Best 8TB Drive

snowhiker

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Yes, both models. Most likely the usual $200 sale will be on and off.
Did you pull the drive for internal use after testing it?

No. I needed another external unit anyways. If they drop to $140'ish again I'll buy another and use the bare drive in my desktop. Here's the info on the drive as reported by CrystalDiskInfo 7.5.0.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 7.5.0 (C) 2008-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) WDC WD80EFAX-68LHPN0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enclosure : WD easystore 25FB USB Device (V=1058, P=25FB, sa1) - wd
Model : WDC WD80EFAX-68LHPN0
Firmware : 83.H0A83
Serial Number : xxxxxxxx
Disk Size : 8001.5 GB (8.4/137.4/8001.5/8001.5)
Buffer Size : Unknown
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 15628053168
Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
Interface : USB (Serial ATA)
Major Version : ACS-2
Minor Version : ATA8-ACS version 4
Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
Power On Hours : 7 hours
Power On Count : 17 count
Temperature : 23 C (73 F)
Health Status : Good
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 00A4h [ON]
AAM Level : ----
Drive Letter : M:
 

sedrosken

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I might spring for a 7200rpm 8TB drive with a fair helping of cache on the eventual scale, for now my 4TB seems to be holding out reasonably well. I'm willing to pay a little more for a drive that doesn't cause my games to stutter trying to stream in textures. :p All my stuff's installed and my digital hoarding is slowing a bit, I shouldn't need more storage until ~June or so.
 

LunarMist

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I might spring for a 7200rpm 8TB drive with a fair helping of cache on the eventual scale, for now my 4TB seems to be holding out reasonably well. I'm willing to pay a little more for a drive that doesn't cause my games to stutter trying to stream in textures. :p All my stuff's installed and my digital hoarding is slowing a bit, I shouldn't need more storage until ~June or so.

At some point maybe deleting some of the crap would be a good idea. :D
 

sedrosken

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At some point maybe deleting some of the crap would be a good idea. :D

Well, when your internet is as slow as mine is, holding onto stuff tends to be a good thing. I hold onto stuff that I know I'll need again, don't know if I will or won't (but hold onto anyway because it's a large download), and sometimes even when I know I won't need it again just because it's hard to find and maybe it could help someone. Downloads take a painfully long time for me, my Steam queue for instance has been constantly downloading stuff for months on end -- yes, literal, consecutive months, and it's still not done though I am in the home stretch, so to speak -- and I don't want to have to wait for all that junk to download again should something go belly-up.
 

LunarMist

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Well, when your internet is as slow as mine is, holding onto stuff tends to be a good thing. I hold onto stuff that I know I'll need again, don't know if I will or won't (but hold onto anyway because it's a large download), and sometimes even when I know I won't need it again just because it's hard to find and maybe it could help someone. Downloads take a painfully long time for me, my Steam queue for instance has been constantly downloading stuff for months on end -- yes, literal, consecutive months, and it's still not done though I am in the home stretch, so to speak -- and I don't want to have to wait for all that junk to download again should something go belly-up.

Whatever speed you have is most likely greater than mine.
 

Handruin

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What was common knowledge? Schools having decent Internet or you stopping school? The former maybe, the latter, not really.
 

snowhiker

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I figured this was common knowledge, but the spring semester of 2017 ended awfully for me and I ended up having to take some time off to financially regroup.

If you mentioned it here I obviously forgot, I apologize. I'm pushing half a century years old now and tend to forget things.
 

sedrosken

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What was common knowledge? Schools having decent Internet or you stopping school? The former maybe, the latter, not really.
If you mentioned it here I obviously forgot, I apologize. I'm pushing half a century years old now and tend to forget things.

I could have sworn I said something about it. Maybe I didn't. In any case, yes, I did end up taking a break from school. Emphasis is because I very much intend to go back, I just can't afford to at the moment.
 

LunarMist

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I could have sworn I said something about it. Maybe I didn't. In any case, yes, I did end up taking a break from school. Emphasis is because I very much intend to go back, I just can't afford to at the moment.

You mentioned it in the Something Random thread IIRC, but it is almost a year later. You are going back in the fall?
 

snowhiker

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I could have sworn I said something about it. Maybe I didn't. In any case, yes, I did end up taking a break from school. Emphasis is because I very much intend to go back, I just can't afford to at the moment.

Get your certs. Get entry level IT job. Work your way up. Then in a few years if you want to get into management get your CS B.S. degree.
 

sedrosken

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You mentioned it in the Something Random thread IIRC, but it is almost a year later. You are going back in the fall?

Probably. It won't be in the same capacity as before, I doubt I'll get another grace period on my loans so I'll have to work and study, but I'll figure something out.
 

snowhiker

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Thread necro.

HGST has been taken over by WD. I should have bought that 8 TB from B&H last year.

So what the "quality" 8 TB HDD these days? Is 8 TB still the sweet spot size/cost wise? THXs.
 

LunarMist

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Thread necro.

HGST has been taken over by WD. I should have bought that 8 TB from B&H last year.

So what the "quality" 8 TB HDD these days? Is 8 TB still the sweet spot size/cost wise? THXs.

HGST was purchased by WD years ago. They just did not change the name for a while due to the positive reputation of HGST in the enterprise market.

Some of the 8TB drives are now atmospheric rather than helium filled. Given that 14TB is now the high standard, I would be looking at 10TB for mainstream. 7200 RPM helium drives run nice and cool.
 

Handruin

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Thread necro.

HGST has been taken over by WD. I should have bought that 8 TB from B&H last year.

So what the "quality" 8 TB HDD these days? Is 8 TB still the sweet spot size/cost wise? THXs.

Like others have mentioned, the WDC takeover of HGST was a while ago (2012 I believe). If you can find a good deal on the 8TB HGST NAS 7200RPM I'd still recommend them. I've had very good luck with all my HGST drives over the years. I haven't been following prices lately to know which size is the best price/space ratio.
 

LunarMist

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The Hitachi NAS drives are discontinued. You'd have to buy a WD Red (5400) or Pro (7200). The Seagate alternatives are the IronWolves.
The newer 8TB drives have been taken off helium, so you need 10TB to get the cool running drives.
 

snowhiker

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Like others have mentioned, the WDC takeover of HGST was a while ago (2012 I believe). If you can find a good deal on the 8TB HGST NAS 7200RPM I'd still recommend them. I've had very good luck with all my HGST drives over the years. I haven't been following prices lately to know which size is the best price/space ratio.

Correct of course. HGST was taken over in 2012 (or whenever) but they were still mostly independent of WD and not using WD production lines? But what I should have said was that now (semi-recently) HGST is completely under WD control and no longer make their own drives. It's harder to find the old drives now.

Has there been any re-badging of drives? Or are drives in a HGST box actually manufactured by HGST?
 

LunarMist

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You can pore over WD financials to see where the redundancies were, but the merger was a long time ago. Even before the merger the WD and Hitachi buildings were literally right next to each other in Thailand for example. All the drives have been made by WD for years now. You need to get over any negative history with WD or buy Seagate if unable.
 

snowhiker

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You can pore over WD financials to see where the redundancies were, but the merger was a long time ago. Even before the merger the WD and Hitachi buildings were literally right next to each other in Thailand for example. All the drives have been made by WD for years now. You need to get over any negative history with WD or buy Seagate if unable.

No negative history with WD per se. I was just wondering if those HGST drives were still available. Probably sometime late this year I'll take the plunge and replace my 1 & 2 TB Seagates with two 8TB units.
 

jtr1962

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Thread necro.

HGST has been taken over by WD. I should have bought that 8 TB from B&H last year.

So what the "quality" 8 TB HDD these days? Is 8 TB still the sweet spot size/cost wise? THXs.
Don't know anything about quality but 5400 or 5900 RPM 8 TB seems to be the sweet spot in terms of cost per TB. I don't see much point spending more for 7200 RPM when the decrease in access times is marginal, and 8 TB will most likely be used for bulk storage.

In my opinion, given the high bit density, nothing with a spinning disk is reliable these days. Unless you really need the space you're better off with SSD. 1 TB seems to be the sweet spot for price per TB for SSDs nowadays. Maybe wait a bit for the price to come down a little more, and the 2TB and 4TB models to follow suit.
 

LunarMist

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Don't know anything about quality but 5400 or 5900 RPM 8 TB seems to be the sweet spot in terms of cost per TB. I don't see much point spending more for 7200 RPM when the decrease in access times is marginal, and 8 TB will most likely be used for bulk storage.

In my opinion, given the high bit density, nothing with a spinning disk is reliable these days. Unless you really need the space you're better off with SSD. 1 TB seems to be the sweet spot for price per TB for SSDs nowadays. Maybe wait a bit for the price to come down a little more, and the 2TB and 4TB models to follow suit.

SSD is still expensive for a reasonable quantity of storage.
I have 12x10TB of HDDs in my main NaSD, 13x8TB in the secondary, and a bunch of extra arrays off in the central zone.
I don't even know how to replace them with SSDs other than a homemade server or maybe the FS3017.

A few years ago the sweet spot for cost was the 8TB helium WD RED drive contained in the WD Easystorage unit. They were on sale every week or three. 4-5 of the drives in RAID 5 work just fine.
 

jtr1962

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SSD is still expensive for a reasonable quantity of storage.
I have 12x10TB of HDDs in my main NaSD, 13x8TB in the secondary, and a bunch of extra arrays off in the central zone.
I don't even know how to replace them with SSDs other than a homemade server or maybe the FS3017.

A few years ago the sweet spot for cost was the 8TB helium WD RED drive contained in the WD Easystorage unit. They were on sale every week or three. 4-5 of the drives in RAID 5 work just fine.
Obviously if you need that much storage SSDs will cost many thousands more. I couldn't imagine filling up 8TB, never mind the amount of storage you have. For the masses who can probably get by with 1 TB or less, SSDs are the best solution.

I'm pretty sure he's still alive even though he stopped coming here. His website is still up. Unless he paid for it years in advance, it likely would have disappeared long ago.
 

snowhiker

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I'm pretty sure he's still alive even though he stopped coming here. His website is still up. Unless he paid for it years in advance, it likely would have disappeared long ago.

That page hasn't been updated in a while. A loooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

On right side of page:
"storageforum.net
This site consists of computer related discussions and the occassional bit of computer news. Mostly it is the place where I hang out with my friends."

He doesn't hang out here anymore. Also under "music" his last update was 2006.

You would think he'd update that page if it was something he looks at and not something hanging off some random server he setup years ago and probably forgot about. Even the word "occasional" is spelled incorrectly and not fixed.

I miss Merc's S*ny and WD rants as well.
 

LunarMist

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Assuming he paid for 5 years of it in 2016, it will keep running a while.
 
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