Best Hard Drive for Bitcoin Node?

[dkbit98]

What type of hard drive do you suggest for running full Bitcoin node, older technology HDD with big capacity or new technology SSD drives?

It seems that my 4TB HDD (not my main drive) may be dying soon as it started to disconnect and connect at random times, but health status is still good and I can't find any bad sectors or the source of problem except one software detecting there is one Uncorrectable ECC error.

My main SSD is used for operating system and software I use regulary, but I guess running a node have some effect on longevity of drives and I think they make them with lower warranty (mine expired) on purpose.

So my question: Is it better to buy new HDD with larger capacity or SSD with 1 or 2 TB, and what drives are you using for running your Bitcoin nodes?

[1714818105]

1714818105

[ranochigo]

SSDs have fairly good load distribution and the longevity will be specified by the manufacturer or the specs sheet of the SSD. Generally, I don't find it that big of an issue or at least the proportion of rw load is fairly insignificant compared to the rated endurance by your manufacturer.

I'll probably recommend you to just get a HDD. It's 2X cheaper and speed doesn't really matter for running a node anyways. Your HDD will be fast enough, unless you're consistently synchronizing from scratch or reindexing where speed makes a huge difference.

[Rath_]

So my question: Is it better to buy new HDD with larger capacity or SSD with 1 or 2 TB, and what drives are you using for running your Bitcoin nodes?

1 TB should be good for the next few years. I am running my Bitcoin node with txindex (~34 GB) and blockfilterindex (~6.5 GB) enabled, and its data folder weighs ~425 GB in total. I am also running ElectrumX which takes up around 70 GB. A Lightning Network node takes up a negligible amount of space. By the time you need more storage, 2 TB SSDs should have become more affordable.

I am currently using a 1 TB Sandisk Extreme USB SSD and it works well. If I hadn't had it from my old Raspberry Pi build, I would have bought an NVMe SSD. However, buying an SSD is a huge PIA. Less durable QLC SSDs are becoming more and more common. Some manufacturers quietly replace controllers in existing models which significantly degrades their performance or lifetime. You might even buy a DRAM-less SSD which again, hurts the performance.

You might find a good deal on some SATA SSD if you are willing to wait. I think it would be a good compromise between an HDD and an NVMe SSD if you are on a budget.

[ABCbits]

It seems that my 4TB HDD (not my main drive) may be dying soon as it started to disconnect and connect at random times, but health status is still good and I can't find any bad sectors or the source of problem except one software detecting there is one Uncorrectable ECC error.

If you have spare power/SATA cable, try replace existing power/SATA cable on your 4TB HDD.

So my question: Is it better to buy new HDD with larger capacity or SSD with 1 or 2 TB, and what drives are you using for running your Bitcoin nodes?

If you plan to use the storage for various tasks (e.g. storing video and backup OS), HDD (for NAS, server or 24/7 usage) is better option. I use 3.5" HDD for running few full nodes without problem.

[DaveF]

What type of hard drive do you suggest for running full Bitcoin node, older technology HDD with big capacity or new technology SSD drives?

It seems that my 4TB HDD (not my main drive) may be dying soon as it started to disconnect and connect at random times, but health status is still good and I can't find any bad sectors or the source of problem except one software detecting there is one Uncorrectable ECC error.

My main SSD is used for operating system and software I use regulary, but I guess running a node have some effect on longevity of drives and I think they make them with lower warranty (mine expired) on purpose.

So my question: Is it better to buy new HDD with larger capacity or SSD with 1 or 2 TB, and what drives are you using for running your Bitcoin nodes?

Check your cables & connectors on the drive. Disconnections / reconnections are not the way drives usually die.
Obviously, things happen and yours might be dying that way but after 25+ years doing field IT work I have not seen it happen more then once or twice.
Edit: ETFbitcoin beat me to saying the above but if possible don't just swap cables if you have a spare port on the MB try that one too.


If it was me I would split the difference and go with a 2TB Samsung SSD.
Well under $300 US I don't know where you live in the world or your financial situation, but they are all I have been using.

-Dave

[dkbit98]

I'll probably recommend you to just get a HDD. It's 2X cheaper and speed doesn't really matter for running a node anyways. Your HDD will be fast enough, unless you're consistently synchronizing from scratch or reindexing where speed makes a huge difference.

It is cheaper to buy HDD but they also have maximum two year warranty now for a reason, that means they break much more after that period, like in my case, and I don't want to buy new HDD every two years  

1 TB should be good for the next few years. I am running my Bitcoin node with txindex (~34 GB) and blockfilterindex (~6.5 GB) enabled, and its data folder weighs ~425 GB in total. I am also running ElectrumX which takes up around 70 GB. A Lightning Network node takes up a negligible amount of space. By the time you need more storage, 2 TB SSDs should have become more affordable.

My idea was to use this new drive for running a node and for storing some unimportant data, files, videos and music, if drive have larger capacity than 1 TB.

If you have spare power/SATA cable, try replace existing power/SATA cable on your 4TB HDD.

I have spare sata cable, but weird thing is that I can't pinpoint what the heck is wrong with him and I don't think it's cables that I checked several times.
Now doing deep scanning and checking for bad sectors again.

If you plan to use the storage for various tasks (e.g. storing video and backup OS), HDD (for NAS, server or 24/7 usage) is better option. I use 3.5" HDD for running few full nodes without problem.

Please tell me one solid affordable HDD that has more than two year warranty and I may consider it.
I can get very good Samsung SSD with five year warranty easy.

Check your cables & connectors on the drive. Disconnections / reconnections are not the way drives usually die.

Listen, I am doing regular disc scanning checks and everything was fine until recently, now I got that Error message and Crystal Disk Info showed me Caution yellow message yesterday, so there is something wrong with drive itself.
I also did a duckduckgo search and found that disconnecting like that may be a sign of dying drive...

If it was me I would split the difference and go with a 2TB Samsung SSD.
Well under $300 US I don't know where you live in the world or your financial situation, but they are all I have been using.

Samsung and Adata SSD are my first options if I decide to buy one more SSD.

[Rath_]

My idea was to use this new drive for running a node and for storing some unimportant data, files, videos and music, if drive have larger capacity than 1 TB.

Sounds good. I am already doing it with my 1 TB drive since I have over 400 GB of storage left.

Samsung and Adata SSD are my first options if I decide to buy one more SSD.

Buy an SDD from Samsung. 970 Evo series drives are solid. ADATA was one of the first companies to cheat by replacing the controllers.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Check your cables & connectors on the drive. Disconnections / reconnections are not the way drives usually die.

Listen, I am doing regular disc scanning checks and everything was fine until recently, now I got that Error message and Crystal Disk Info showed me Caution yellow message yesterday, so there is something wrong with drive itself.

When you change the SATA cable also plug it in different SATA port on the Motherboard, also use another line with power connectors from the PSU,  check for bios updates. Check everything else before you consider the drive itself.

[dkbit98]

Buy an SDD from Samsung. 970 Evo series drives are solid. ADATA was one of the first companies to cheat by replacing the controllers.

970 or 980 series for sure are my main pick.
I didn't know that about Adata, but that is probably the reason they are much cheaper than Samsung.

When you change the SATA cable also plug it in different SATA port on the Motherboard, also use another line with power connectors from the PSU,  check for bios updates. Check everything else before you consider the drive itself.

Bios updated with latest version today and drive crashed some time after that, so I am excluding any bios issue, but I am going to triple check all connection again.

[Rath_]

970 or 980 series for sure are my main pick.

Watch out for the non-pro version of the 980. It is a DRAM-less drive. Although, you should be fine as long as you are not going to make large file transfers. It will last you a long time anyway.

I didn't know that about Adata, but that is probably the reason they are much cheaper than Samsung.

I bought some ADATA NVMe SSD and I returned it on the following day. It was overheating despite using the included metal heat spreader. I bought a different drive from Corsair and it's been working perfectly fine for over 3 years now.

[LoyceV]

I'll throw in my 2 sats too: In my experience, it's often the very cheap cable that's the culprit, and not the much more expensive drive. It always felt like a design flaw to rely on cheap connectors.

In my laptop, I use both SSD and HDD. A small SSD for cheap speed, a large HDD for cheap storage. I know the SSD wears from writing, but it doesn't make sense to use a much slower drive because of that. My HDD is 8 times bigger than the SSD, so I only have chainstate on SSD and blocks on HDD.
It really depends on your needs If your current 4TB HDD is full, you can't really replace it by a smaller SSD.

I haven't used warranty for a long time. Last time a (very new) 2 TB external drive failed, I didn't return it for privacy reasons. If a drive fails now, I'll just replace it myself.

[SFR10]

Please tell me one solid affordable HDD that has more than two year warranty and I may consider it.
I can get very good Samsung SSD with five year warranty easy.

Here you go:

• Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB = $146.99
  ^{- 5-year warranty + 3-year data recovery.}
• Western Digital Red Pro NAS Hard Drive 4TB= $174.99
  ^{- 5-year "limited warranty".}

Note: I haven't used any of the above HDDs but like what @ETFbitcoin mentioned, NAS HDDs are meant to work 24/7 and IIRC, you just have to reformat it then you're good to go.

[dkbit98]

Watch out for the non-pro version of the 980. It is a DRAM-less drive. Although, you should be fine as long as you are not going to make large file transfers. It will last you a long time anyway.

Thanks for info about that.
Before I buy anything I am usually doing deep research, reading reviews, and since I have new motherboard that support newest NVMe I would prefer Gen4 for fastest speed, but they are not cheap.

I'll throw in my 2 sats too: In my experience, it's often the very cheap cable that's the culprit, and not the much more expensive drive. It always felt like a design flaw to rely on cheap connectors.

I really hope it was just a bad cable connection.
Last night I replaced cables with brand new and switched connection to different port on motherboard, so now I am testing to see if this crashes will continue to happen.

...

Thanks, I will check them out.

[DaveF]

...ADATA was one of the first companies to cheat by replacing the controllers.

And the RAM both for the cache and drive itself

....
I bought some ADATA NVMe SSD and I returned it on the following day. It was overheating despite using the included metal heat spreader.

Because good thermal paste / pads cost money and ADATA is cheap.
Sorry to say it but back in the day, over 5+ years ago, they were a good quality low end drive. Now they are just crap. Don't know if it's just greed or if something else changed.

@dkbit98 did changing the port / cable work?

-Dave

[NeuroticFish]

WD Red (non-pro version) is good option, it's widely available and some enthusiast use it (usually people who hoard data or run their own physical server). It has 3 years warranty.

Especially at the non-pro drives, there's quite a problem with some of them (especially older) being CMR and many becoming SMR (cheaper and not that good).

I've bought a WD red (non-pro) for my NAS some 7 months ago and I've done some research back then, although I'm not that good with hardware. And I've seen back then a chart showing how much slower was a SMR compared to the "equivalent" CMR WD RED.
I've done a search now, I'm not 100% sure it was exactly this page, but will do (just check the EFRX vs EFAX comparison). Full story and images: https://www.servethehome.com/wd-red-smr-vs-cmr-tested-avoid-red-smr/

All in all, picking a non-pro WD Red (or Seagate Ironwolf - same story) may not be that easy.

[dkbit98]

did changing the port / cable work?

I decided to test it for 3 days before final confirmation so one more day left, but so far it looks like it was probably a faulty cable, I replaced it with brand new I had at home.
Just in case, I changed the port connection as well, but I doubt that was the issue in my case.

WD Red (non-pro version) is good option, it's widely available and some enthusiast use it (usually people who hoard data or run their own physical server). It has 3 years warranty.

WD Red is on my list already, but I had to crashes with my HDD after I cleaned and replaced everything.
Temperature looks fine, I scanned my drive multiple times, defragmented it, tested for bad sectors, double checked bios settings... and crossed my fingers.

[dkbit98]

I have some good news and some bad news.
Good news is that three days passed after I replaced cables/port and my Seagate drive is working like a charm, so it looks like I don't have to purchase new drive after all.
I left it running 24/7, every parameters are looking very good and there are no issues with crashes or bad sectors, CrystalDiskInfo is showing healthy drive.
Bad news is that my drive is 100% shingled SMR drive and I am getting slower write speed, but I used this only for storing data and running a node, and my OS is on faster SSD drive.

I totally forget about CMR/SMR controvesy. If OP (or anyone) wish to use CMR, they should get WD Red plus instead

Here is one list of all known SMR drives (including mine):
https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/list-of-known-smr-drives.141/

[nicholas480]

Considering the increasing size of the blockchain, a 1TB WD Black or WD Blue (<$50) drive is fine if you don't want to spend $100 on an SSD. The more resilient the drive is, the better 😀

[NeuroticFish]

Considering the increasing size of the blockchain, a 1TB WD Black or WD Blue (<$50) drive is fine if you don't want to spend $100 on an SSD. The more resilient the drive is, the better 😀

Afaik WD black or blue are not designed for long term 24/7 use. Indeed WD black should have very good performance, it was my favorite 10 yeas ago, but for devices that usually sleep at night.
I do know though that it can easily go for many days without stop, since I also kept my computer running for months (torrents, folding@home, dabbling with altcoin mining) and the HDD is still pretty much fine. But it was months, not years and it was not receiving new data to write every couple of minutes. And I would not compare a WD black 2010 with a WD black 2021 (as reliability). So I don't know if it's a good choice. If you ask WD they'll probably say it's not.

[LoyceV]

But it was months, not years and it was not receiving new data to write every couple of minutes.

I stopped worrying about my HDD breaking down a long time ago. The last time I replaced a 5 year old drive was because of a weird sound (which I later found out came from the fan). As long as I have my backups, and as long as I don't get SMART errors, I just keep it running. My newest disk (Seagate Barracude) has powered up only 40 times in 18 months, and those reboots had nothing to do with the drive.