2TB Samsung HD204UI Spinpoint replacement

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kartracer

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Have been using these for backup/archive purposes, and just tried to purchase another - it seems that this model has been discontinued. Any suggestions for a suitable alternative? Needs to be 2TB, and preferably, 5400rpm.
 
I'm currently a fan of WD Green drives
 
WD Green for backup solutions, so we have 2TB drives on non server hardware (NAS devices). We have them about 2 years old and going strong. On a side note, we mirror everything and have multiple backups, so a single drive failure isn't an issue.

We only use SAS drives in server for reliability/performance reasons
 
I've had 4 failures of WD green drives in 18 months... just a heads up. I am using them in a RAID5 NAS and a home RAID6 server. Bad move. All 4 were definitely faulty, as they went back to WD and were swapped out under warranty. They weren't all from the same batch either... and what's more, 2 of them that have failed are the ones that have already been replaced.

Having 8 of the damned things is obviously going to increase my chances of failure, but 4 failures in 18 months?

My drives were the WD EARS 1.5TB green drives... so avoid those if I were you.
 
After using Seagate for a long time, I moved to WD, then moved away from them to Samsung due to too mainly disk failures with WD. Considering they've been around a long time I'd really expect them to have sorted their problems out - but don't want to take the risk.
 
thing is youll never hear of a disk that has perfect reviews. while ive never had bother with samsung plenty of others have. just because of the mechanical nature of the disk, like a camera shutter, can fail after day 1 or day 1,000,000.

you pays your money you takes your chances.
 
...but 4 failures in 18 months??
 
Pookeyhead said:
...but 4 failures in 18 months??
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yeah i know. i avoid maxtor like the plague and have seen many many failures. but others still swear by them..

incidentally id put the exact model numbers of the ones you had up, some particular models can have issues that other models and/or revisions dont.
 
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WD15EARS

It's no longer listed on the WD site, and seems to be replaced with the WD15EARX. Looks like even WD realised the EARS was a crap dive.
 
We use mainly stagnate SAS drives and out of 20 dries, we replace 2 a year and have done since 2 years after initial purchase. Currently I have 2 on predicted failure

WD have not been noticeably bad, but I do avoid Maxtor and Fujitsu
 
Appreciate the link.. but 4 failures in 18 months is high. Even a replacement drive broke again. I'll be replacing them soon.
 
The post was more a comment for the OP... I'm 90% Samsung drives here at the moment....
 
I've never had a samsung failure.... but I only have 2 of those. They're considerably older than the WDs though.
 
Yep... all the same model and revision. Like I said.. that drive is no longer listed on the WD site, so looks like it's been withdrawn. Good riddance.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Yep... all the same model and revision. Like I said.. that drive is no longer listed on the WD site, so looks like it's been withdrawn. Good riddance.
Click to expand...

Maybe a duff model then or maybe some compatibility issue causing them to fail
 
Pookeyhead said:
Yep... all the same model and revision. Like I said.. that drive is no longer listed on the WD site, so looks like it's been withdrawn. Good riddance.
Click to expand...
Are WD Green drives approved for use in NAS/Raid ? I thought they were desktop class drives.
 
-RV- said:
Are WD Green drives approved for use in NAS/Raid ? I thought they were desktop class drives.
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Not many affordable drives are.... to be honest I've never had any bother with non approved (samsung) drives running 24/7. Just follow the recommended/compatible list from the nas manufacturers.
 
-RV- said:
Are WD Green drives approved for use in NAS/Raid ? I thought they were desktop class drives.
Click to expand...
Depends what filesystem you run on them ;)
 
Pookeyhead said:
WD15EARS

It's no longer listed on the WD site, and seems to be replaced with the WD15EARX. Looks like even WD realised the EARS was a crap dive.
Click to expand...

Maybe you were unlucky - I am using one of these as my main data drive, and have had no problems whatsoever.
 
Jez2011 said:
Maybe you were unlucky - I am using one of these as my main data drive, and have had no problems whatsoever.
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Unlucky 4 times in 18 months? If you think so, then sure. That kind of "luck" I can do without though.


Enterprise grade drives for me from now on. You can't put a price on Data.
 
well you can and its double for a desktop drive with slightly better sector recovery (but then RAID controller should deal with this anyway) and MTBF (which is an average number anyway) compared to a desktop drive. when you should have a backup in place anyway it doesnt seem the extra cost is justified.

enterprise = SAS 15k (at a push the faster of the SCSI 10k is still pretty handy albeit older) with appropriate controller.

in my opinion.. :D
 
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incidentally for poos and giggles (that and im bored) i just worked out the age of my samsung 2tb's..

2x HD203WI are 2 years 7 months old
1x HD203WI is 2 years 5 months old
2x HD204UI are 1 year 5 months
1x HD204UI is 2 months old
2x HD204UI are 1 year and 10 months old

:D
 
We pay around £300 for our 1TB SAS drives.

Multiple copies on different SATA drives is cheaper and more sensible.
 
Did anyone ever find a source for the 2tb sammy drives?

I have a couple of them in my drobo and wanted a couple more to fill the last 2 bays as they were filling, had to slum it with a 1.5tbh spinpoint as a stop gap but still want another sammy drive in there.
 
digitalfailure said:
Did anyone ever find a source for the 2tb sammy drives?

I have a couple of them in my drobo and wanted a couple more to fill the last 2 bays as they were filling, had to slum it with a 1.5tbh spinpoint as a stop gap but still want another sammy drive in there.
Click to expand...

Last reputable seller I saw with stock was Redstore but even they've sold out now. Annoying as I have a full compliment of Samsung 2tb bar one empty bay. Should've gotten two last time.
 
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