[mythtv-users] Hard Drives that Actually Work?

Brad Templeton brad+myth at templetons.com
Tue Dec 14 18:24:53 UTC 2004


On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 07:53:36AM -0600, Paul.Buchanan at thomson.com wrote:
> I just had my second Western Digital Special Edition 200 GB drive die on me.  Since I'm using an ASUS Pundit, I figured heat was the culprit, so the second drive had a dual-fan cooler on it.  No such luck.  After about three months of use, performance suddenly degrades, and the journals begin to corrupt.  A few days later, I/O errors crop up, and the drive is pretty much useless.  


One thing to look for in future is slower drives, 5400 rpm, or if you can
still find them, 4500 rpm.    Most stores were all-7200 rpm which is
what you want for a PC filesystem, but 5400 are making a comeback.

Sadly, 4500 rpm drives are harder to find and not cheaper because they are
not made in the same quantity. 

You want the slowest drive you can get.  Because 4500rpm is still plenty
for reading and writing video, but it's quieter and generates less heat,
and I am going to presume more reliable.


As PVRs become a major user of big drives I think we'll see a trend this
way.

Another use for big slow drives these days is backup, for which cheap is the
primary goal (and able to restart after many years of being off) and
speed, while nice, is not so much an issue.  So we may see more of them.


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