Seagate 5TB 2.5" external drive - 95$ [costco]

[Biznatch]

Didn't realize this deal wasn't posted here. Costco has the Seagate 5TB 2.5" portable drive (STDR5000404) on sale this month. Limit 3, but you can make multiple trips. I picked up 6 for a second Z2 array in my SC816. Been running the 4TB versions for almost 2 years now with no issues.

Costco Wholesale

 

[AFisher]

I assume you are shucking these? are they SSD?

 

[mmo]

I assume you are shucking these? are they SSD?

this is spinning disk, 5TB SSD for $94 will be gone in a sec.

 

[Biznatch]

I assume you are shucking these? are they SSD?

Yes I will be shucking the drives.

 

[BLinux]

these are shingled drives?

 

[marcoi]

Yes I will be shucking the drives.

Have you purchased any yet to open up yet to see what drive is inside?

I have a seagate 4TB drive and that been back for RMA 3-4 time over its life. So not really sure the long term usage.

Also most of their drives slow to crawl when writing lots of data. Do you know how these perform? And any info on how they perform in raid config?

 

[Joel]

these are shingled drives?

I've heard the 5tbs are better, but the 4tbs definitely perform like SMR. Writes are speedy until the cache fills, then it drops to about 8MB/s. Still good for media that mostly sits I guess.

 

[BLinux]

I've heard the 5tbs are better, but the 4tbs definitely perform like SMR. Writes are speedy until the cache fills, then it drops to about 8MB/s. Still good for media that mostly sits I guess.

so, not sure if SMR, but suspected as SMR?

 

[Joel]

so, not sure if SMR, but suspected as SMR?

Hmm, this thread had good things to say about them in a StableBit Drivepool environment:

Are Seagate Barracuda 5TB 2.5" any good? : DataHoarder

That said, I'd recommend dipping your toe in instead of doing a cannonball...

 

[lambda]

so, not sure if SMR, but suspected as SMR?

According to the following, these are SMR 5400rpm drives:

External Storage News Roundup: Seagate, Plextor, ADATA, And Buffalo

Seagate Expands Barracuda Series With 5TB 2.5

 

[BLinux]

According to the following, these are SMR 5400rpm drives:

External Storage News Roundup: Seagate, Plextor, ADATA, And Buffalo

Seagate Expands Barracuda Series With 5TB 2.5

oh god, that's horrible. Seagate originally said it was PMR, but it was really SMR.

yeah, not going to touch this stuff... i have better ways to throw away $95+tax

 

[am4593]

is the largest 2.5 sata non SMR drive still like 3TB?

 

[Biznatch]

oh god, that's horrible. Seagate originally said it was PMR, but it was really SMR.

yeah, not going to touch this stuff... i have better ways to throw away $95+tax

Of course these aren't high performance drives..... 95$ for a 5tb 2.5" what do you expect? What other drive options are even close to that price? They work great for low powered media storage, especially when placed behind an intel s3700 ssd cache drive.

Have you purchased any yet to open up yet to see what drive is inside?

I have a seagate 4TB drive and that been back for RMA 3-4 time over its life. So not really sure the long term usage.

Also most of their drives slow to crawl when writing lots of data. Do you know how these perform? And any info on how they perform in raid config?

I have been running 6x4tb shucked seagates in a z2 array for almost 2 years and haven't had a single issue. They are so low powered I have them configured to never stop spinning since that causes most of the wear. They are behind an intel s3700 cache drive which helps mask their low performance. I have them attached to a plex media server, and can run multiple HD streams without a single hickup.

 

[BLinux]

Of course these aren't high performance drives..... 95$ for a 5tb 2.5" what do you expect? What other drive options are even close to that price? They work great for low powered media storage, especially when placed behind an intel s3700 ssd cache drive.

I'm not concerned about performance, I've just heard too many horror stories of data loss with their SMR drives; multiple repeated RMAs under warranty, etc. Just not worth it.

 

[Evan]

I have a couple as backup drives still USB and the 5tb has been doing fine for me, the 4tb I have one and it’s horrible so no matter if the 5tb is SMR it’s certainly generally better performing.
My drives are just used for off site backup, and for that purpose they do the job just fine.

 

[canta]

I just buy this external HDD, and use it as internal for re-purposed HP N40L as cold storage mostly. To use in N40L caddy, I print with my 3D printer. I love 3d printer + ras_pie with octopi.
this drive is very excessive on power management that results load_cycle is growing very rapidly.
I have to create my systemd service to disable APM after the local-fs systemd service.
as usual, Seagate HDD is very aggresive on power management that make HDD life reducing very short due on rapid growth of load_cycle

those are my my experience.
other thing is discover has 5% cashback since costco accept other than visa on online site....

 

[Stereodude]

I've heard the 5tbs are better, but the 4tbs definitely perform like SMR. Writes are speedy until the cache fills, then it drops to about 8MB/s. Still good for media that mostly sits I guess.

The 2.5" 5TB Seagate Backup Plus I bought a few months back from Fry's doesn't behave like that. It will sustain 100+MB/sec writes indefinitely.

 

[Churchill]

These are shingled drives. These are horrible horrible drives to run in any type of raid array, anytype of backup, anything outside of using them as a USB drive to write data to once in a grand while.

I had 10 of these in a RAID array and the writes were AMAZING....for the first 10s then they plunged to 14MB/s and stayed there forever.

I gave them all away as I wanted to be done with them.

 

[Stereodude]

These are shingled drives. These are horrible horrible drives to run in any type of raid array, anytype of backup, anything outside of using them as a USB drive to write data to once in a grand while.

I had 10 of these in a RAID array and the writes were AMAZING....for the first 10s then they plunged to 14MB/s and stayed there forever.

I gave them all away as I wanted to be done with them.

Are you sure about that? As I already posted I bought a 5TB 2.5" Seagate Backup Plus from Fry's a few months back and it does not exhibit the behavior you're describing. The write speed is basically constant for 10's of minutes.

Here's copying data to the drive for 10 minutes. It's normally a little faster, but the USB 3.0 in this PC is non native and I'm sourcing the files over my gigabit network.

 

[Evan]

4tb drives were terrible !!
Whatever the 5tb drives are they certainly don’t seem to slow down in any kind of straight copy.
I can’t speak for raid since mine are just used for backup but let’s jjst assume they are SMR type technology it’s certianly managed in a far better way than earlier SMR drives.