What 2TB hard drive should I buy???

[Riz-man]

Hi,

I'm very new to the world of NAS and I've just ordered my Synology DS212J (yay me!). Based on the many different websites I went to and reviews read, this seemed to be perfect for me.

However, I'm unable to find an equally unanimous opinion when it comes to hard drives. I had narrowed it down to a Seagate drive (based on two qualities - price and green credentials) but then several reviewers pointed out the reduction in their warranty (now only 1 year) and questioned the faith the manufacturer put in their own products (not to mention the poorer reviews talking about them dying quite quickly).

Having looked at many hard drives in a similar price range and with similar green credentials, I've now settled on a Samsung HD204UI Spinpoint F4 2TB Hard Drive with a longer warranty but with similarly mixed reviews.

I'm sure, like most things in life, ask 100 people what they prefer and you'll rarely get an unanimous verdict (though I did seem to get that when deciding on buying a DS212J) but I thought I'd get some advice from actual Synology users before I make my final decision on this.

Thank you.

[ethuesen]

The choice of hard drive is pretty much a question about reliability.. You should not worry too much about performance because the hard drive usually is not the bottleneck..
Personally i would go for the WD Red drive due to the fact that they are made for NAS servers..
They have a pretty good reliability, a very low power consumption and most importantly: they are made to run 24/7..

However, other hard drives can be quite good as well.. And remember, always keep backups of important data, even if you go buying a very expensive, very reliable enterprise hard drive..

[coaxjim]

Hi.
I'm using a pair of the Samsung HU204UI drives in both DS212J and DS212+.. They were easy to set up and are working well at this stage.

[RossPat]

Personally i would go for the WD Red drive due to the fact that they are made for NAS servers..
They have a pretty good reliability, a very low power consumption and most importantly: they are made to run 24/7..

As WD own Hitachi, I am wondering if these Red drives are actually the Hitachi Enterprise 24/7 drives

[ethuesen]

They are definitely not...
WD has a Enterprise drive as well (link here), and you should probably look at this drive for comparison with the Hitachi Enterprise 24/7 drive..

However, all enterprise drives are quite expensive, so unless you have business critical data stored and the drive are gonna be accessed by a lot of people 24/7, the WD red drive should be just fine..

Hi. I'm using a pair of the Samsung HU204UI drives in both DS212J and DS212+.. They were easy to set up and are working well at this stage.

Most hard drives will work in Synology's NAS, but some hard drives are able to last longer than others.. But don't worry, your hard drives should (at least) be able to last a could of years from now..

[cfuttrup]

Personally i would go for the WD Red drive due to the fact that they are made for NAS servers.

Hi ethuesen - your post tipped me off on the new WD Red series. It indeed looks like a solution to a long searched for answer ... what disk to choose for a NAS.

We've been using Desktop disks, even Digital Video Recorder disks.

WD gave themselves a bad name by trying to make "smart" Desktop features inferior with NAS usage. Us, the consumers, have had bad experience with all manufacturers.

Manufacturers might claim that we should use Enterprise disks, but price is prohibitive of this choice ... but I think WD Red disks are the answer - an "in between" solution. I also see how WD is mentioning many reasons why not use a Desktop disk, trying to clear themselves from bad experience in the past (indirectly saying it is the users fault ...).

I can imagine / I am actually not in doubt that the WD Red disks must have given some political discussions inside WD, but at the end of the day, bad experience with disks gives the manufacturers a bad reputation.

I'm glad to see a disk manufacturer cooperate with NAS manufacturers.

I hope price will come down a bit (at the moment it seems price is going up a bit, since the introduction).

/Claus

[Riz-man]

I agree with cfuttrup with regard to WD Red drives.

I started looking at them when ethuesen mentioned it in the first reply to my post.

It's actually more than I wanted to pay, particularly as I'm buying two (currently the cheapest I've found is £99.00 on Amazon). I was looking to pay around £77.00 for the Samsung HD204UI (as offered by Ebuyer last week but has since gone up to around £86.00.

I've been burnt before trying to save £15-20...so I may very well pay the extra and go for WD Red drives. Definitely sounds perfect for my new Synology DS212J (once again...yay me!) but I think I just need to give my head a few days to accumulate to the fact that I'm about to go £30-40 over budget (as I'm buying two drives).

Just one final question - if in the future one of these two drives fail - am I okay in putting a different brand of drive in the DS212J...or do they have to match (or should they preferably match)?

Thank you.

[ethuesen]

Just one final question - if in the future one of these two drives fail - am I okay in putting a different brand of drive in the DS212J...or do they have to match (or should they preferably match)?

I cannot see why that should be a problem (especially if you are running RAID 1 or Basic where the disks are not "cooperating")..
However, if you for example are going to buy 5 new disks, I would prefer to buy the same disks..

[roblloyd]

I am waiting delivery of 8 drives for my ds1812. I went with WD caviar black 2tb. It's going to be storing off site backups for clients and I like the 5 yr warranty.
I actually just bought 20 of them for myself and clients so that was a large chunk of change...

[greatfolded]

I opted to go with the WD Green 2 TB drives for a new DS212 install. After a few days, I checked the LCC, and it was high (~1000/day), and I was disappointed.

Then I found out that even when you start from scratch with DSM 4, you need to shutdown before it will effectively control the LCC -- or at least, I was advised to do that and see if it helped. It's been a couple days, and the LCC went up by 4 since I did that.

[halkx]

well, even after WD acquired Hitachi, I still think that the Hitachi 5K3000 drives are THE perfect choice for a NAS...cool,power efficient and RELIABLE...I have several Hitachi drives in all kinds of NAS and servers and had ZERO problems with them...no dropouts, no dead drives...and many of them run 24/7...After WD buyout, and WD having to forfeit a China factory of HGST to Toshiba, Toshiba has announced several drives up to 3Tb, which are just rebranded Hitachi drives...an obvious choice (as long as they are available that is... )

Michael

[ethuesen]

There is just one problem with the Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000: It is still a desktop hard drive..

You may have the drive running for fore than 5 years but in that case i would say it is pure luck..
As long as it is not a enterprise hard drive (or NAS specified hard drive) it is not made for 24/7 nor RAID 5/6 environments..

But sure the drive will work fine in a NAS... I'm not saying Hitachi makes bad hard drives, I'm just saying the Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 is a desktop hard drive, and therefore not a NAS specified hard drive (as WD Red)..

[roblloyd]

I now have installed (2) 1512, (3) 712 and an 1812 with 2tb WD Black drives. 5 yr warranty. Same drives HP uses for their servers. So far speed is fantastic, quiet even with 8 humming at once and they are running about 105deg f.

I will have to check out the red drives if the warranty is good. Look at the MTBF on any drive so you have an idea of how long they think the drive will last before failure.

[ethuesen]

The WD Red has the same MTBF as Caviar Black..

The primary argument for buying the WD Red instead of the Caviar Black drive is the WD Red drive has TLER which is a very good idea to have when running RAID 5/6..

The WD Red drive has a 3-year limited warranty compared to the Caviar Black having 5-year limited warranty, but the WD Red is also a quite a lot cheaper drive than the Caviar Black..