Contents1 Introduction2 Why does a hard drive run constantly?3 Hard drive power saving3.1 Enabling hard drive power saving on Windows3.1.1 Step 13.1.2 Step 23.1.3 Step 33.1.4 Step 43.1.5 Step 54 Hard drive not spinning down when idle?4.1 How to check hard drive activity with Resource Monitor4.1.1 Step 14.1.2 Step 24.1.3 Step 34.1.4 Step 44.1.5 Step … Read more
Contents1 Introduction2 Manufacturer’s use of hard drive colors2.1 Western Digital (WD)2.1.1 Green2.1.2 Blue2.1.3 Purple2.1.4 Red2.1.4.1 Red (Standard)2.1.4.2 Red Plus2.1.4.3 Red Pro2.1.5 Black2.1.6 Gold2.1.7 White / Ultrastar2.2 Seagate2.2.1 Green: Barracuda2.2.2 Red: Ironwolf2.2.3 Orange: Firecuda2.2.4 Blue: Skyhawk2.3 Toshiba2.3.1 Red2.3.2 Gold2.3.3 Silver2.3.4 Green2.3.5 Blue2.4 Summary Introduction If you’re in the market for a new hard drive (for data-hoarding … Read more
For the vast majority of data-hoarders, hard drives are their preferred storage medium. As you might expect, it’s not unusual for someone dedicated to the data-hoarding hobby to have several hard drives in use at any one time. The question that we see asked over and over again is “when should I replace my hard … Read more
If you’ve ever touched a hard drive (either internal or external) after it’s been running for some time, you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite warm. Being a mechanical component, we would expect a hard drive to generate some heat during normal operation. Like most computer components, however, the hard drive is susceptible to damage should … Read more
Contents1 Introduction2 Overview3 Windows3.1 Confirm that the new hard drive isn’t showing3.2 Open “This PC”3.3 Check that the drive isn’t listed3.4 Launching Disk Management3.5 Rescan Disks3.6 Initialize the new disk3.7 Create a new volume4 Linux4.1 Getting the ID of the new disk with lsblk4.2 Partitioning the new disk with cfdisk4.3 Formatting the new partition with … Read more
Contents1 Introduction2 List of hard drive alternatives2.1 Solid State Drives (SSD)2.2 Cloud Storage2.3 USB Flash Drives2.4 RAID2.5 NAS2.6 Optical Disc2.7 Tape3 Summary Introduction If you’ve spent any time browsing the various forums or subreddits dedicated to data-hoarding, you’ve likely seen this common question being asked: “What are the best hard drive alternatives?”. This is often … Read more
Introduction I’ve been regularly buying hard disk drives for the best part of three decades. Over this time, the capacities have increased tremendously. It’s sometimes difficult to appreciate just how much hard disk capacities have increased over this time. Whilst many data-hoarders are well aware of current drive capacities, there’s still some confusion from the … Read more
As you may imagine, as a data-hoarder, I’ve owned dozens, if not hundreds of hard drives over the years. Each time one of my hard drives reaches capacity, its contents are copied to a new drive, and the old drive is removed from the computer. I’ve mentioned in the past that I don’t like to … Read more