Best NAS Hard Disk Drives (Mechanical)
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A fellow BBS Scene enthusiast has recently requested me to do a review on the Toshiba 14 TB NAS 3.5" HDDs. So I figured, why do a review of a single hard disk drive (HDD) when I can give a top five review of the best rated drives from reputable drives based on their ratings by professional organizations. I will be examining a few brands, including Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba. The best rated hard drives in 2023 were the Seagate IronWolf and the Seagate IronWolf Pro. They are expensive, but being the best out of all others things tend to get pricy. I have two Western Digital 8 TB RED NAS
drives on the Anonymous Archivers File Distro Network, but I would not recommend them anymore at this point because they really really overheat. When the server is online I have two fans each blowing at the two drives inserted into a HDD/SSD Drive Dock from opposite sides. That seems to work, however I would never buy Western Digital HDDs again. I have considered the Toshiba brand because it is very inexpensive, however I'm the kind of person who would rather have a few really really good things than having a lot of mediocre kit.

I have most recently ordered a Seagate IronWolf Pro 18 TB NAS HDD. I haven't yet opened it out of its package so I am unable to provide an unbiased opinion on that drive except that it has the highest rating from the European Hardware Awards agency.
The IronWolf Pro costs $300 CAD for an 18 TB drive that is renewed, or $650 CAD for a brand new 18 TB Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS Drive.

Based on pcguide.com's review the drives are rated as follows:
1. Seagate IronWolf Pro : Best NAS Hard Drive : 18 TB Drive @ $480 CAD
2. Western Digital Red : Best Large NAS Hard Drive : 18 TB Drive @ $510 CAD
3. Toshiba N300 Pro : Best Budget NAS Hard Drive : 18 TB Drive @ $520 CAD
4. Western Digital Gold : Best NAS Hard Drive for Home : 18 TB Drive @ $615 CAD 5. Seagate IronWolf : Best Mid-Range NAS Hard Drives : Unknown Price Point

*note: I think that pcguide.com is wrong, where the Gold model is actually for enterprises, and I don't think I'm wrong though I could be.

So, my final analysis is to get a Seagate IronWolf Pro. If that is too expensive then I'd recommend going with a Toshiba drive as the overheating of the Western Digital Drives that I have purchased is unacceptable. I'd also recommend getting a renewed drive in place of a brand new drive to lower the price-point, but only if the refurbishing is done by the hard drive manufacturing company itself. Getting it fixed up by a company that did not build your drive is just asking for trouble. However, getting a drive that's renewed/refurbished/fixed would be a good bet. Also, used equipment is sold on Amazon without incurring tax, so a $300 price tag will actually cost you $300. It may be different in your region, however where I'm at (Ontario, Canada) there is no extra tax on used items of this sort. In the end I'd recommend a NAS drive that is not an Enterprise drive. NAS drives are good, while Enterprise drives are overkill.

Have fun making a great experience for your users with some tricked out kit.

Cheers!
-warmfuzzy

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (700:100/37)

On 9/16/24 8:21 PM, warmfuzzy wrote:

So, my final analysis is to get a Seagate IronWolf Pro. If that is too

For all my NAS builds with spinners (SATA & SAS), I have always gotten
the IronWolf disks.

Some good info, thanks for posting!

--- Mystic BBS/NNTP v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Archaic Binary * bbs.archaicbinary.net (700:100/27)

On 17 Sep 2024, warmfuzzy said the following...

Best NAS Hard Disk Drives (Mechanical)
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Based on pcguide.com's review the drives are rated as follows:

Just installed another four-pack of Synology HAT5300 16 TB Hard Drives.

Based on the Toshiba MG series (mostly, some sizes might be built by WD or Seagate) enterprise NAS upgrading and firmware kick these drives into that 50+ year MTBF class.

Drives in this sort of class are unlikely to even be reviewed by pcguide, as the price point is outside of the consumer market expectations.

Whether they are worth the significant upcharge from the base Toshiba is a question I don't have an answer for.

It seems the Toshiba is more prosumer than full enterprise aligned?

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
* Origin: SPOT BBS / k9zw (700:100/69)

k9zw wrote to warmfuzzy <=-

On 17 Sep 2024, warmfuzzy said the following...

Just installed another four-pack of Synology HAT5300 16 TB Hard Drives.

I just replaced my Synology chassis with a new unit, somehow it took my
ragtag array of 2TB drives and accepted them all. I'm tempted, now that
I can back up the array over USB3 instead of USB2, of replacing the
drives (some of them are 8 years old!) and restoring from backup.

I'd like to go from 5x2TB to 4x??TB with a hot spare, don't know if I
can replace 4 of the the drives and grow the array, then take a drive
out.

One thing sorely missing in the othernets is a homelab/small business/networking echo. Avon had talked about setting one up in
FSXnet, but nothing yet. There are a lot of
Synology/TrueNAS/Proxmox/VMWare folks out there...



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (700:100/20)

On 17 Sep 2024, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

One thing sorely missing in the othernets is a homelab/small business/networking echo. Avon had talked about setting one up in
FSXnet, but nothing yet. There are a lot of Synology/TrueNAS/Proxmox/VMWare folks out there...

I'd find such a echo useful.

Maybe time to revisit this?

Micronet might be another possible othernet to host?

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
* Origin: SPOT BBS / k9zw (700:100/69)

Have you been able to test any HAMR drives? I think those are SAS only (atleast at this point).

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (700:100/37)