Home Server Hard Disk Recommendations Please

indyjones

OSNN.net Adventurer
Joined
5 Nov 2002
Messages
1,567
Hi All.

I am running windows home server, and I want to increase my storage space.
The Server currently has one Western Digital Green Power 500GB disk which has been fine, it also has a Seagate 500GB drive which has caused a lot of problems :(
Now I will not be using a raid array (home-server has a duplication mode to back up data) but due there will be slightly higher disk usage I guess when it balances drive. The server will only be on though when we need it, otherwise it will be 'sleeping'

So down the the question what drives to people recommend please? I was thinking about going for a 750GB disk (or should I go 1TB/500GB?) and either with another Western Digital GP or a Samsung drive.

Any suggestion will be appreciated :)
 
im never touching a seagate disk in my life again :) even if you guys are lucky

i've had one issue with a WD, but just once... so i would recommend them
 
I usually recommend WD, but recently amongst my clients I've found every single name brand failing without cause. I have completely lost faith in all the major manufacturers and just buy whatever's at hand, fully expecting it to fail at some point in the next couple of years.
Real sad situation.
 
I never had issues With WD in fact a friend of mine purchased a couple of
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb

and set them in a RAID for his home server. No issues and good price at newegg for $100 ea.

my 2 cents
 
Cheers everyone some good info, regarding seagate I have been running 2 x 80gig fine for years, but I had 3 seagate fail in a row recently so might be the model more than the brand. I always think it depends on how much they are thrown about :)

What about size wise does it matter? My case (once I mod it to take a 5 disk hot-swap) will be able to hold 6 disks :)
 
Go for the biggest drives in the quantity you want for the price you can afford!

That way you can RAID them (I suggest using software RAID over Hardware raid, that way if your motherboard dies you are not stuck up **** creek without a paddle because now you can't read the data off your disks).

That will also help with the not losing any data when one of the drives goes.
 
Thanks, I will be using the built in software. Which duplicates folders of your choice to another disk. The advantage is its easy to add and remove disks, and you only duplicate what you want to. Disadvantage its not a tried and tested, as there was a corruption bug on the initial release.....
 
Internal SATA Drive Enclosure

Along with getting some more hard drives I haveen been looking at Internal SATA Drive Enclosures. This one from Icydock looks quite nice, the only down side is a lont of modding will be required to my micro atx case............ :S

HD-017-BT_200.jpg
 
I just an "e-blast" from newegg today for Seagate 1.5TB @ $119 w/ free shipping. :)
 
I picked up a WD 1T Green last week for $89 w/shipping. Ran it for test/diagnostics/etc. Looks good. Very quiet I wasn't sure it was spinning and I had to press my ear to it hear it. There is a very soft squeal sometimes when the head seeks but I doubt you will be able to hear it when it is in a case, I test them naked on the bench. Overall quieter than anything I've previously owned.

Be warned Seagate and WD have both been showing about a 15% infant mortality report rate on their owner ratings for HD's above 320G ranging from DOA to 3 months. Seagate may be a little higher at 18%.

When the drive arrived from newegg the packaging was pretty lame. The bubble wrap was not all the way around the drive so one metyal corner was pressed against the bottom of the carboard box with no shock protection. The crumpled wrapping paper stuffed in the box as filler was all on top, none on the bottom so there was risk of shipping damage. While I applaud getting rid of the peanuts, there should have been more care taken in wrapping.
 
LeeJend: not as bad as my previous purchase. My eVGA GeForce GTX 295 and Tagan BZ Series 900w power supply were packaged in relatively the same fashion.... at or near the side of the box with little to no packing protecting it.

thankfully both arrived unscathed.
 
I agree with what your saying about the packaging. I think that is why people disagree on brands as much.

I really wish newegg would get their act together and open their european branch :(
 
hmm all the hard disks I've ever bought came in a plastic container encased in foam blocks.
 
LA: if you buy retail boxed hard drives, yes, they come in a retail box with foam blocks and either a plastic container or an anti-static bag. If you buy an OEM drive from Newegg or the like, it comes in an anti-static bag wrapped in a significant amount of bubble wrap.
 
did they fix that file corruption bug in power pack 1 (or what ever they call it)
 
did they fix that file corruption bug in power pack 1 (or what ever they call it)

Yeah they did along with adding a truck load of new features :)

Rather than service packs (mainly bug features), MS decided to call them power packs as they add new features.

Power pack 2 has just been release which adds Media Centre integration :D (although you could do that before using shared folders).

There seems to be a good community developing for WHS, I guess it also helps that MS released the SDK for the connector software :)

Really locking forward to Home Server 2, should be even better (will be server 2008 based).
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest profile posts

Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

Forum statistics

Threads
62,015
Messages
673,494
Members
5,621
Latest member
naeemsafi
Back