Storage Device Recommendations


I am looking for recommendations on an external hard drive for my CD collection.  I have over 3,000 CDs and want to rip and store them in one place. I have been ripping CDs to external Western Digital HDs connected by USB to my windows PC where I am using iTunes as the software for organizing and playing music. My problem is that two WD HDs have failed in the last 18 months. Both of them glitched and failed when trying to back them up. I suspect that the volume of CDs ripped to those drives is taxing them somehow. The last one that failed was 2 TBs in size (and I believe the first one was 2 TBs as well).  Also, over the last 5+ years I have been purchasing some music in digital download form (from iTunes or other sources such as Bandcamp).

For all its faults I plan to continue using iTunes as the software to play music.  My home AV system is wired to use Apple and Sonos boxes. While it appears that many of the streamers offer better audiophile quality, I also like ripping CDs to a storage device attached to my computer (as opposed to a typical streamer device that is attached to my audio system). Most streamers also require a direct ethernet connection which is very difficult (or costly) for me given my set-up.

Any suggestions on a better storage device or an audiophile quality streamer that connects to a PC?


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Showing 1 response by luisma31

Whichever way you go, if you have the choice of selecting and purchasing drives avoid Seagate unless you get the enterprise Exos, some say Ironwolfs are good but I personally won't use them, if you go WD get Red Plus (no Reds), and you cannot go wrong with HGST the best drives IMO, with helium filled He, owned by WD today.
If you go DAS is fine just be aware that when you implement RAID, hardware raid that is you are binded to the controller, if the controller dies and you cannot get an exact replacement you won't be able to read the content.

Someone suggested qnap, is a good alternative but I had my troubles with it and also with synology.

The users who suggested backups are right on track, you could use just two separate enclosures with 2 drives one active and one for backups, very simple but should work.

Unless you have a very very resilient solution with RAID 6 or something similar like Zfs filesystems RaidZ2 and such which you won't most likely don't get cheap consumer grade drives and try to stick with the ones listed above, if you are bothered by noises of the drives (don't know how close your drives are to your listening room) let me know and I will recommend something specifically to keep noise down, HGST are silent operating but tend to be "clickety" on acces, the reds plus are fine.