Best 2TB HDD for data dumping

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Utility to test new HDD's

I've been waiting for Western Digital Red 2TB HDD since July but there is no word about when it'll arrive in indian market(I called & e-mailed PrimeABGB & TheITWare every week but even they don't know when it'll be available in mumbai) so there is no other way but to go for different hdd.

huge speed is not primary focus since its not a boot drive but need hdd with least amount of issue

Budget is ~15K so im thinking about buying 2 X 2TB HDD

Note:-
I have no intention of joining any hdd in any kind of raid
My Only need is SPACE so i have no intention of buying SSD
WD black is very good hdd with 5years warranty but it cost above 10k for 2 TB so i cannot afford 2 hdd for total 4tb storage

I already have 3 Seagate hdd which i bought 1.5 years ago out of them one is Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 5900 RPM (ST2000DL003) other 2 are ST31000528AS(Older than 2 years) which works perfectly fine for dumping data no issue whatsoever but recently they reduced their warranty to 1 year so i can't say for sure about their product quality any more plz help me choose HDD?

System
Core i7 950
Gskill 6GB ram
Corsair HX650 PSU
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (rev 2.0) Mobo
HDD - 1TB X 2 Seagate Barracuda, 2TB X 1 Seagate Barracuda Green 6GBPS

Thanks everyone for Suggestion

yesterday i bought 2 X 2tb Seagate Backup Plus i want to know how can i check hdd's are proper functioning or not which utility should i use.

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as I do not go to SP Road (Bangalore's hardware selling point) I do not know exact price of the listings
seagate has been put having 1 year where as WD as 2 years
WD Caviar Green 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD20EARX) vs Seagate Barracuda 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (ST2000DL003) vs WD 1 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD1002FAEX) vs WD 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD2002FAEX): Compare Internal Hard Drives: Fli
other options for checking the price and any other model. I am not doing and as you said performance is not what matters hence WD green would be fine

also you may be interested in this as it will be quiet cost effective if available any where
External Hard Disks Price List India: Computer-accessories: Flipkart.com

same from infibeam
*www.infibeam.com/Hard_Disk/i-Seagate-3-TB-External-Desktop/P-CA-HD-Seagate-STAY3000302.html
you would understand why I listed these drives

*www.infibeam.com/Hard_Disk/i-Seaga...ive/P-CA-HD-Seagate-STBV2000300.html?id=Black

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so from WD Caviar Green 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD20EARX) & Seagate Barracuda 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (ST2000DL003) which 1 should i choose

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I am a very very unhappy buyer of Seagate

both my 500 GB Barracuda drive failed couple of times

though they gave replacement (which also failed and got another replacement) but data they took with them is price less

I swear to god that i will never buy seagate again :wah:

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I am happy buyer of both WD as well as Seagate. Also used Buffalo.
@OP better go for the externals if you can
and about the question of which I will say WD green, as it has 2 years of warranty

about the externals from WD have 3 years of warranty. 3 TB in 9K is good call, also they are USB 3, so IO speed is good.

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^can i use those hdd 24 X 7

Regarding choice between WD and Seagate, you should chose WD because they are offering 3 Years of warranty compared to 1 years of warranty offered by Seagate for their Internal HDD.

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yes you can use then 24/7

Both my 2TB from both camps (ST2000DL003 & WD20EARS) have failed within a year - so don't know which one is good actually. But Seagate gives refurbished drive as replacement and WD brand new. And the better warranty of WD drives may be a deciding factor.

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Skud said:
Both my 2TB from both camps (ST2000DL003 & WD20EARS) have failed within a year - so don't know which one is good actually. But Seagate gives refurbished drive as replacement and WD brand new. And the better warranty of WD drives may be a deciding factor.

May be you have passed the designed cycle of RW for sectors hence it went on to fail ???

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since wd have 2 years warranty for internal so 2 X WD Caviar Green 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD20EARX) will be the better choice for internal

but following external hdd have 3 years warranty
2 X WD My Book Essential 3.5 Inch 2 TB External Hard Disk (Black)
or
2 X Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk Kit 2TB Hard Drive (Black)
or
2 X Seagate Expansion External Drive

im more inclined toward external hdd's since they have 3 years warranty but don't know whether they have any issue or not & is usb port bandwidth sufficient enough to watch full hd or blue ray movie while hdd is using for share & download data directly by dc++ software? & which external drive will be suitable for this tasks

Naxal said:
May be you have passed the designed cycle of RW for sectors hence it went on to fail ???

What's that meant?

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^^he meant read/write i think & he is wrong.unless you put your hdd to extreme use(i mean recording/deleting multiple simultaneous live HD video streams 24*7*365 for 2-3 years) your hdd will most likely never cross this value.

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whitestar_999 said:
^^he meant read/write i think & he is wrong.unless you put your hdd to extreme use(i mean recording/deleting multiple simultaneous live HD video streams 24*7*365 for 2-3 years) your hdd will most likely never cross this value.

I may be wrong about crossing the value but sorry to say but all products comes with a duty cycle.. Cross them, doesn't matter how many years or month you have done it with, its bond to fail..

How it gets cross ??

There can be so many reason, starting from virus to faulty / buggy software or firmware also may keep the HDD writing in same sector over and over again perhaps !!

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coldhart said:
since wd have 2 years warranty for internal so 2 X WD Caviar Green 2 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD20EARX) will be the better choice for internal

but following external hdd have 3 years warranty
2 X WD My Book Essential 3.5 Inch 2 TB External Hard Disk (Black)
or
2 X Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk Kit 2TB Hard Drive (Black)
or
2 X Seagate Expansion External Drive

im more inclined toward external hdd's since they have 3 years warranty but don't know whether they have any issue or not & is usb port bandwidth sufficient enough to watch full hd or blue ray movie while hdd is using for share & download data directly by dc++ software? & which external drive will be suitable for this tasks

plz someone answer my question

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yes it is, I have 2TB seagate goGlex bought from last yearlast month got it RMAed and they gave me USB 3.0 adapter, jump in speed is 5 times visible if not wrong I have seen speed of 150 MBps

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thanks everyone for valuable reply, even with internal hdds i hardly get 100MBPS+ speed sometimes if those usb3 hdd's capable of 150MBPS + 3 year warranty then usb 3 hdd is better choice.
so which 2 tb usb3 hdd should i buy from following choices(im gonna buy 2 X 2TB hdds) or any other advice
WD My Book Essential 3.5 Inch 2 TB External Hard Disk (Black)
Seagate Expansion External Drive

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^^you have misunderstood the concept of usb3.usb2 or usb3 hard disk in the casing remains same with no difference.the only sure thing about usb3 is that it can give you speed similar to if that hdd is installed inside a system or in other words now hdd in external casing is not bottlenecked anymore because of usb2(it is never bottlenecked when connected internally in system).so if a model gives 100MBps inside a system it will give same speed when placed inside external usb3 casing.

@naxal,currently no software(including security softwares)/firmware is buggy enough to do this kind of wear & tear to a hdd.yes there is a limit but most likely a hdd will fail because of other factors before crossing this limit unless put to extreme use & even then it may happen due to other factors.

ST2000DL003 gets a vote from my end.

Hi which from these? I will make them boot drive
WD Caviar Green 1 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (WD10EARX) | Internal Hard Drive | Flipkart.com

or

Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive (ST31000524AS) | Internal Hard Drive | Flipkart.com

I left the idea of 2TB HDD since reviews say they are slow to e boot drive and WD black cost more.

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The Sorcerer said:
ST2000DL003 gets a vote from my end.

i already have 1 ST2000DL003 which is installed in pc believe me they are awesome hdds works just awesome bcoz of that hdd my seagate's opinion changed to better but newly manufactured ST2000DL003 have head parking & chirp sound issue(Correct me if im wrong) that's why im thinking about external hdd's i'm completely confused about what hdd should buy since even if warranty is there but if disk fail 2 tb of data will be lost.so tell me frnds what should i buy

I've been recommending that drive for a while now. People have been telling that EZRS EACS and EARX from WD Green have been giving issues. As far as internal goes, WD usually uses Green Series drives with the PCB having a direct Mini USB 2.0/USB 3.0 connector. But if you are considering external, you get 2TB 2.5" drives that takes power from a single USB 3.0 cable- there's an old one and there's a new one viz. ridiculously expensive IMO. There's also Seagate Backup plus. I have 1TB with me for reviewing. Maybe there's 2TB, maybe not.

Somebody reply to my post also which one should I buy ?

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@ The Sorcerer
thanks for reply frnd

i also seen on newegg & some other forum that wd green has high failure rate. since external mainly used as backup drive & have 3y warranty i thought they might be more reliable(correct me if im wrong) since its usb 3 they can give 150 mbps so suggest me both internal & external i'll buy one of them since my budget is 15k (+-1k) & intend to buy total 4 tb(2X2tb) storage so i cannot afford 2 wd black which is best in mainstream hdd's.

Like that if you see Green Series are pretty dicy ones, but I guess they're more for dumping data every once in a while, but that's speculation from my end. But the ones which I heard had were with what- 640GB/750GB per platters? The newer ones are 1TB per platter.

There's WD Red 2TB EFRX. There's also Barracuda XT- and there's ST2000DL003. This is Internal.
If you're external, maybe there's Seagate Backup Plus 2TB? I am not sure, but I don't see why not. There's also goflex series.

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@ The Sorcerer
is wd red series arrived in mumbai bcoz last week when i called lamington rd they told me they haven't even heard the name do u know when they will available in mumbai ? since wd red specially created for nas & heavy duty 24X7 usage im pretty sure they are best for normal day use & quite trustworthy.

Seagate Backup Plus 2TB is not available in lamington road (Mumbai) so any other options?
& how much it cost to buy an adapter for external hdd(for firewire & thunderbolt since they they are not included in package)

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coldhart said:
@ The Sorcerer
is wd red series arrived in mumbai bcoz last week when i called lamington rd they told me they haven't even heard the name do u know when they will available in mumbai ? since wd red specially created for nas & heavy duty 24X7 usage im pretty sure they are best for normal day use & quite trustworthy.

Seagate Backup Plus 2TB is not available in lamington road (Mumbai) so any other options?
& how much it cost to buy an adapter for external hdd(for firewire & thunderbolt since they they are not included in package)

Any1 Plz

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will be very costly.better drop the idea or use usb 3.0 enclosure.
sata enclosure | eBay
InXtron SK-3500 USB 3.0 3.5 SATA enclosure
Theitdepot - USB Harddives (external)

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a good quality enclosure cost around 2k +7k for hdd which make 3rd party external enclosure make costly deal but on other hand external hdd cost me below 8k so plz suggest me good external hdd

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flip a coin/pray to god & buy either seagate or WD(these are the only 2 choices).it all depends on your luck.no matter what feature external casing has(usb2/3/e-sata)it is the drive inside which matters most.there are people who face no problems with WD & there are people who face no issues with seagate.

^^ best answer I must say.
Reading than above answers I was actually confused. My 6 years old HDD is running fine and I get 41Mb/s average. I didn't asked anybody then what to buy.

I've got a 2TB Seagate SATAIII a half year ago and now it starts giving me problems, while using it, a small beeps (don't know whether it's from the mobo or from the HD) and the Transfer mode switches to PIO mode. have tried running scandisk but could not be solved permanently, the problem came back again n again. well i was thinking recreating the partition could solve it but haven't finish transferring data to my new Seagate EXPANSION 2TB

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yesterday i bought 2 2tb hdds i want to know how can i check hdd's are proper functioning or not which tool should i use.

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use crystaldisk.check the S.M.A.R.T values daily & especially keep an eye on reallocated sector/pending sector/reallocation event.their raw values must not increase from 0000000.