I have been looking into upgrading storage and came across several hp hard drive that seem well-suited for business-class setups. Has anyone used HP drives in servers or desktops for long-term use? Would you recommend them over other brands? Any model suggestions are welcome.

2 hours ago, alex_1092 said:

Has anyone used HP drives in servers or desktops for long-term use?

They should be fine.

2 hours ago, alex_1092 said:

Would you recommend them over other brands?

No. Unless I'm mistaken, they are manufactured by WD and sold with HP's private label on them.

2 hours ago, alex_1092 said:

Any model suggestions are welcome.

Some people swear by WD, others by Seagate or Toshiba.
I buy which ever is the best deal based on my needs and my target HD size.

Right now, any drive I buy needs to be at least 20TB for it to make sense for my setup (I'm after density, not drive count) - so whoever has the best deal on a drive of that size is where my money goes.
I probably buy used drives from ServerPartDeals more than anything else - because they tend to be the best value.

My anecedote on drive reliability -
4x new WD Red Pro - total use now going on 4 years, but 3 were replaced under warranty within the first 12 months
3x new Seagate Exos- coming up on 2 years no issues
4x used Dell (WD) HC drives - 1 replaced in the first 3 months - going on 4 years since with no issues
2x used Seagate Exos - going on 1.5 years no issues

I'm currently stress testing 2x Seagate external 26TB drives that I plan to put into my system. Before that happens, they will have had a full surface test + DOD Mil spec 3 pass wipe done. If the smart reports are clean once all that is completed, I will shuck them and 1 will go into my system, the 2nd will become a ready spare drive.

Edited July 28, 2025Jul 28 by whipdancer

On 7/28/2025 at 6:56 AM, whipdancer said:

They should be fine.

No. Unless I'm mistaken, they are manufactured by WD and sold with HP's private label on them.

Some people swear by WD, others by Seagate or Toshiba.
I buy which ever is the best deal based on my needs and my target HD size.

Right now, any drive I buy needs to be at least 20TB for it to make sense for my setup (I'm after density, not drive count) - so whoever has the best deal on a drive of that size is where my money goes.
I probably buy used drives from ServerPartDeals more than anything else - because they tend to be the best value.

My anecedote on drive reliability -
4x new WD Red Pro - total use now going on 4 years, but 3 were replaced under warranty within the first 12 months
3x new Seagate Exos- coming up on 2 years no issues
4x used Dell (WD) HC drives - 1 replaced in the first 3 months - going on 4 years since with no issues
2x used Seagate Exos - going on 1.5 years no issues

I'm currently stress testing 2x Seagate external 26TB drives that I plan to put into my system. Before that happens, they will have had a full surface test + DOD Mil spec 3 pass wipe done. If the smart reports are clean once all that is completed, I will shuck them and 1 will go into my system, the 2nd will become a ready spare drive.

Are these Baraccudas? If so, aren't they meant to be used sparingly? I don't know how your stress test will help.

Can you elaborate and explain how you do the surface test + DOD Mil spec 3 pass wipe? I'm interested in doing this if they're good value drives.

19 hours ago, plastic_pox179 said:

Are these Baraccudas? If so, aren't they meant to be used sparingly? I don't know how your stress test will help.

Can you elaborate and explain how you do the surface test + DOD Mil spec 3 pass wipe? I'm interested in doing this if they're good value drives.

I have no idea if they are meant to be used sparingly or not - I've never heard that before. A stress test is used to help identify any immediate issues. The assumption is that if there is a weak link present, 300+ hours of constant use could/should find that weak link and cause it break, hopefully. Completely anecdotal at this point as I don't know of any large study done on the matter. Backblaze does a basic prep of a drive before it goes into service and they are the only group I'm aware of that both tracks and publishes their stats.

I use any of a number of basic tools to do a surface test. Same with the DOD wipe. A google search can point you to a bunch of options. It mostly depends on what you have available to do the testing. I use an old windows desktop to do the surface test and DOD wipe because the wipe seems to tax system resources enough that it interferes with normal use. Plus it takes about a week to do, so I need something that I can leave alone for a while.

I buy used enterprise sas drives and connect them to my HBA. These drives while out of warranty in near every case are designed for getting a flogging 24/7 5 years straight. HP don't make drives they buy them from Seagate there Exos drives with a hp lable, but they also sell western digital and HGST with there stickers on them. Anyhow I buy these drives cheap and I have not had one die yet apart from with I hocked one up to a power cable that was from another psu that had the 12volt line on the 5volt line and revered polarity haha. Want storage cheap that comes from drives you can't afford and are in a wet dream of owning buy used sas drives. Here's my layout in my server, if you can but these new well there the best in terms of endurance, power / transerfere rate. Here's a pdf for the exes series, but my fav are the WD x375 series. I only have one as there hard to find cheap used in the land down under, I hit 250mbs steady with this baby hence its my parity drive, the Seagate Exos hit 220mbs and the HGST ultrastars 210mbs.