Need a new drive

[sgibbers17]

I am running out of space on my current setup and I have one more spot to put another drive.  I currently have 6 WD Red 3TB drives (5 Data and parity) and 1 1.5TB WD green for cache.  I was thinking of upgrading my parity drive to a 4TB or 6TB drive and was wondering what luck others were having with the new sized drives and what brand they are using?  Another option for me is to get another 3TB data drive.  I have read the Backblaze Drive Reliability Study and I seem to remember that the study was on failure of the drive. but I am more interested how these drives have been running in other unRAID setups particularly reallocated sectors during preclears or drive errors.

[garycase]

If you're going to upgrade this array, I'd replace the parity drive with a 6TB drive and then add the old parity to the array to provide an additional 3TB of space.

 

Then as you need more space in the future, you can upgrade your 3TB units with 6TB units.

 

Note, however, that this is a fairly expensive way to add 3TB ... i.e. to add each 3TB costs you a new 6TB drive.

 

Another alternative is to simply build a new 2nd server; or to either upgrade your case to one that can hold more drives, or add a 2nd "drive only" case to hold additional drives -- so you'll get the full space of any new drives [Either additional 3TB units; or, if you upgrade parity, additional 6TB units].

 

[c3]

Where are the 8TB and 10TB options?

[tdallen]

I am running out of space on my current setup and I have one more spot to put another drive.  I currently have 6 WD Red 3TB drives (5 Data and parity) and 1 1.5TB WD green for cache.  I was thinking of upgrading my parity drive to a 4TB or 6TB drive and was wondering what luck others were having with the new sized drives and what brand they are using?  Another option for me is to get another 3TB data drive.  I have read the Backblaze Drive Reliability Study and I seem to remember that the study was on failure of the drive. but I am more interested how these drives have been running in other unRAID setups particularly reallocated sectors during preclears or drive errors.

 

I recently pre-cleared two new 6TB WD Reds through 3 full cycles without problem.  I'm still in the process of integrating them into the array (playing with unRAID 6 at the same time) but there have been no issues with the drives to date.  There are posts on the boards here indicating the allowing the drives to spin down may cause issues, but I haven't seen that in my limited experience.

[sgibbers17]

Where are the 8TB and 10TB options?

Way too expensive and I don't even know if I would even shell out the cash for a 6TB.  I don't accumulate data that quickly that the 3TB that I gain from moving my parity to a data drive will last me a while.  Also anything larger than 3TB will be wasted space till I add/change out another data drive to the same size as the new parity.

[Traxxus]

I have 3 6 TB reds, precleared and running fine for a month now.

 

Where are the 8TB and 10TB options?

Way too expensive and I don't even know if I would even shell out the cash for a 6TB.  I don't accumulate data that quickly that the 3TB that I gain from moving my parity to a data drive will last me a while.  Also anything larger than 3TB will be wasted space till I add/change out another data drive to the same size as the new parity.

 

It's not wasted, it's long term planning. You only have room for one more drive, if you put a 3 TB drive in there, you either need to make a hardware investment to fit more drives (cages, docks, or a new case+controller card/cables, etc), or start replacing and removing those drives with bigger drives. At which point the money you spent on that 3 TB drive is wasted. It's a short term solution, and it will cost you more in the long run. You need to think ahead, you are going to have to start replacing drives soon if you are full on space with 18 TB of storage, with one spot left. Adding another smaller drive now isn't very efficient. Like gary said, you will be paying 110 for a 3 Tb drive now, then paying ~250 later, for only 3 TB more, and that will be just your parity drive, and you will have a wasted hard drive that has no use in your array. And you'll be needing to replace yet another just to add more space to your array. 

 

Me for example, I had 7 2 TB data drives, parity, cache, and a spare. leaves me with 5 spots, I added 3 6 TB, which almost doubled my array size, allowed me to keep all my current drives, and a couple spots for the future. I see my data acquisition (at least size wise) increasing in the future, with moving to HD only, automating a lot of my acquisitions with CP, Sab, and NZBDrone, backing up all my and my SOs computers regularly, etc.

 

Really you need a bigger case though.

[garycase]

Given that you don't want to spring for 6TB drives, I'd be inclined to simply add another 3TB data drive.

 

Bumping the parity drive to 4TB and using the existing parity for data wouldn't gain any additional space;  and you'd then be in a position where it cost you a 4TB drive to add 1TB to the array if you needed additional space.

 

I'd just add a 3TB drive; and then, when you need more space; do one of the following:

 

(a)  Build a 2nd array -- starting with a pair of 4TB drives (or 6TB if they've come down enough for you) -- which would then let you gain the full size of additional drives.

 

or

 

(b)  Move your components to a case that can hold more drives [Or add a 2nd "drive-only" case]  and add an 8-port SATA card, so you can expand to 8 more drives.  In fact, if this is your plan, then you may indeed want to go with the 4TB parity option now, as that will let future drives be 4TB and you'll gain the full 4TB of space when you add them -- not just the 1TB you'd gain if replacing a 3TB unit.

 

[SSD]

I have written a number of posts warning users against the sexy but not very functional small cases and inherent limitations. You are feeling first hand how, even though theoretically it would be possible to rip out all you 3T drives and upgrade to 4s or 6s, it is hard to throw away your investment in the perfectly good 3s you have!

 

 

Another option, if you have an additional pcie slot on your motherboard, is to buy a 5in3 or 4in3 drive cage and use it outside of your server. My backup server holds 3 5in3s=15 drives and with 2 4in3s outside the server holds 23. Beauty and silent operations are not important to me as this beast lives in my unfinished basement. But it is neat and clean looking and works very well to mount all my leftover 1T-2T disks.

[sgibbers17]

 

I have written a number of posts warning users against the sexy but not very functional small cases and inherent limitations. You are feeling first hand how, even though theoretically it would be possible to rip out all you 3T drives and upgrade to 4s or 6s, it is hard to throw away your investment in the perfectly good 3s you have!

 

 

Another option, if you have an additional pcie slot on your motherboard, is to buy a 5in3 or 4in3 drive cage and use it outside of your server. My backup server holds 3 5in3s=15 drives and with 2 4in3s outside the server holds 23. Beauty and silent operations are not important to me as this beast lives in my unfinished basement. But it is neat and clean looking and works very well to mount all my leftover 1T-2T disks.

 

I have enough space in my case for 12 drives and if I stop runnings ESXi I can gain use of my 10 onboard SATA with the addition of the 8 port LSI 9211-8i that I am currently using.  I don't accumulate data that quickly I suspect that a 3TB drive will last me a while.  The only question is what brand to go with HGST NAS, WD red, Seagate.

[garycase]

Given that you're basically limiting the choices to 3TB drives, I'd go with either a WD Red or the HGST unit.

 

Personally, I've got 12 3TB WD Reds, and have installed about 20 others -- and have had ZERO failures in nearly 2 years of 24/7 use, so I'm a big fan of those units.    The HGST units show a bit better reliability in the most recent BackBlaze reports, and are also excellent units.    I don't think you'd go wrong with either one.  Assuming you're happy with your current Reds, I'd just stay with them.

 

 

 

[SSD]

The WD Reds did not fair well in the most recent Backblaze study. My vote is for the 3T HGST.