Why is buying HDDs at the same time a good idea?

[DatHak512]

Well, just like the thread title says, i'm wondering why buying all of the HDDs at the same time to use in a RAID array is a good idea. It seems to me that they'll all reach the end of their lifespan at about the same time. And that's not a good thing, right? I remember hearing that it's a good idea to have them come from the same batch and have the same firmware and all of that, but i can't remember why. I'm just curious about this as i'm looking into building a RAID 5 array sometime within a year or two. I hope!

 

[mikeblas]

If they don't come from the same batch, they might have different firmware. If they have different firmware, they might have different timing characteristics -- or even sizes.

Do you really believe that all drives last the same amount of time before failing? Even approximately? Say you're right; say that failure time is gaussan around some particular age. How long will you have to wait to by the next drive before the curve decays enough to make a difference?

 

[GIGANTOID]

On the other hand if they come from different batches you are distributing the odds that drives purchased from the same batch will all have problems to lie more in your favor.

 

[unhappy_mage]

If it were possible to get the same batch from different suppliers and different shipping methods, that would be the best of all worlds. Same firmware, etc, but one bad supplier or bad shipping can't kill the whole array.

I bought 3 Maxline 3s at the same time from ZZF. Hopefully I won't hit any problems... Basically, as the two posters above have said, there are pluses and minuses. Matching firmware is good, but if you happen to hit the next generation of Deathstars, it's not gonna help.