Recommended drives for external RAID

[Cee-Kay]

Hi Guys,

I wondered if you could help me?

I recently purchased an external SATA RAID enclosure (StarTech S352U2RER) for keeping a duplicate copy of my most important data/backups.

Now that I've purchased the enclosure, I am looking into what would be the most suitable hard drive.

I'm currently considering between the WD GP/Black/RAID Edition drives. I have also read that some people are using the WD Blue range for RAID arrays as well.

Ideally I want to purchase two 1TB drives as I'm sure this will cover me at least until the time comes to replace them.

My main question is, how many people here use either the WD Green/Blue/Black drives for RAID? (obviously nothing mission critical) and do you/have you had any problems?

I was considering using either RAID 1 or one of the other hybrid RAID modes (SAFE 33/50) or perhaps even JBOD.

I've read a lot about using consumer hard drives for RAID and have seen a lot of conflicting reports, so I would appreciate it if anyone is able to give me the benefit of their experience or be able to provide me with some suggestions.

Below are some of the prices I've managed to find so far...

• WD Caviar Green GP 1TB (WD10EADS) €70
  
• WD Caviar Green GP 1.5TB (WD15EADS) €96
  
• WD Caviar Black 1TB (WD1001FALS) €80
  
• WD RE3 Enterprise 1TB (WD1002FBYS) €144.62
  
• WD RE4-GP Enterprise 2TB (WD2002FYPS) €245
  

Thanks in advance!

Edited November 21, 2009 by Cee-Kay