8TB Archive Hard Drive for streaming.

[Never_More 19]

Once more I turn to the emby family for expert advice on my streaming server - First and foremost thank you to all that keep this project alive and running smooth.

 

With that said here is my question. I came into a new 8tb Seagate Archive series HDD. Not my favorite brand, but it was free and could not say no. I wouldn't want to hurt the persons feelings :-) .

 

Has any ever used this type of drive for a streaming. The only writing that would be done, is adding media. (Movies/TV/Pictures). It will not be used as a DVR. all media will be stored and access for streaming only. all Transcoding is done on a dedicated SSD . Right now  I'm using 2/4gb drives and they are 15 GB from being full. I really do not want to add any more media to those drives. 15gb is a lot of room to keep empty but I have always felt its better to keep an amount of space free on any drive. Old school I suppose. ..

 

I'm hoping to use this drive for more that cold storage, Seems a shame with all that room to backup and set it on a shelf till the next backup.

 

Any and all advise is welcome and appreciated.

[mediacowboy 438]

I have used and am currently using this drive. In my main server I have one with no problems. Like you said writing will be slow but once media is on it there isn't a issue.

 

I also have a backup server with 4 of these on it and it works fine. Again writing to the drive is slow but I have successfully streamed to 4 clients in the house with no issues.

 

I am in fact thinking of buying two more for my main server to replace some of my smaller 4 TB.

 

It is a shame to think 4 TB is small.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited November 13, 2016 by mediacowboy

[Deathsquirrel 741]

I use one and will definitely buy more as my smaller drives fill up and need replaced.

[Never_More 19]

Thank you both for your your help, I'll go a head and try this out - I didn't want to do a complete copy to find out it was a big difference in performance. With the drive being 8tb it should take care of my storage needs for some time. Think I'll keep one of the 4tb in the server to upload new media and then transfer it from there on to the 8tb . Im thinking with it on board it will copy over a lot faster than over the net. The good thing if this drive isn't what I'm needing or it tanks on me I have it all backup to another drive. The plus side it was free.

 

Side note with the green drives I'm using now I'm able to handle 5 off site streaming. Family has gotten attached to my media .. to the point of canceling there Netflix account.. so now they tell there friends they use dadflix ..

[Guest asrequested]

You may want to think about drive pooling. Stablebit and Drivebender are two options.

[jon@spoonamore.net 2]

For me, I have been using WD slow Green Drives for ages.  I use to run Plex and now for the past two years Emby.  No problems streaming from these drives.  But, I will say I always transcode my media before putting it on Emby.  I wanted to eliminate on-the-fly transcoding as much as possible.  I have had as many as 6 people streaming from my Emby server with no problems.  I could do more but I don't have the bandwidth.

 

I currently have...

 

4 internal 2TB WD Green Drives.  8TB total storage.

1 external USB 3 4TB Seagate.

[Never_More 19]

Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) is what had me worried about this drive. It stores data in a manner a lot different than a normal drive. But because of the media is only being accessed things should be OK..

 

Doofus .. I took a look atthe two programs you suggested and they look interesting.. I'll give them a try on a backup server I use. It looks like to me I can use all the drives I have laying around from past upgrades. Thanks

 

I thank you all for the information it will make me feel a lot better knowing others have had good results with this type of drive.

Edited November 13, 2016 by Never_More

[mediacowboy 438]

@@Never_More, I currently use Drivebender with my archive and 5 4tb. My 4 TBs are Seagate Desktop HDD ST4000DM000. I do mot have any issues. You can view each individual drives status using the the Drivebender client or drive manager. Once they are pooled together windows sees once big drive and is more than happy with this setup on Windows 7 64 bit Pro.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Never_More 19]

mediacowboy. The 8tb uses SMR to store the information on the platters and the 4s you use don't how is that going to effect your data .. the pool you have is it only used for reading (storing). Do you use another disk for transcoding ? From what I've gathered from here and other sites is the SMR drive have a hard time being used like a normal drive (desktop).. seems to me useing the archive drive with drive pool you would be accessing and writing to all drive's. I may have misunderstood how drive pool works..

Edited November 14, 2016 by Never_More

[mediacowboy 438]

mediacowboy. The 8tb uses SMR to store the information on the platters and the 4s you use don't how is that going to effect your data .. the pool you have is it only used for reading (storing). Do you use another disk for transcoding ? From what I've gathered from here and other sites is the SMR drive have a hard time being used like a normal drive (desktop).. seems to me useing the archive drive with drive pool you would be accessing and writing to all drive's. I may have misunderstood how drive pool works..

All I do is read from the pool. Unless I add new material. I have a another 4 TB I use for transcoding and converting before putting it in the pool.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk