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Posted by Richard Crowley on 02/24/07 10:14
"Toby" wrote ...
> "Charlie S." wrote ...
>> Today, I bought an external hard drive based on its smaller size
>> because I thought a larger drive would more likely fail sooner. I'm
>> wondering if that was faulty logic and that maybe I should have
>> bought a larger drive for better cost per storage unit. I can afford
>> the extra cost... I'm more concerned about failure.
>>
>> I'm new to digital editing and needed some sort of external storage.
>> Since the LaCie brand is a favorite of many Mac users, I decided to
>> buy the 160 Gb LaCie 2d Extreme. It sold for $150. I could have
>> bought the 320Gb model for $200. Or, the 500 Gb for $260. The
>> economy of scales pointed to buying the bigger hard drive. However,
>> I thought the bigger drive would more likely would fail on me. I
>> don't know anything about the mechanics of hard drives. My logic
>> being the bigger the drive the larger the parts, or more
>> mechanisms...etc., the more likely it would fail.
>>
>> Was this faulty thinking? Or, is hard drive size not a factor in
>> hard drive failure rates?
>>
>> For now, I really don't need a huge storage drive. I'm just shooting
>> local community events and eventually I'll do short documentaries
>> and/or wedding type ceremonies.
>
> AFAIK as long as the larger drive is in a good enclosure that doesn't
> allow it to get too hot the reliability is basically the same between
> smaller and larger capacity disks. Larger disks have more platter and
> more heads, but mechanically they are pretty much the same.
The last several generations have tended to have the same
number of platters/heads. The improvements are mostly
in the area of data packing density on the surface of the
platters.
This is also why raw RPM is not as important for throughput
(for video, etc.) because for a given speed, more data area
passes under each head as the density goes up.
I tend to buy the drives that have the best storage/$$.
These are usually NOT the largest drives. Same with
CPUs, etc, where best bang-per-buck is usually NOT
the fastest model.
Since I just keep raw drives on the shelf, it doesn't really
matter if I have the highest packing density per drive.
I use those USB2 to IDE cables and just plug in which-
ever drive I need to use for a project. Never had any
problem with even scrubbing DV on the timeline, etc.
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