Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Reliability of WD Velociraptor hard drives?

[skywin]

Hello, I have read all kinds of experiences with WD Velociraptor 300GB, but I wonder if in this forum someone have experience with them. These disk are a good cost affordable option to build vps nodes.

My idea is to use 4 or 6 WD Raptor 600GB in RAID10 and Adaptec controllers.

Thanks.

[viGeek]

They have the reputation of being reliable.

My experience on the other hand is quite different, I've purchased about 8 of these drives (not specifically the 300GB model, but Velociraptor/Raptors). I've had four go bad, in fact, one drive was DOA, I sent it back for repair, it came back DOA again, I have DOA'd the drive 4 times now, since I've owned it, it has never worked.

[[CTI] Todd]

I have used quite a few of the 300GB Velociraptors with no more or less issues that other drives.

I've also heard of other people having more problems that average with them, that just hasn't been my personal experience.

[BurstNET]

600GB Velociraptors have been rock solid for us...hundreds and hundreds in production heavy usage servers and failure rate FAR less than 1%.
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[qwizie]

I brought on for my home desktop off of Newegg a while ago. The first drive I recieved was DOA. I RMA it back and recieved one 6 days later. The one I recieved work prefectly, really fast, until about 2 mouths in, then it failed. Lost a lot of personal pictures and music. Sent that back and the third one I recieved worked flawlessly, faster then the previous and still hasn't died yet.

[skywin]

Originally Posted by qwizie

I brought on for my home desktop off of Newegg a while ago. The first drive I recieved was DOA. I RMA it back and recieved one 6 days later. The one I recieved work prefectly, really fast, until about 2 mouths in, then it failed. Lost a lot of personal pictures and music. Sent that back and the third one I recieved worked flawlessly, faster then the previous and still hasn't died yet.

Where I see more negative comments is precisely in Newegg and the reason to open this post.

BurstNET you are using these disks for VPS nodes?

[funkywizard]

I think the raptor brand name was dead a long time ago, even if they improved the drive, I'm surprised they decided to use the raptor name after the 74 / 147 gb models pumped out 30%+ first year failure rates. I know I'm not touching the velociraptors. Besides which, if you look at the space and speed vs the cost, you may as well get a 10k enterprise sas drive for about the same price, or heck, SSD is a better option now even.

[parky1]

I had one on my desktop but they are so loud

[qwizie]

@skywin
If I was you, go with a expensive SSD $100-$200. Would be well worth it compared to a Rapter.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227726

[skywin]

Originally Posted by qwizie

@skywin
If I was you, go with a expensive SSD $100-$200. Would be well worth it compared to a Rapter.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227726

I need +500GB, and a SSD of this size is very expensive

[bqinternet]

If your server can take SAS drives, I would look at Seagate's 10K SAS drives, which are priced similarly or even slightly cheaper for the 600GB models:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pro...es/cheetah-10k

If you need to use SATA, you might consider using a 2.5" 7200RPM drive, which should have similar performance to a 3.5" 10K RPM drive:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pro...nstellation-2/

[skywin]

Originally Posted by bqinternet

If your server can take SAS drives, I would look at Seagate's 10K SAS drives, which are priced similarly or even slightly cheaper for the 600GB models:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pro...es/cheetah-10k

If you need to use SATA, you might consider using a 2.5" 7200RPM drive, which should have similar performance to a 3.5" 10K RPM drive:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pro...nstellation-1/

At least in my vendors, WD Raptor 600GB costs 3 times less than a SAS of the same capacity.

The good thing is that the Raptors are also 2.5 ".


Western Digital WD6000HLHX 600 GB SATA 10K 172€ + tax

Seagate ST3600057SS 600 GB Cheetah SAS 15K 452€ + tax.

Western Digital WD6000BKHG SAS 10K 355€ + tax

[bqinternet]

Originally Posted by skywin

Western Digital WD6000HLHX 600 GB SATA 10K 172€ + tax

Seagate ST3600057SS 600 GB Cheetah SAS 15K 452€ + tax.

Western Digital WD6000BKHG SAS 10K 355€ + tax

I think you meant to quote the ST3600002SS. The ST3600057SS is a 15,000RPM drive.

[ObjectZone]

I've heard and known a lot of folks burnt by the original WD "Raptor" drives. Those have a very bad reputation for failure rate.

The replacement models are the "Velociraptors". These are 2.5" drives and are actually labeled "Enterprise" on the top cover. Even the models sold as 3.5", are just 2.5" drives in a custom 2.5" to 3.5" "IcePack" adapter. (Looks like a glorified heat-sink) I bought a 150GB drive for my primary work desktop and had no major issues for around 9 months. It started throwing up red flags of imminent failure and I made sure my backups were up-to-date then RMAed it with WD. The replacement drive came and has been working like a champ ever since. I have several customers who also use these in desktops and have had nothing but good things to say about them.

The reputation for Velociraptors is by far better than the original. I suspect you will have very little trouble, if none at all given you plan to use them in RAID sets. Just keep some spares on-site and swap them the first sign you have trouble and you'll be golden.

--Chris

[skywin]

Originally Posted by bqinternet

I think you meant to quote the ST3600002SS. The ST3600057SS is a 15,000RPM drive.

My vendor do not have stock and entry date for the 10K model.

Originally Posted by ObjectZone

I've heard and known a lot of folks burnt by the original WD "Raptor" drives. Those have a very bad reputation for failure rate.

The replacement models are the "Velociraptors". These are 2.5" drives and are actually labeled "Enterprise" on the top cover. Even the models sold as 3.5", are just 2.5" drives in a custom 2.5" to 3.5" "IcePack" adapter. (Looks like a glorified heat-sink) I bought a 150GB drive for my primary work desktop and had no major issues for around 9 months. It started throwing up red flags of imminent failure and I made sure my backups were up-to-date then RMAed it with WD. The replacement drive came and has been working like a champ ever since. I have several customers who also use these in desktops and have had nothing but good things to say about them.

The reputation for Velociraptors is by far better than the original. I suspect you will have very little trouble, if none at all given you plan to use them in RAID sets. Just keep some spares on-site and swap them the first sign you have trouble and you'll be golden.

--Chris

The problem that I have is that these servers are located remotely and all tasks are performed by remote hands. So having to use remote hands every so often for hard drives failures and RMA is a problem.