Need a new hard drive, most concerned about reliability

[DSG]

I need a new hard drive that I can really rely on to be a good backup, one that I'll be able to have for a long while without worrying about it failing and being able to keep it along side in future builds/operating systems. Any suggestions? Newegg/Tigerdirect preferred, capacity anything 500GB or up. I see Spinpoints mentioned here a lot but I'm figuring those are mainly better in terms of speed performance rather than "durability."

Also, for reference in case anybody reading this knows, what happens if you need to exceed the limit of 5 transfers of iTunes accounts to different computers? Will it not let you or is there a way around it?

Thanks!

[Axiom :D]

Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1TB

[Prometh3us]

Either a F3 or a WD would be fine for you. I personally trust WD more than Samsung in terms of reliability.

[DSG]

[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136497[/url]

The description Newegg provides screams reliability, but does anyone else know more about this? Also, would there be something better than this one? I think I'm going to stick with either this one, a Caviar Black 500GB, or the F3 1TB since the 1TB WD is a little more than I was looking to spend.

[JohnEdwards]

Get 2 500GB drives and RAID 1 them
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073[/URL]
promo code for 10 off each EMCZNZR47, If you lose your data you were meant to

[Axiom :D]

Raid is unreliable with hard drives

[DSG]

[QUOTE=JohnEdwards;26702311]Get 2 500GB drives and RAID 1 them
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073[/URL]
promo code for 10 off each EMCZNZR47, If you lose your data you were meant to[/QUOTE]

How do you carry a RAID set up (like RAID1) over to a new motherboard/set-up? You just plug them both in and configure them the same way you had them before and it works just as usual?

Also, I've never tried configuring RAID before so do I need a controller or something or since my motherboard is RAID compatible I should be able to do it in BIOS without anything extra?

[editline]14th December 2010[/editline]

[QUOTE=Axiom :D;26702355]Raid is unreliable with hard drives[/QUOTE]

RAID1 is specifically for making a copy of one of the hard drives onto the second drive in RAID so that your files are super-extra secure. 0 and 5 are the ones that have to do with performance.

[Encryption]

[QUOTE=Axiom :D;26702355]Raid is unreliable with hard drives[/QUOTE]

Out Get

RAID 1 is mirroring. Any data that goes onto the first drive is also put onto the second drive simultaneously. How the fuck is that unreliable?

[Axiom :D]

Oops, misread as a 0.

[Killerelf12]

Even still, it's not unreliable, it's just if one drive fails, you lose the data from both. My dad has a RAID 0 setup of 2 10,000RPM drives that's been going great for I'd say about 4 years.

[Ninja Duck]

I'll look around, but the seller might drive a hard bargain.

[WarriorXK]

[QUOTE=JohnEdwards;26702311]Get 2 500GB drives and RAID 1 them
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073[/URL]
promo code for 10 off each EMCZNZR47, If you lose your data you were meant to[/QUOTE]

I agree with the statement, but disagree on your choice of drive, the blues from WD have a tendency of failing alot, it is a better choice to go for the Caviar green which is more reliable and has almost exactly the same speed.

[DSG]

[QUOTE=Kialtia;26710901]I agree with the statement, but disagree on your choice of drive, the blues from WD have a tendency of failing alot, it is a better choice to go for the Caviar green which is more reliable and has almost exactly the same speed.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136497[/url]
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136358[/url]

Which would be a better choice?

[Reapaninja]

there's nothing wrong with blues

[anikilol]

For reliability:[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136497[/url]

For speed: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185[/url]

[JohnEdwards]

[QUOTE=Kialtia;26710901]I agree with the statement, but disagree on your choice of drive, the blues from WD have a tendency of failing alot, it is a better choice to go for the Caviar green which is more reliable and has almost exactly the same speed.[/QUOTE]
No problems here on my NAS >200 users accesing

[DSG]

Hmm... I have a WD Caviar Black 500GB drive I could use in RAID1 with a new HDD I get, but would I have to get the exact same drive? For example, let's say I put my Caviar Black in RAID1 with the 500GB Caviar Blue previously linked above. Would this cause any problems/difficulties with the RAID configuration or should everything work fine in terms of increasing reliability for back-up purposes?

If this setup will work, I'm going to get the Caviar Blue and RAID1 it with the Caviar Black just sitting in my case. The only reason I haven't used it yet is because I had an issue with it a few months back where the boot loader got corrupted or something... see thread [url=http://www.facepunch.com/threads/978400-HDD-Failed-so-I-froze-it...-now-what]here[/url] for reference on what happened with it and why I wouldn't necessary trust it as a backup on its own. Mirroring this drive in RAID seems like a good idea though, if it would work.

[WarriorXK]

[QUOTE=JohnEdwards;26743958]No problems here on my NAS >200 users accesing[/QUOTE]

Hmm, then we've might have a bad batch, in the pas few weeks about 50% of all Caviar Blues have been returned at my company.

[editline]17th December 2010[/editline]

[QUOTE=DSG;26748573]Hmm... I have a WD Caviar Black 500GB drive I could use in RAID1 with a new HDD I get, but would I have to get the exact same drive? For example, let's say I put my Caviar Black in RAID1 with the 500GB Caviar Blue previously linked above. Would this cause any problems/difficulties with the RAID configuration or should everything work fine in terms of increasing reliability for back-up purposes?

If this setup will work, I'm going to get the Caviar Blue and RAID1 it with the Caviar Black just sitting in my case. The only reason I haven't used it yet is because I had an issue with it a few months back where the boot loader got corrupted or something... see thread [url=http://www.facepunch.com/threads/978400-HDD-Failed-so-I-froze-it...-now-what]here[/url] for reference on what happened with it and why I wouldn't necessary trust it as a backup on its own. Mirroring this drive in RAID seems like a good idea though, if it would work.[/QUOTE]

It would be better to have 2 of the same drives, but it shouldn't cause any real problems with 2 different drives.

[27X]

Cav Black.

[anikilol]

[QUOTE=DSG;26748573]Hmm... I have a WD Caviar Black 500GB drive I could use in RAID1 with a new HDD I get, but would I have to get the exact same drive? For example, let's say I put my Caviar Black in RAID1 with the 500GB Caviar Blue previously linked above. Would this cause any problems/difficulties with the RAID configuration or should everything work fine in terms of increasing reliability for back-up purposes?

If this setup will work, I'm going to get the Caviar Blue and RAID1 it with the Caviar Black just sitting in my case. The only reason I haven't used it yet is because I had an issue with it a few months back where the boot loader got corrupted or something... see thread [url=http://www.facepunch.com/threads/978400-HDD-Failed-so-I-froze-it...-now-what]here[/url] for reference on what happened with it and why I wouldn't necessary trust it as a backup on its own. Mirroring this drive in RAID seems like a good idea though, if it would work.[/QUOTE]

As long as the drives are the same size, you're good to go. (I recommend a matching drive so they have the same number of cache/RPM though)