[Hard Drives] One 2TB HDD vs Two 1TB HDD's

[Mixolydian]

Hello everyone,

So after a very bad experience with a 3TB HDD, I've decided to return it and go with either a 2TB HDD or two 1TB HDD's. I'm wondering if it's more effecient to run 1 very large HDD vs or run 2 medium sized HDD's. I currently have a 1TB HDD that's mainly for my OS and programs/games, however i'm in dire need of more storage space as my HDD is filling up quickly. I capture movies and edit alot, so I want something that's 7200 RPM SATA 6.0gb/s. I'm hoping to keep this around $150-160. Any suggestions will be very much appreciated as always.

Thanks!!!

 

[ish416]

Sata 3.0 is fast enough that not even a 7200 rpm mechanical drive can saturate its bandwidth. That said, I have been rocking my WD Green 2 TB WD20EARS since early 2010 and have had no issues with it whatsoever.

I also have a WD Black 1TB and no issues with it either. Both have the same performance. Both have been solid for me for several years.

My personal recommendation is a single 2TB. Unless you want to run 1 - 1TB for storage and the other for backup.

 

[Mixolydian]

Sata 3.0 is fast enough that not even a 7200 rpm mechanical drive can saturate its bandwidth. That said, I have been rocking my WD Green 2 TB WD20EARS since early 2010 and have had no issues with it whatsoever.

I also have a WD Black 1TB and no issues with it either. Both have the same performance. Both have been solid for me for several years.

My personal recommendation is a single 2TB. Unless you want to run 1 - 1TB for storage and the other for backup.

So are you saying that I should get a SATA 3.0/gbs over a SATA 6.0/gbs? Also, I'm not too familiar with the green/black models of HDD's, can you shed some light on that subject for me? With further research, I'm thinking that a single 2TB HDD will be a better value, as well as keep me happy longer. Thoughts?

Thanks!!!

 

[outlw6669]

No, you should not specifically get a SATA 2 drive over a SATA 3 drive; more that you should not worry about which SATA revision the drive has as no current mechanical drive is capable of saturating either interface.

As to your original question, I would recommend a single 2TB drive and using your current 1TB as an external backup.

Running two 1TB drives in a RAID 0 setup may be a bit faster, but it introduces 2 additional failure points that could cause you to loose all your data (2 drives + RAID controller vs a single drive).
Having the external backup will give you further security.

 

[rdc85]

The manufacturer now make SATA3 interface not s2 anymore (they tried to fool uninformed crowd and increase the price). Only old drives that still using sata2 ....

For me i prefer to had 2 drives, and store frequent used/games/os in first drive. backup/movies/songs/not frequent data in the second hdd.

when not used the second hdd will sleep (i hope it will increase the lifetime of the disk, losing data is PIA)

 

[Mixolydian]

No, you should not specifically get a SATA 2 drive over a SATA 3 drive; more that you should not worry about which SATA revision the drive has as no current mechanical drive is capable of saturating either interface.

As to your original question, I would recommend a single 2TB drive and using your current 1TB as an external backup.

Running two 1TB drives in a RAID 0 setup may be a bit faster, but it introduces 2 additional failure points that could cause you to loose all your data (2 drives + RAID controller vs a single drive).
Having the external backup will give you further security.

I'm not really familiar with RAID, what is it exactly? And thanks for the reply, I think I'm going to be going with a 2TB HDD, just don't have one specifically picked out yet.

 

[Mixolydian]

The manufacturer now make SATA3 interface not s2 anymore (they tried to fool uninformed crowd and increase the price). Only old drives that still using sata2 ....

For me i prefer to had 2 drives, and store frequent used/games/os in first drive. backup/movies/songs/not frequent data in the second hdd.

when not used the second hdd will sleep (i hope it will increase the lifetime of the disk, losing data is PIA)

Does the HDD need to sleep when not in use? How long does it take to wake up the HDD? I'm going to be keeping my 1TB for my OS, games and music. The 2TB will be for all my videos (I capture games and edit videos using Adobe Premiere). I have a lot of stuff already on my 1TB so I really don't want to switch my OS and all my games over to the 2TB, it's going to be pretty much just storage but I will be accessing it a lot.

 

[rdc85]

Yup, u can setup how long idle for it go to sleep in power management setting..

not actually sleeping, just park the head in the parking lot for reability and power saving... it ussualy just needs 1-2 sec to go back online.

Since u will acessed the file frequently and the size exeeded 1T then no point using 2 drives. 1 Drive (2T) is good route, but remember to keep the backup somewhere (external drives, etc..)

 

[Mixolydian]

Best answer selected by mixolydian.