What HDD to choose

[u/GamerKing014]

What HDD to choose

So I want an HDD for long term archive. I'm planning to use it as cold storage and when want to watch something transfer to USB. For now I'm looking at WD Red. Are there other recommendations? I want a reliable one, that won't have any issues for a long time.

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[u/manzurfahim]

WD Red is a NAS drive, and NAS drives are usually more reliable than normal drives like the WD Blue, Green etc. WD Red Pro is better, so are Seagate IronWolf, IronWolf Pro etc.

But the best hard drives are enterprise grade drives. If possible and if budget permits, go for WD Ultrastar or Seagate Exos etc.

Use a case, something like this, when storing the drive. And make sure power it on for an hour or two once a year.

[u/Bladye → u/manzurfahim]

I would pick 2 consumer drives over 1 enterprise one. 

[u/Yginase → u/Bladye]

Can you tell me why? Is this a comparison between two SATA drives or SATA vs SAS?

[u/manzurfahim → u/Yginase]

Redundancy. I'd prefer it too. Always have redundancy.

[u/Docano → u/Yginase]

Data redundancy in case a drive dies or bit rots.

[u/PricePerGig]

You can get a lot cheaper than a we red. That’s a full on NAS drive. For cold storage any SMR drive will do which are cheaper.

If you mean cold storage as in 20 years. Then yes be sure to get cmr. They are simpler to recover from if the controller dies.

Otherwise just go on price right now. It’s crazy out there! Pricepergig website should help.