Stupid question...... are larger drives reliable?(4TB, 5TB, 6TB)

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by True Colors, Oct 28, 2015.

  1. True Colors

    True Colors Private E-2

    I feel dumb asking this, but please do not flame.

    For years, I have used Western Digital 3.5" bare hard drives. Mainly the EZRX series(WD20EZRX, WD30EZRX, etc.). I have always had great success with these.

    Primarily, I use these drives to hold video files. The typical file sizes range from 1gig up to 5 gig. I access these hard drives approximately 5 to 10 times per day each.

    So, my question is this....... are the new, larger 3.5" drives trustworthy(4TB, 5TB, 6TB)?

    I have no reason to believe that they are not trustworthy, other than it seems like this is too much data crammed into too small of a space.

    Is there any reason to have this type of concern?

    TC
     
  2. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    There as trusty as any other drive. I would think nothing of it.
     
  3. Anon-469e6fb48c

    Anon-469e6fb48c Anonymized

    I have never had issue with a larger or smaller drives.What matters is how you take care of your system.
     
  4. DOA

    DOA MG's Loki

    Reliability is as good as ever on the hardware. OS's however are a little more touchy with large drives. Be sure to leave 10% unused and you will be fine.
     
  5. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    Not all versions of Windows will see drives this large. For this reason and because I want my external WD drives visible in all the computers, the largest size I currently own is 2TB.
    (We have two computers running Win 2000, two computers running XP, four computers running Win 7 and a netbook running linux).
     
  6. Eldon

    Eldon Major Geek Extraordinaire

  7. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    I guess I'll have to figure out how old my ancient and huge in dimensions, 80GB WD external hard drive is after reading your post, Eldon.
     
  8. Eldon

    Eldon Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Older things, like older people, are often better. ;)
     
  9. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    How well a drive holds up depends on it's usage for the most part. A drive that strictly stores data can last almost indefinitely. An OS or boot drive has more stress on it, and I've seen an average of about three to five years with heavy, to regular use.

    Drives like video surveillance models which handle a massive amount of read and writes are in their own category, and are built to handle serious use.

    For the most part, the thing that matters most is how well you take care of your rig. I've seen drives go in older machines that would not have if the PC had been kept clean. Heat is a major killer. Dust bunnies are one thing. Dust kangaroos are another...
     

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