Amazon sells a 14TB MaxDigitalData enterprise hard disk drive (opens in new tab) for beneath $120. Not solely does it include a full five-year guarantee however you may as well seize a 3-year knowledge restoration plan from Amazon for a mere $14.99 and get it serviced by Seagate’s Rescue Knowledge knowledge restoration service ought to one thing unhealthy occur to it.
At lower than $8.60 per TB (unformatted capability), that is the most affordable arduous disk drive per TB we’ve managed to supply and that’s cheaper than any optical media. Compared, Blu-ray, for instance, is about $15 per TB, virtually twice the value of MaxDigitalData’s providing, when bought in 25GB bulk BD-R spindles.
Now there’s just a few issues to spotlight; MaxDigitalData (MDD) just isn’t what you’d name a family identify. It’s not one of many three acknowledged arduous disk drive distributors which would come with Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba. As a substitute, MDD – which is a white label model owned by Goharddrive – sources shares of what appears like new however EOL (finish of line) arduous disk drives.
MDD, like the favored EOL HDD vendor Water Panther, sells each refurbished and non-refurbished fashions so be sure you choose the correct one. Confusingly, there may be one other 14TB mannequin from MaxDigitalData, the MD14000GSA12872, that prices the identical however has a decrease guarantee.
The MD14TGSA25672E is more likely to be a rebadged SATA-based Western Digital DC HC530 with a 7200RPM rotational pace, 256MB cache and a whopping 550TB/12 months 24×7 workload score, making it very best for DVR, CCTV, surveillance and so on.
This specific mannequin have been a favourite for cloud storage suppliers in addition to hyperscalers (assume Fb, Google, Microsoft or Amazon) and its enterprise label implies that it’s geared in direction of very long run reliability.
Do you have to need a extra acknowledged model, then the Seagate Barracuda ST80000DM04 (opens in new tab) is the subsequent most cost-effective mannequin at just below $100 for 8TB (beneath $12.50 per TB). It is a slower arduous disk drive (5400RPM) with 256MB cache and a giant identify to again it.
Don’t neglect the backup
No storage system is 100% safe, which is why backing up your knowledge makes a lot extra sense, particularly after we’re speaking of terabytes of information. A Community Hooked up Storage (NAS) system with RAID capabilities might help mitigate current dangers of information loss, particularly when paired with a cloud backup resolution like iDrive, Internxt or BackBlaze.
Why is MDD controversial?
Seek for MaxDigitalData on-line and Reddit is your first outcome. Not what you’d anticipated from a tough disk drive producer whose merchandise will retailer your knowledge. That mentioned, the truth that it doesn’t have a web site might elevate some alarm however there’s sufficient safeguards (refund coverage, guarantee) to reassure us that if one thing goes unhealthy, there will probably be an escape route.