Storage Solutions Bittorrent shortens hard disk life

R

raja_mastana

Adept
About 8 months of 24*7 torrent downloads using PogoPlug, has resulted in death of my WD Green 1TB.
Similarly, I had a 250GB USB drive that failed after 24*7 torrent usage after about an year or so.

is any one else facing similar problems?
 
Very much possible.

The head is continuously moving in the process to read and write causing shorten life of HDDs.
 
Your experience is strange. I can safely say it is something other than the disk brand that is the problem.

A couple of ancient 300GB Seagates and a 640GB WD Black have been used as my torrent drive alternately for the last three years. All are still running fine, even with constant read/write operations.

I also use a 1.5TB WD Green as a pseudo-NAS in a USB case and it has held up fine under 24x7 operation for the last six months.

In fact, after the initial failure of one of my WD10EACS and its replacement EACS (which series had a severe problem with failure rates), I have yet to see even one WD Green drive die on me, and seven of those are operating 24x7 - six in my server and one attached to my router. A few of those drives date back to 2009, so not new drives either.

I don't understand this FUD about 'WD Green drives dying'. Anectodal evidence is not hard statistical data, and if a manufacturer experiences lots of returns it will typically stop production or correct errors in the production because it's not profitable to run with lots of returns. What the WD Greens are not designed to do is run as NAS because the head parking algorithms of the drive are too aggressive, and using drives like that in applications like those can only be termed user error.
 
Mine was not a new hard disk. It is about 3 years old and out of warranty. I started using it for torrents 8 months back when I got a PogoPlug.

Much before that, I used ASUS router as a downloader. It had a USB hard drive, don't remember the brand though. It too died after an year of torrent usage.

Hence my conclusion was that torrents put a lot of load on hard drives that causes early death

BTW, all my HDDs are WD. There was never a need to switch to a different brand since they severed me well. Cranky mentions using HDD 3+ years for torrents, so I am missing something
 
Three important things :

- Separate power supply via UPS.
- A fan which can cool the HDD 24x7
- If you are using ASUS Router/ Pogo plug then make sure that you put the drive in idle state when the drive isn't in use. ( you can typically hear a clicking sound when your device puts the HDD in idle mode) - write a script for it if you don't want to do it manually.
 
Why not use thumb drive ? Use 32 GB & download, Once its full, Dump to a 1 TB HDD. Use HDD only when watching movies. Simple.
 
Cant use a thumb drive since I need them for seeding, Even after keeping torrents active 24*7, my ratio is very low .... already warned!
It also runs miniDLNA, so many reasons that I need a large drive.
 
Just curious, how fast (or slow) is your internet connection ?
Also you just download for the sake of seeding or actually watch / consume that content ?

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Just curious, how fast (or slow) is your internet connection ?
Also you just download for the sake of seeding or actually watch / consume that content ?
 
I am on the MTNL UL plan of 2mbps Down /512kbps Up

Also you just download for the sake of seeding or actually watch / consume that content ?
Click to expand...
I download just what I need, not for seeding or anything.
Although, one of the guys at TL, did suggest me to try this (outside seeding), if I want my account saved
 
raja_mastana said:
I am on the MTNL UL plan of 2mbps Down /512kbps Up


I download just what I need, not for seeding or anything.
Although, one of the guys at TL, did suggest me to try this (outside seeding), if I want my account saved
Click to expand...

Have you tried looking for a seedbox ?
The reason i am saying this is that buying a cheap seedbox might be equal or less than what you spend on broken HDDs and electricity of running the devices 24x7 and the seedbox will upload at far faster speeds on your behalf.
 
raja_mastana said:
I did not think about it till now, but it seems to good option now.
Are you using it? Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

I had used it long time back. But that was because the bittorent traffic was heavily throttled where i stayed (China). But it helped me get very good ratios on desitorrents and IPT. Like 25+ ratio i have.
But i would recommend since..

1. your torrent is downloaded by the seedbox without you needing to interfere or keep your PC etc on.
2. Its uploads too and with far far better speeds.
3. Downloads from seedbox to your local PC will utilize your entire bandwidth and you will get the usual pause resume etc support.
4. Seeding happens 24x7 without you needing to turn on your device and most importantly you can download (on seedbox not your pc) the high demand torrent even if you dont need them, just to seed them.
May be even free leech ones.
 
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