HDD for Pine64

[jimmyadaro]

Hi there!

I'll buy the P64+ 2GB Starter Kit and a co-worker told me that in some RPI not all hard disks are compatible.
I want to know some good 3TB HDD available in Amazon for use it with the P64.

Do you recommend some specific brand?

Please, note HDD not SSD.

Thanks! 

[Luke]

Hi there!

I'll buy the P64+ 2GB Starter Kit and a co-worker told me that in some RPI not all hard disks are compatible.
I want to know some good 3TB HDD available in Amazon for use it with the P64.

Do you recommend some specific brand?

Please, note HDD not SSD.

Thanks! 

Hey. 

To my knowledge you can use any external HDD which will attach to one of the Pine's USB 2.0 ports. Do note you will have to get a powered USB hub (Pine64 -> powered USB hub -> external USB HDD) as the USB 2.0 port on the Pine does not deliver enough power for proper HDD operation. 

I presume you wish to use your Pine as a NAS, Nextcloud, etc ? if yes, then you'll be pleased that 'real life' results are quite good unless you intend on moving very large files ... 

As a side note, you can also move your rootfs to an external HDD (but will still need a SD to boot). 

As for suggestions - use a WD drive. I've now ran two on my Pine without any issues for months.

Edit: WD also has more reliable NAS drives if that's something you need.

[jimmyadaro]

Hi there!

I'll buy the P64+ 2GB Starter Kit and a co-worker told me that in some RPI not all hard disks are compatible.
I want to know some good 3TB HDD available in Amazon for use it with the P64.

Do you recommend some specific brand?

Please, note HDD not SSD.

Thanks! 

Hey. 

To my knowledge you can use any external HDD which will attach to one of the Pine's USB 2.0 ports. Do note you will have to get a powered USB hub (Pine64 -> powered USB hub -> external USB HDD) as the USB 2.0 port on the Pine does not deliver enough power for proper HDD operation. I presume you wish to use your Pine as a NAS, Nextcloud, etc ? 

As a side note, you can also move your rootfs to an external HDD (but will still need a SD to boot). 

As for suggestions - use a WD drive. I've now ran two on my Pine without any issues for months.

Edit: WD also has more reliable NAS drives if that's something you need.

Hi!

I will check about the USB 2.0 HUB. 
I will use Pine with Ubuntu + GitLab in order to make a version control system for our web development.

I trust in WD, so I think that was a nice suggestion.

Thanks for your answer!

[pfeerick]

tl;dr WD and Seagate would be my recommendations... they are both pretty much the same now, although their marketing departments would tell you different!

I've used many a Seagate and WD hard drive over the years (and the odd Hitachi and Fujitsu one), and they have both made lemons... older Western Digital hard drives used to have a relay or some mechanical switching on their power management circuitry, which you would hear making a noticeable clonking sound when the drive powered itself up or down from standby... and even more noticeably when it failed, and was engaging repeatedly, ending in the drives untimely demise. Seagate had a bad batch of drives a few years ago... think it was the first production run of the 3 or 4 TB drives they made?

Regardless, I've used Seagate more than any of the others, and also trust in them (it doesn't hurt that we have a local dealer who will do over-the-counter exchanges if they ever did fail). Modern Western Digital drives don't seem any different to the Seagate drives, so I don't see any reason not to use them also. Point of fact... I use a WD laptop drive as the SATA connected rootfs and primary samba share on my NAS setup (a CubieTruck, not a pine64), and two 3TB Seagate USB3 external hard drives as the bulk storage (got four of them from Amazon when they were on sale so I could have four matching units, two in service, two as offline backups).

[jimmyadaro]

tl;dr WD and Seagate would  be my recommendations... they are both pretty much the same now, although their marketing departments would tell you different!

I've used many a Seagate and WD hard drive over the years (and the odd Hitachi and Fujitsu one), and they have both made lemons... older Western Digital hard drives used to have a relay or some mechanical switching on their power management circuitry, which you would hear making a noticeable clonking sound when the drive powered itself up or down from standby... and even more noticeably when it failed, and was engaging repeatedly, ending in the drives untimely demise. Seagate had a bad batch of drives a few years ago... think it was the first production run of the 3 or 4 TB drives they made?

Regardless, I've used Seagate more than any of the others, and also trust in them (it doesn't hurt that we have a local dealer who will do over-the-counter exchanges if they ever did fail). Modern Western Digital drives don't seem any different to the Seagate drives, so I don't see any reason not to use them also. Point of fact... I use a WD laptop drive as the SATA connected rootfs and primary samba share on my NAS setup (a CubieTruck, not a pine64), and two 3TB Seagate USB3 external hard drives as the bulk storage (got four of them from Amazon when they were on sale so I could have four matching units, two in service, two as offline backups).

Large amount of information, thank you very much pal!

So, WD or Seagate seem both right to me. I will check Amazon!