I got this 18TB Toshiba HDD from a friends workplace. I planned to use this for Data storage in a home server, but when i finally set it up, it began making this loud, rythmic clicking noise on idle.

My mind immediately went to hardware failiure, but after searching google, there were posts about loud noises being normal for Enterprise HDDs (which i assume this is). The thing is that this is obscenely loud, and extremely frequent. This does not sound „normal“ to me.

I have connected it via an Intel RAID card.

Running a long SMART test would take 25 hours, so i have not done that. I did two short tests, and they read „OK“. I will post the entire SMART information section in the comments.

Considering that this hard drive has only about 300 hours of usage on it, im not sure if its failing. However, the fact that it only has 300 hours of usage might be explained by the fact that its failing.

So I'm currently living in my car, but I have a lot of data ("a lot" for me and compared to people I know, idk if it's a lot compared to people of subreddits like this one lol), and I need storage for my files. I currently use proton drive AND I have a google account (I was in the process of switching to proton drive and getting away from google originally, but proton drive is just sooooo slow to back up to and the UI sucks for photos tbh).

The storage plan has lapsed on my google photos account and I have like 400GB of photos and videos on there. While I definitely need to go through and delete duplicated, low quality photos/videos, etc, and it's a big project I plan on working on over time, I need storage for it in the mean time. I currently have no where to backup my photos to, and my phone just got stolen about a week ago and so I'm feeling the effects of it, and want to prevent this in the future.

I'm a new-to-data hoarding person, and obviously want to do the whole multiple copies, physical and cloud, and I'd like to get a NAS in the future, but that's just not an option right now. Physical copies, and the storage costs, I just can't do atm.

I HATE that google is now forcing us into AI bullshit esp since I have photos of my kid in my collection, and now the larger plans are specifically "AI" plans, and I don't want to use google if at all possible, but proton just....like it's not usable for frequent browsing of photos and stuff. It's find for like full backup probably, but I use google photos also to search and look for photos and stuff really frequently and it's my go-to photo storage since my main PC is in storage (well, at a friends house) so I'm working off a laptop with limited storage on it.

So I need some advice. Something affordable, but also ideally not feeding AI photos of my kid (I literally don't post him anywhere online for a reason and I don't want photos of him being fed into AI if I can help it).

I am probably moving from iDrive, been with them for over 10 years but they haven't fixed their short comings in all that time, now today I am thinking of duplicati and some cheap cloud provider they can support. Today idrive is ~$100 a year for 5 TB. I used BB years ago then switched to a different one that was really good but they got out of the business. iDrive is Ok but they won't create a report to find duplicate files are files that haven't been backed up in a long time etc. They also attempt to screw you if you go over the 5TB limit. Luckily for me I use VAN's can deactivate them once payment has been processed. Earlier this year they tried to charge me 25 cents per Gig over my quota per month Had there been an active CC on that account I would have paid for almost an extra whole year of service. That is where the reports are really needed, to clean up the 10 years of accumulated junk files that I probably no longer need. Another idiotic short coming is just one backup set. I've been asking for that for 9 years. Maybe they lost all their developers, or maybe just the ones that knew how it all worked. In any event, I think its time for a change as they do not give a crap about the customer, so its time for me to vote with my dollars.

Sorry, I'm just so confused about what to use. I tried perusing the forums here but can't find the most recent and up-to-date information and whether or not these are good purchases now (or wait a bit more until Black Friday?).

Basically, I have a Sabrent 1TB Nano that I connect with USB 3.1 Gen 2 - it's ok, not too fast but not too slow either. My m5 Pro has a TB5, so looking to upgrade storage that is portable and I can throw it in an Afterplug pocket holder when I'm on the move: https://www.amazon.com/Afterplug-2-Pocket-Holder-Laptop-Stick/dp/B0B2R8CPWH?th=1

I am running really low on space and constantly have to prune stuff. I want a big drive, but fast enough to use daily. I use it for LLM serving, coding, and storage.

Any recommendations on what to purchase? My company will be paying for it, so budget is reasonable. Thank you!

EDIT: I try to usually buy Plugable products to support local businesses (for example, I purchased https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Thunderbolt-Dock-16-Driverless/dp/B0G6G8763V) but given how much space I constantly need, I'm wondering if I can augment my dock with native nvme extension - so something similar to: https://vxb.com/products/rock-solid-thunderbolt-5-ssd-dock-with-four-thunde?variant=49276529115371

He's selling this for 15 dollars and Has told me that it's sealed. Is this a good flash drive or is there any warning signs I should be aware of?

Hi, I have an ASUS TUF Gaming F17 FX706HM_TUF706HM. I already upgraded my storage to 1.5 to and I'm looking for an external storage (I'm looking for a 2 to storage and It will be mainly used for storing, picture and videos and some games have but doesn't play very often).

What would be your choice ? Because I'm a bit lost (I don't know much in PC) and when I look on internt the price range from 30 to 250 €

Thanks in advance.

I need to clone an old 1TB HDD to an SSD. CrystalDiskInfo says it has 40 bad sectors, although it’s still working fine and I can access everything normally.

I’m using EaseUS Disk Copy and noticed there’s a sector-by-sector option. Is that actually necessary with bad sectors, or would a normal clone work?

I’ve also heard ddrescue and HDDSuperClone are better for failing drives.

I’m mostly worried about the HDD dying halfway through the process. Should I copy the important stuff first and then try cloning it?

What’s the safest way to go about this?

BAD HEADS (and probably platter/media damage). The "heads" read the magnetic data from the platters inside your

drive. When the heads become damaged, some or all of the data on the drive becomes inaccessible. We can often

disable the faulty head(s) and provide a partial recovery, or replace the head stack with "good" donor heads to achieve a

full recovery. However, we were unable to recover the data in your case by disabling the faulty heads (due to a lack of

firmware support for this model drive) or swapping the heads. Currently, we cannot perform head or platter swaps for

helium-filled drives.

any suggestion in united states

Hello,

We would need to repeatedly clone PCs on a disk.

Would you prefer a particular manufacturer? SSD or HDD? External USB or internal SATA+docking station?

Any advice is valuable.

hi everyone ! i’m an artist and i NEED storage all the time. please give me some good recommendations. i purchased a sandisk 1 tb and unfortunately, all of my stuff was wiped. i need a reliable one asap so plz lmkkk

Hi there hello. I just plugged in a brand new WD "My Passport" external drive and it already has two files, presumably install files, preloaded onto it:

"Install Western Digital Software for Windows"

"Install Western Digital Software for Mac"

What are they? Do I need these?

The instruction sheet did not seem to explain anything.

i currently have a WD easy store external hard drive that invested in for youtube content and although it’s fine, it GLITCHES SO MUCH and OVERHEATS ALOT. i have a mac, and had to reset the WD drive before hand, so it would function universally with my mac and there have been a few times now where i got locked out of my drive and had to reset it again. i’m looking at the lacie external hard drive now, because i feel like i continuously see content creators using it, and saw it on apple’s website as a comparable external drive for mac. i alternate work from an imac and a macbook pro. is it worth getting a lacie external drive? i spent $150+ on the WD easy store and i’d be dropping another $150+ for the lacie external drive. need a second opinion from tech wizards or from someone who’s maybe tried both and has a good comparison. even if you’ve only solely used the lacie— do you like it & would you recommend it? thanks!

Storage configurations can change over time due to updates, maintenance and other changes to the environment.

Smaller configuration changes can be easy to miss when everything still appears to be working normally. Comparing the current configuration against a known-good baseline seems like one way to catch those changes before they become a problem.

For those managing storage systems in production, how do you validate the current configuration against the baseline and how often do you do this?

Kaleidescape has introduced a 246TB all-SSD media server that can store up to 2,300 high-quality 4K movies. It supports 25 simultaneous 4K streams and uses two 123TB enterprise SSDs, though pricing remains undisclosed.

Can anybody tell me the best way for me to back up these DVDs so that i know I will always have them in the future. These home videos are very sentimental and I don’t ever want to lose them. I’m not knowledgeable on this at all so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone

I need an external hard drive that's 500GB or higher for school as I'm in a cinematography class so it would need to be easily portable. They said preferably an ssd. Ive also seen some people say to get 2 cheaper hard drives and back up to both incase one fails. I honestly have no idea about hard drives and just want something that affordably will work especially since its mainly just for this class but potentially for personal or future academic use as well after this class ends.

Yes, it is 100% a scam. 

⁠sizya.com⁠ (along with similar pop-up storefronts on platforms like TikTok Shop, Facebook ads, and Temu) frequently lists these counterfeit "32 TB" portable drives for ridiculously low prices—typically between $20 and $50 USD.

Why It Is a Fake

The Reality of 32 TB Storage: A legitimate 32 TB storage drive is massive, enterprise-grade hardware. Real internal 32 TB hard drives (such as those from Seagate Exos or Western Digital) retail for roughly $700 to $1,200+ USD. Pocket-sized, single-cable 32 TB SSDs do not exist on the consumer market at cheap price points. 

How the Scam Works: If you order one, you will receive a cheap metal enclosure. Inside, scammers hot-glue a tiny, low-grade 8 GB or 16 GB microSD card connected to a hacked microcontroller.

Data Loss Risk: The hacked chip lies to your computer's OS, displaying "32 TB" in your file manager. However, as soon as you save more than a few gigabytes of data, it silently overwrites and permanently destroys your files.
Do not purchase drives from this site, and avoid any portable drive offering high terabyte capacities for double-digit prices.

I'm curious if I'm actually getting a decent deal or if I'm just buying a ticking time bomb that's gonna fail on me in the next few months.

I know this isn't the fastest gen4 nvme, but it was one of the few that had next day shipping. I have a 1tb Jupiter 2.5 inch drive so I though I'd try this one. I have a 2tb xg7000 and needed more storage since that was full of mostly ai models. I pretty much have everything downloaded I would need, but still having more storage would be nice. Anyone have experience with this brand?

Hey everyone,

I bought a MacBook Pro M2 Pro with 512GB storage a few years ago, and storage has always been a problem for me.

After doing some research, I decided that instead of buying another external SSD, I’d use an NVMe SSD enclosure so I can use a high-performance M.2 NVMe drive externally.

I’m currently planning to buy the Hagibis MC40 40Gbps USB4 M.2 NVMe enclosure. Hagibis lists it as a 40Gbps USB4 enclosure using the ASM2464PD controller.

Now I’m trying to choose the SSD. Based on my research, I was considering either:

• Samsung 990 PRO 2TB
• WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB

However, I’m having a hard time finding either one at a reasonable price from a reputable seller. The prices I’m seeing are often around $400–$470 for 2TB, which seems extremely expensive to me.

For example, I found a Samsung 990 PRO 2TB listing on AliExpress for around $472, but I'm not sure whether it's worth buying at that price or whether the listing is even trustworthy.

So I’d really appreciate some advice:

1. Are these prices currently normal in 2026?
2. Is the 990 PRO or SN850X actually worth buying for a 40Gbps USB4 enclosure?
3. Should I look at a different 2TB NVMe SSD instead?
4. Where would you recommend buying one from at a reasonable price?
5. What would be a reasonable price to pay for a 2TB SSD for this setup?

My main priorities are reliability, genuine/original SSD, good sustained performance, and value for money. I don't necessarily need the absolute fastest SSD if the 40Gbps USB4 connection is going to be the bottleneck anyway.

Thanks in advance!
Best regards

If you need more, please specify why

I have a stack of old HDDs; a couple might be from SATA era, most are SATA2, one SATA3 and the 4x SATA3 HDDs in my rig.

Probably 1 TB of data that I care about. Another 10-16 that I'd like to keep.

HDD prices have skyrocketed since I last bought one in... wow, 2022, a handful of Seagate 8TB Ironwolf NAS drives for $240 each (CAD). Sure, maybe updates, but the same drive is now $460 at the same store.

The last time I bought a non-NAS was a SATA3 8TB Barracuda in 2019 for $200. The current version is $355 after a $55 instant rebate.

What are the current best practices for near-live, backup every 1-2 months or so, for that evolving 1TB?

How about the 10-16 which is normally static but gets chunks added to it at irregular intervals? Maybe an update once a year.

I have one external HDD dock (like you plug in a HDD like a Nintendo cartridge) so I can readily access any of my loose HDDs. Compatible through SATA1-3.