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While hard drives lack the shiny appeal of graphics cards and processors, a high-performance, reliable, hard drive is essential. Particularly, a solid HDD remains a necessity for a server, but it’s a consideration for virtually any computer.
Solid-state drives (SSDs), might be increasingly popular, but what about traditional platter drives? Learn about the most reliable hard drives according to server companies.
Should You Buy a Server-Class Hard Drive?
Not all hard drives are created for the same purposes. Broadly, consumer HDDs fall into two categories: desktop or server-grade. Server-ready hard drives are engineered for 24/7 workloads and (in theory) last longer under heavier usage. You should buy a server hard drive if you’re running a home-based or in-office server.
With devices such as the Netgear ReadyNAS, Data Robotics Drobo FS, or QNAP TS-419P+ Turbo, it’s simple for anyone to cobble together a home server.
Defining Reliability for Hard Drives
Often, the word “reliability” gets thrown around. But what does that mean exactly? Unlike SSDs, an HDD’s data integrity is almost as essential as mechanical reliability.
Server company Backblaze tested over 100,000 hard drives for 2018. Over the course of its extensive testing, Backblaze reviewed performance and failure rates in both enterprise and consumer-level hard drives. Among the drives tested, Backblaze got hands-on with Toshiba’s whopping 14TB HDDs.
While enterprise drives typically connote greater reliability, Backblaze compared consumer and enterprise models and found that while enterprise drives generally yield better performance, you’ll find pros and cons:
Consumer-oriented hard drives are lower in price, less power-hungry, and boast similar annualized failure rates as their enterprise counterparts. A business-class drive often carries a longer warranty and faster read/write speeds, albeit at a higher price.
Annualized Failure Rate
ExtremeTech sorts data by annualized hard drive failure rate and compares that to drive size. A failure is defined as:
- Not connecting with an operating system or spinning up
- Not syncing, remaining synced, or staying in a RAID stackWhat Is RAID Storage & Can I Use It On My Home PC? [Technology Explained]What Is RAID Storage & Can I Use It On My Home PC? [Technology Explained]RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and it’s a core feature of server hardware that ensures data integrity. It’s also just a fancy word for two or more hard disks connected...Read More
In a 2016 hard drive reliability report, Backblaze allowed that it can accept a fairly high failure rate before yanking drives. It’s not about the number of drive failures. Rather, annualized failure rate (AFR) proves reliability.
For instance, a low number of drive failures over a low number of days can prove more volatile than a high number of drive failures over a significant lifespan. For 2018 Q2, Backblaze noted a 1.08% overall annualized failure rate, lower than that of Q1 2018. This means there’s an upward trend in reliability across the board.
- Look for: Low annualized failure rate
What’s in a Name?
Whereas certain spaces feature loads of choice, the hard drive space is pretty small. With the predominance of SSDs and general use hard disks, server-capable HDDs are limited mostly to a few well-known names. Not surprisingly, Seagate and Western Digital make the cut. Yet HGST and Toshiba appear as sleeper hits.
Despite this dominance, exceptions do occur. At one point, Backblaze yanked a set of unstable Seagate drives. But Seagate’s current drives, and notably their 8TB hard disks, are increasingly reliable.
- Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, and HGST stand as the most reliable hard drive manufacturers as rated by server companies
The 5 Most Reliable Hard Drives
Okay, so you know how the drives are evaluated. But which are the most reliable?
1. Western Digital Red
Hard drives from manufacturers are designated as consumer-facing and NAS-oriented. Western Digital’s Red line of NAS hard drives boasts incredible reliability.
The WD60EFRX 6TB hard drive clocked in a 2.76 percent annualized failure rate, with the WD40EFRX sliding in at 0.0 percent. The WE30EFRX achieved a 0.0 percent annualized failure rate. In my home server, I originally used a Western Digital drive until I upgraded for more space. Although it was a consumer-grade hard drive, not the Red line, it remained high-performing in an always-on environment.
However, the WD Red NAS line is limited to 5400 RPM. 7200 is ideal, though even a 7200 RPM drive presents minimal performance gains over a 5400 drive, and nowhere near as capable as an SSD. Still, the WD Red lineup ranges from 1TB to 10TB with plenty of options for a NAS-quality storage.
2. Toshiba HDWQ140XZSTA
Toshiba N300 4TB NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive- SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 128MB (HDWQ140XZSTA)Toshiba N300 4TB NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive- SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 128MB (HDWQ140XZSTA) Buy Now On Amazon $99.49
Although it’s not traditionally known as a hard drive company, or computer components manufacturer for that matter, Toshiba produces a solid line of HDDs. Backblaze found its MD04ABA400V and MD04ABA500V drives ranking among the lowest annualized failure rates.
Similarly, the Toshiba N300 line is an incredibly reliable hard drive option. You’ll find 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, and 10TB variants. Engineered for 24/7 use, with 7200 RPM speeds, and rated for 180TB per year workloads, these drives are ideal for home, office, or home office use.
3. HGST HUH728080ALE600
HGST Ultrastar HUH728080ALE600HGST Ultrastar HUH728080ALE600 Buy Now On Amazon $400.00
The HGST HUH72808ALE600 is a speedy, high-capacity hard drive. Though HGST isn’t well-known outside of the hard drive realm, its drives are high-quality and solid performers. This 7200 RPM drive delivered an annualized failure rate of 1.18 percent. Sure, that’s a little on the higher side, but this 8TB drive is nonetheless an excellent buy.
Decent reliability coupled with a quick read-write speed, for a spindle drive at least, makes this a solid choice. Because of its 8TB capacity, HGST’s HUH728080ALE600 is a top choice in a server environment. You’ll find high-capacity HGST hard drives at modest prices, which makes this a fantastic option.
4. Seagate ST10000NM0086
Leaving Seagate out of a discussion on the most reliable hard drives would be remiss. Enter the enterprise-level Seagate ST10000NM0086. This 10TB 7200 RPM hard disk features 6GB/s SATA and 12GB/s SAS interfaces. It’s specifically designed for 24/7 workloads of about 550TB per year.
According to its research, Backblaze recorded a 0.0 percent annualized failure rate. With a whopping 10TB of space, tons of reliability, and a proven name, the Seagate ST10000NM0086 is an awesome choice for an enterprise-quality hard drive. I’m using a 10TB Seagate ST10000VN0004 drive in my dedicated home lab, and it’s been a gem.
5. Western Digital Black
Whereas the WD Red line is aimed at NAS applications, the WD Black line is geared toward high-performance applications. It’s still reliable, but better suited to applications like video editing, gaming, and general use.
If you’re not running a server, or even if you’re using this in a basic home lab, the WD Black line is reliable. Price-to-performance ratios best the Red line, making this a balance of affordability and reliability. However, for an always-on environment, opt for WD Red hard drives.
The Most Reliable Hard Drives Available
Ultimately, the hard drive you select depends on your needs. You’ll want a server hard drive for, well, a server. That includes both enterprise environments and home labs. Just as with building a serverThe Best Parts to Build Your Own ServerThe Best Parts to Build Your Own ServerBuilding a computer teaches you about hardware and software. Among the many other reasons to build a server, you get control and customization, and no surprises. It's also cheaper to build your own server.Read More, however, consumer-rated HDDs are still reliable. These may merely present a higher annualized failure rate if run on an always-on machine.
Generally, Western Digital and Seagate rank among the best hard drive manufacturers. But Toshiba and HGST offer superb disks as well. HGST particularly delivers drives with low failure rates. Additionally, many of the HDDs tested are high performing but low cost. Although companies often sell server hard drives at a high cost, low cost, high-reliability drives abound.
Keen to learn more about hard drives? Learn about data corruptionWhat Is Data Corruption? How to Fix a Corrupted Hard DriveWhat Is Data Corruption? How to Fix a Corrupted Hard DriveData corruption can destroy the data on your HDD, so it's wise to keep backups. Too late? Find out how to repair your hard drive.Read More and how to prevent it. Looking for an operating system for your server hard drive? Check out the best Linux operating systems12 Best Linux Server Operating Systems and Who Should Use Them12 Best Linux Server Operating Systems and Who Should Use ThemBuilding a server? Linux is ideal, typically offering enhanced permissions, increased flexibility, and stability. But which one should you choose? Check out the 12 best Linux server operating systems and who should use them.Read More.
Explore more about: Building PCs, Hard Drive, Solid State Drive, Storage.
- Please change the title of this article from 'The 5 Most Reliable Hard Drives According to Server Companies' to 'One Unreliable Article Based on One Report from One Company'.
- This is a terrible article.Here is a better article
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/175089-who-makes-the-most-reliable-hard-drivesToshiba has been making computers and computer components since the '80s. CPUs, memory, all kinds of components and then drives. Toshiba invented the laptop market.Seagate and WD used to make excellent drives, but they make crap consumer components now. I have had 5 WD consumer drives, all failed, within 2 years.
I only use Toshiba drives now. The oldest I have is 7 years, still running strong.Checkout the math
0.01% of a year = 0.0365 days = 0.876 hours
0.1% of a year = 0.365 days = 8.76 hours
1% of a year = 3.65 days
2% = 7.30 days
3% = 10.9 days - I have a couple older Seagate drives one has 30,000 hours on it and one has around 15,000 hours with both desktop drives running at 7200 rpm speed. I have been happy with their performance and longevity. I would most likely replace them with a similar drive when and if they fail before the PC hardware becomes outdated. On the other hand with notebooks I would never buy another notebook with a hard drive. Its SSD all the way because most 2.5 drives are slow 5400 rpm ones and they are simply too slow to even consider. Spend the extra money and invest in a SSD or save money and buy a spin drive model and replace it with a SSD purchased separately.
- why did you rate the WD red as the best with a ~2.7% failure rate, but then later rate HGST as 3rd and commenting on the fact that its 1.7% failure rate was not so great? Am I not understanding the metrics correctly? Btw HGST is part of WD now.
- 'Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, and HGST stand as the most reliable hard drive manufacturers...'These are all the hard drive manufacturers there are, LOL.
- Please check your sources!
You mention that the WD Reds (3TB and 4TB) have an AFR of 0.0%.
Well, first of all, No HDD will ever have an AFR of 0.0%. That number indicates that there just wasn't sufficient data available, in order to calculate a reliable AFR.
Second, if you scroll down in the Backblaze HDD stats article, to the 'Lifetime Hard Drive Reliability Statistics' section, instead of just checking the figures for 2018 Q2, you'll find that the WD Reds are actually amongst the least reliable drives, with AFR of 4.96% (3TB), 2.4% (4TB) and 3.2% (6TB). - Thanks for sharing a Blog.
- It's interesting that the most reliable server drives are nearly all SATA. That's hard to believe with the reliability of SAS. I'm not aware of any enterprise storage solutions that utilize SATA.
- Have a 4TB WD Black, after 15 months of home use on a gaming rig, mostly on but not always, now its hardly reading anything.. not happy about it.. still in warranty tough..
- In my experience Seagate is the worst one, and barracuda is the worst hdd in Seagate that even momentous last a lot longer than all barracuda that I already have. The best one in my experience is #1 Toshiba #2 Hitachi #3 HGST, while WD is not that good anymore in the last couple of years, even BlackWD failed before my Toshiba hdd. I will always go for Japanese brand but not American greedy shitty hdds. By the way, I have old Samsung hdds that last for 11 and 14 years.
- ' I have old Samsung hdds that last for 11 and 14 years.'
And I'm running Seagates and WDs that are that old and older. I haven't had a chance to try the Japanese brands because the Seagates and WDs take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. I haven't had to replace them, yet. Your experience and mine are anecdotal so neither one of us can generalize.BTW - my drives are 'pulls' from PC people threw out.
- What is the basic difference between HDs designated for NAS use and the non-NAS drives?
- It's mainly about error correction - consumer hard drives have inbuilt error correction which can take up to a second to correct corrupt data, but this is detected by the NAS controller as incorrectly meaning that the drive in question is failing. So full NAS drives have less error correction to avoid this problem
- For surveillance, WD Purple is the one designed for this purpose.
- My understanding is the only difference between WD Red, and Blue/Green is the software that comes with the Red Drives
- I've run a standard 500 GB WD always on since 2007 on an HP box.In my experience the seagate doesn't make a year. After 3 replacements, I sold the forth refurbished as used and never looked back. WD all the way!For SSD Crucial is doing well!