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Thread: Best 3TB Hard Drive

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    432

    Best 3TB Hard Drive

    Some years before 1Tb drive was a myth and today you can afford upto 3TB single hard disk below $200. The reason is advancement in technology and need of high space data storage. It does not matter what data you have, a 3TB hard drive consist of more than enough space for all your need. The most traditional model and high space drive which is widely used in multiple numbers is 500GB. To add up more space you purchase more 500GB drives increasing the number of hardware and power usage. According to my experience related to drive purchase and usage I had found that if you need a stable and secure data backup with less hectic then you must opt to go for latest 500 GB drives. Even 1TB works. But there is a risk. Suppose you have 2x500GB hard drive configured on a system under a RAID setup. So here you have two copies of your data stored on different places. In case of failure you have a backup ready. But in 1TB you will need to afford 2x1TB drive which is not support by many regular systems.

    Due to lack of compatibility and hardware support 2TB and 3TB goes to the non consideration part of choice. But still I am providing some of the most essential tips that can help you to advance your business by choosing a larger amount of storage space. If you want a NAS then you can blindly go for a 3TB or 2TB drive. Because the disk are managed by a third party device with its own operating system. NAS just provide you an additional support for data storage. There ample of issues faced by users when they connect a 3TB drive in their existing system. First due to bios limit you cannot see the full space. Second sometime you can see half the amount of space missing. Third low speed or data transfer rate. Also various issue related to failed backup or loss of drive partition. Why does this all occur?. This is not a hardware but. You have to properly configure the drive before putting that in your system. Some of the BIOS do not support 3TB space. There are certain methods that can be used to overcome this. As hard drive capacity keeps on growing as the time passes there are also new issue appears.

    You might be not happy to use them on your older system. So the challenger here is to use this drives on your existing system without getting low space or other errors. I had also listed some of the top 3TB hard drive below with specification. But before going to the final part it is essential to understand the common issue that involves with this drives. I think the best alternative for those who are on really older system is to go with 3TB drive. But if you are going to buy a new one then there is no need to go in much detail. 3TB drive not only offers you a very large space to store your data, but also ample relief for regular backup programs. You do not live under a fear of low space. But one thing also arises. What if the drive fails. There will be a loss of 3TB of data which is costless. At such point it becomes essential to understand the working and technical specs of drives.

    Many a time older pc will give you hard time to configure a 3TB drive on it. So it is better recommended that if you own a older system that is not much a 6month to year old, do not go for 3TB setup or confirm first properly that your motherboard is going to support it. You can do that by checking the manufacturer’s site for compatibility report. The reason behind the issues lies in the bios. Old bios follow an older formula for legacy addressing which is not able calculate the full 3TB size. So many a times user notice a lower space on this disk. Usually 3TB drives are best recommended for 64Bit operating system. The reason is better system architecture that can handle the high data operation. There is no issue of using 3TB drives on Mac systems. At start you can initially check in the bios whether the drive is listed as 3TB or lower. You can use third party partitioning software like GPT tools which and provide a different partitioning scheme than MBR to list the entire space of drives. And if you are trying to work hard on NTFS then you must give up. NTFS is not capable of giving out the entire sectors. Currently best drives in this range are provided by Hitachi, Seagate and Western digital.

    This is the companies you can trust. Right now the hard drive provided by them is some of the best performers in the market. You must remember that as you keep on adding content in your drive it becomes slower. It is much easier for a drive to read few GB's of data but if there is a full 3TB drive then the performance becomes super slow. To avoid such stuff the drive and operating system offers you index feature. Higher size drives come with higher efficiency in reading and writing data. What really matters here is the right partitioning. You can tool third party software like one I mentioned above to create GPT partitions. Hitachi gives you a tool called as Paragon software. To use an entire drive capacity you will need to optimize it properly. So this surely removes the options of installing operating system in it. Right now there are certain 3TB hard drive models under Hitachi which are available for $150. I am not sure the exact models but seen on web.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    432

    Re: Best 3TB Hard Drive

    List of Best 3TB Hard Drives

    Hitachi Deskstar 3TB - Price: $319.99


    Hitachi Deskstar 3TB is a nice product in the range of 3TB storage drive. Hitachi said to have reduced consumption by 30% over the previous generation, while offering better performance with the S-ATA interface III to 6 Gb / s or 750 Mb / s. Recall that the hard drives of 3 to are not compatible with all motherboards, only those incorporating a bios or EFI stating compatibility with HDD over 2.2 TB, most of the time the latest generation of motherboards like those in H67/P67 for Sandy Bridge processors. Belonging to the family as witnesses Deskstar drives are targeted at desktop devices, and then with 3.5-inch form factor. The interfaces will use the SATA 6Gbps, of course backward compatible with previous SATA generations. The Deskstar 7K3000 models belonging to the family have a 64MB cache, the Deskstar 5K3000 mind will reach an amount of 32MB. For both families will be available cuts of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB, while there are still indications concerning the close.
    Features:
    • Available size : 3TB, 2TB & 1.5TB
    • Up to 3TB for the highest capacity needs
    • 7200 RPM performance
    • 6Gb/s SATA interface for improved performance over previous generation product
    • Eco-friendly, Halogen-free design
    • Designed to leverage new platforms and modern operating systems

    Specification:
    • Interface : SATA 6Gb/s
    • Capacity (GB) : 3TB / 2TB / 1.5TB
    • Sector size (variable, Bytes/sector) : 512
    • Max areal density (Gbits/sq. in.) : 411
    • Data buffer (MB) : 64
    • Rotational Speed (RPM) : 7200
    • Media transfer rate (Mbits/sec, max) : 1656
    • Interface transfer rate (MB/sec, max) : 600
    • Power Requirement: 3TB: +5 VDC (+/-5%) +12 VDC (+10%/-8%) <3TB: +5 VDC (+/-5%) +12 VDC (+/-10%)
    • Ambient temperature : 3TB: 5º to 60º C <3TB: 0º to 60º C

    Datasheet

    Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB - $299.99

    So far, 3 TB disks mounted 4 courses of 750 GB. Seagate Barracuda XT In all 3 TB 3 TB are achieved with 3 1 TB disks, and that means we will soon see disc 4 plates and 1 TB per dish. The "Barracuda XT" 3 TB works also at 7200 rev / min and has a comfortable amount of 64 MB cache, enough to take advantage of its connectivity to SATA 6 Gb / s. Other high-capacity hard drives do not work effectively to 5400 rev / min and are therefore not recommended to install an operating system. It finally adopts the structure Advanced Format and the 3.5 inch format.

    Features:
    • TB of capacity easily configurable with Seagate DiscWizard software to overcome legacy capacity limits of 2.1TB with no additional hardware required.
    • Massive capacity meets the demands of today's storage-craving applications, such as high-performance game systems and video production systems.
    • SATA 6Gb/s interface enables the use of the industry's newest and fastest hard drive controllers targeted for high-performance desktop, gaming and entry-level server systems.
    • 7200-RPM drive complements the massive capacity, delivering a powerful combination of storage and high-end desktop performance.
    • 64MB cache optimizes burst performance and reduces data throughput bottlenecks.

    Specification:
    • Interface : SATA 6Gb/s
    • Cache : 64MB
    • Capacity : 3TB
    • Areal density (avg) : 488Gb/in2
    • Guaranteed Sectors : 5,860,533,168
    • Spin Speed (RPM) : 7200 RPM
    • Sustained data transfer rate : 149Mb/s
    • Average latency : 4.16ms
    • Random read seek time : 8.5ms
    • Random write seek time : 9.5ms
    • I/O data transfer rate : 600MB/s
    • 12V start max current : 2.0A
    • Average idle power : 6.39W
    • Average operating power : 9.23W
    • Operating : 5°–60°C
    • Non-operating : -40°–70°C
    • Maximum operating temperature change : 20°C per hour
    • Maximum non-operating temperature change : 30°C per hour

    Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB Installation and Troubleshoot Guide

    Western Digital AV-GP 3TB (WD30EURS) - Price $213


    AV-GP 2.5 TB and 3 TB 3.5-inch HDD These are designed for audio / video intensive (like video surveillance 24x7) requiring the highest capacity available. They are close Caviar Green, and have also GreenPower technology. It also features Serial ATA 3 Gb / s and 64 MB cache. These hard drives are provided with an MTBF of one million hours, and are covered by a limited warranty of three years. The drive is best recommended for longer hours of work like surveillance. The WD AV-GP 3.5 inch and 2.5 TB to 3 TB capacity offering 24 × 7 reliability, low power consumption and unrivaled storage capacity for AV applications that require much disk space as digital video recorders, video surveillance, media servers and a single disk external storage media. The family of WD AV-GP provides reliable 24 × 7 by the energy savings offered by WD GreenPower Technology.

    Specification:
    • Rotational Speed : IntelliPower
    • Buffer Size : 64 MB
    • Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) : 3 Gb/s (Max)
    • Formatted Capacity: 3,000,592 MB
    • Capacity : 3 TB
    • Interface : SATA 3 Gb/s
    • User Sectors Per Drive : 5,860,533,168
    • Operating temperature : 32° F to 140° F

    Western Digital Advance Format Download Utility

    Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB (WD30EZRX) - Price $229


    Western Digital Caviar Green Series drive is one of the best models available today. Another important point: the density of data is particularly important, since each of 4 plates that may contain Caviar Green 750 GB of data. Data density is greater. When talking producer of "green", so which is usually for low energy consumption. The Western Digital Caviar Green offered the only satisfactory test transfer rates and access times.

    Features:
    • Massive capacity
    • Reduced power consumption
    • Cool and quiet.

    Specification:
    • Rotational Speed : IntelliPower
    • Buffer Size : 64 MB
    • Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) : 6 Gb/s (Max)
    • Formatted Capacity: 3,000,592 MB
    • Capacity : 3 TB
    • Interface : SATA 6 Gb/s
    • User Sectors Per Drive : 5,860,533,168
    • Operating temperature : 32° F to 140° F

    Conclusion

    Do not forget that 3TB drives are not compatible with 32bit of Windows XP and earlier version. You must first have a look on the limitations and then go for the advantage. It is advice that you should have a separate disk for bootable operating system. Do not rely on the single drive. To stay on the safer side the most compatible drives that work with any system are 2TB drives. They are easy to configure and supports the regular partitioning system. The direct option to get rid of a low space issue is using long lbas. They are only supported by 64bit OS. So if you are not on a 64bit OS then going for a large drive size is not recommended. Hitachi offers a GPT Disk Manager which is very easy to use software to optimize a 3TB drive and get rid of 2.2TB limitation.

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