Advice on a new hard drive (large size) with a weird requirement

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Cbshahji

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 3, 2010
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Hello guys, I tried to search for the right information for my requirement but the neat picking of information on current drives are just so much.

I'm planning on upgrading my current drives to a one large size drive if possible. (From 4x4tb portable to one 20-22TB drive)

I need access to some work data probably 2-3 times a week or so (Large video files of 30GB to small documents.)
I've 4x4TB portable drives and the data is all over the place and I tend to access each drives about 2-3 times a week with plug and play. (Drives are working just fine)
But I want to combine all the data in one large drive. Something that's not too slow to access and can be moved back and forth without it being at a turtle speed.

The problem is I don't keep the drive plug in all the time as I do move from site to site and not sure when I'll need certain data. So lots of power up and down goes on these drives.
And also I'm on the road a bit as well, and not all are same, so there's definitely some bouncing/shacking/vibration going on.

I wish there was an USB C powered one (one less brick to carry) but there aren't any.
I though about upgrading to an ssd, but they're expensive. It will be lighter but not cheap but still I'll need at least 3 of those as well.

Any advice will be helpful, I won't mind spending little extra and getting an internal drive and buying an external enclosure if the option is better than an external drive. I'll upgrade to SSDs in future when it's better, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon. I've had pretty solid luck with WD drives, but seagate is close second.
I just don't want something I don't/won't need/use (The NAS drives/high performance drive for cloud storage)
 
Cbshahji said:
I'll upgrade to SSDs in future when it's better, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon
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m.2 drives are currently at the lowest prices ever, and with even more savings from BF sales, but beware, that will all come to screeching halt by Jan/Feb 24, as the Gen 4 parts costs are already rising quickly, plus the fact that Gen 5 drives are getting more faster and will start to become the mainstream in most pc's by then..

However, the largest m.2's currently available at those low prices are 4TB, so perhaps you could consider a few of them for internal use, and a couple more to put into an external enclosure for portability. Preferably USB-4/Thunderbolt based kits, if the host pc's have those ports....
:D
 
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dogDAbone said:
m.2 drives are currently at the lowest prices ever, and with even more savings from BF sales, but beware, that will all come to screeching halt by Jan/Feb 24, as the Gen 4 parts costs are already rising quickly, plus the fact that Gen 5 drives are getting more faster and will start to become the mainstream in most pc's by then..

:D
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Arent gen5 m.2 as well? Not sure I understand why Gen4 increases in price if gen5 is becoming mainstream?
 
Binar said:
Arent gen5 m.2 as well? Not sure I understand why Gen4 increases in price if gen5 is becoming mainstream?
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What always happens when new stuff comes out....

the production levels of the old stuff starts getting cut back (in favor of the new stuff), component costs per unit start rising, and then the price of the final product starts going up....

In the case of m.2's, what also happened was the pandemic-era buying surge that exceeded the available supply, which lead to component shortages, which lead the mgr's to significantly ramp up their production, then the surge buying leveled off, but the mfgr's failed to go back to pre-surge levels quickly enough, which lead to oversupply conditions, which resulted in what we have seen in the past 6 months: price reductions to reduce inventory levels....but this is now in it's final stages and will cause prices to return to "normal" levels that we had before the pandemic
 
bluestang said:
A couple 8TB 2.5" SSDs in a good external USB-C enclosure (Sabrent).
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The main reason for getting a big drive is so that I can have all the data in one drive and not in a multiple drive. I've a detailed list on which drive has the data I need, so it's not a problem, the problem is I've to plug in multiple drives or unplug and plug in another drive to access the data (if they're in 3 different drives) and sometimes I need to carry these drives with me in a backpack

I already have one 1 4TB 2.5" SSD and a couple of 1TB NVME 3rd gen.

So 3x8TB NVME :- $2100 (I'll need to split the data in 3 different drive)
Or 16TB portable SSD :- $1200 (I'll need more space in a couple of months)
Or 2x10TB portable HDD:- $700 (I'll still need to split the data in 2 different drives)

VS.

1x 22TB drive :- $360 (Best option because all the data will be in the same drive and I won't need to look for another drive for a couple of years)
 
Well, then case closed...get the 22TB and call it a day. I was just thinking of no extra power supply with what I suggested.
 
The advice I'm seeking is on which one to get as they will be powered up and down multiple times through out the week. (And not on what size I need to get)

I'm just lost on the specificity of the drives like WD green/purple/red/SAS and Seagate ironwolf/exos/pro.

Last time I actually bought the drives were just 2 option, normal, green and black (Before the switch to SSDs on a build and NVME for laptops)
 
22GB is a lot of data you are risking if you dont have at least a RAID 1.
Whatever you do be prepared for redudancy ..where have you found 22 GB Seagate or WD for $350 BRAND NEW?
 
Binar said:
22GB is a lot of data you are risking if you dont have at least a RAID 1.
Whatever you do be prepared for redudancy ..where have you found 22 GB Seagate or WD for $350 BRAND NEW?
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RAID was going to be my suggestion as well. You could use a Raid 5 or 10 and just add a drive enclosure with some smaller but way cheaper drives.
Also, consider making sure you get some drives that will last with lots of read-write cycles if you are looking at SSD's. Might find it better to stick to a bunch of high-speed SCSI or mechanical devices. That will save you money as well.
Good luck in your search. Great questions and good advice here.
 
I feel raid would destroy wha tthe OP trying to do (single drive) and always a bit of dangerous way to do backup, raid tend to be for reduncy, needing to stay online in case of failure not back up.

2 big drive, one that stay at home, one that move and that you backup (automatically or manually) could be the way to go.

Cbshahji said:
and sometimes I need to carry these drives with me in a backpack
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USB enclosure with SSD would not nessarily be bigger-more complicated than an usb external HD:

81lFpywVnBL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_ML2_.jpg


Imagine this with the drive inside, single cable to the computer, no need for a brick-power one.
 
LukeTbk said:
I feel raid would destroy wha tthe OP trying to do (single drive) and always a bit of dangerous way to do backup, raid tend to be for reduncy, needing to stay online in case of failure not back up.

2 big drive, one that stay at home, one that move and that you backup (automatically or manually) could be the way to go.


USB enclosure with SSD would not nessarily be bigger-more complicated than an usb external HD:

View attachment 616192

Imagine this with the drive inside, single cable to the computer, no need for a brick-power one.
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Not necessarily as you could span across several drives for one large drive. The RAID gives you the ability to use that spanned drive and prevent a disk failure from crashing the whole spanned drive.
Also that would allow you to use smaller drives and save money and still get the large capacity he is needing.
A lot here depends on how much he can afford to spend for a massive drive.
 
Col_Temp said:
save money
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Nice raid enclosure could eat a lot of the saving .

Col_Temp said:
spanned drive and prevent a disk failure from crashing the whole spanned drive.
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It is someone caring drives while traveling, backpack and everything, the chance that both drive have issue or lost at the same time are quite high, actual backup would probably be the way to go and the op will already have the external USB drive at home to do it.
 
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I backup to a large HDD. I just have one of those generic "everything" USB adapters that is powered (important) and when I need to backup, I plug it in, plug in the USB side, do my thing, and when done, unplug, remove the drive again until needed again. Sure, you can get something protective for the drive... in my case, I'm fine with the bare drive.
 
Dopamin3 said:
I'd get one of these: https://oyendigital.com/novus-usb-c-rugged-35-inch-external-hard-drive-enclosure.html (or similar)

And then supply your own 20TB hard drive. I'd recommend the Seagate Exos X20, they are enterprise drives with 5 year warranties and typically undercut all other 20TB drives on price. But ultimately supplying your own enclosure and own drive is probably the best route to go.
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Thank you. This does help me a lot.

After reading all the replies, I'll be having two 20TB drives and one of them will be as a back up.
 
Binar said:
Two? this is all you gathered from all the answers?
Get 3 for RAID 1 or 4 for RAID 10
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How will he run raid 1 with one drive with him in a enclosure on the road and the other one at home ?

Would he need Raid at all ?

And even with any raid setup, he would still need an actual backup.

Cbshahji said:
I'll be having two 20TB drives and one of them will be as a back up.
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You can also re-use your current 4x4 for that task would you want, but I can imagine not wanting to have 4 USB drive plugged in the back of the computer.
 
LukeTbk said:
You can also re-use your current 4x4 for that task would you want, but I can imagine not wanting to have 4 USB drive plugged in the back of the computer.
Click to expand...

Oh thank you for the great idea. (which I obviously missed) I can just buy one big drive to put everything on the same drive and leave the data on the 4 drives as is.
 
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