drive on paper, its also like 10% cheaper (9%) than the newer (but worse) versions - GOLD 10 TB (WD102KRYZ)... I just like the drive, but what almost scares me are those 3-4 years of just lying around on a shelf not being powered on AT ALL... Am i wrong in being worried...?

(doesnt somebody know WHEN the HC510 was actually stopped being made?)
 
While drives can age without being used, I doubt they would age nearly as quickly as if they were on and active.

My entirely unscientific assumption would be that for every 3-4-ish years on the shelf sitting powered off, I would 'age' the drive in my mind by a year. Given the timeframe you're talking about, you're probably fine.

With that said, funnily enough a drive of that model that is actually 3-4 years old and has been constantly in use may actually be more reliable than your never-powered-on drive, thanks to the bathtub curve. Your unused drive would essentially be internally aged a tiny bit, but still at the very beginning of the bathtub curve, while a drive that has actually been used for 3 years would be in the middle/dip of the curve.

Basically, I expect if the drive powers up and works for a while - survives the beginning of the curve - that you would be good for a while!
 
While drives can age without being used, I doubt they would age nearly as quickly as if they were on and active.

My entirely unscientific assumption would be that for every 3-4-ish years on the shelf sitting powered off, I would 'age' the drive in my mind by a year. Given the timeframe you're talking about, you're probably fine.

With that said, funnily enough a drive of that model that is actually 3-4 years old and has been constantly in use may actually be more reliable than your never-powered-on drive, thanks to the bathtub curve. Your unused drive would essentially be internally aged a tiny bit, but still at the very beginning of the bathtub curve, while a drive that has actually been used for 3 years would be in the middle/dip of the curve.

Basically, I expect if the drive powers up and works for a while - survives the beginning of the curve - that you would be good for a while!

thanks

yeah im familiar with the bath tube curve.
 
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