Best Hard Drives for Freenas – FreeNAS is a FreeBSD based storage platform that utilizes ZFS. The fact that it uses a thoroughly enterprise file system and it is free means that it is extremely popular among IT professionals who are on constrained budgets. At STH we test hundreds of hardware combinations each year. From this experience, we are going to keep a running log of the best FreeNAS hard drives. We are going to focus this guide on FreeNAS servers with under 30 storage devices and will periodically update the listing.
ROUND UP
1.Seagate Portable 1TB
Features
- Easily store and access 1TB to content on the go with the Seagate Portable Drive, a USB external hard drive
- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop. Reformatting may be required for Mac
- To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition no software required
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
2.WD 2TB Elements Portable
Features
- USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 Compatibility. Fast data transfers
- Improve PC Performance
- High Capacity; Compatibility Formatted NTFS for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7; Reformatting may be required for other operating systems; Compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system
- Refer to the PDF attached below in Technical Specification for the Installation. WD Elements portable hard drives with USB 3.0 offer reliable, high-capacity storage to go, fast data transfer rates, universal connectivity and massive capacity for value-conscious consumers.
3.LaCie Rugged Mini 2TB
Features
- Shock, drops up to 4 feet, dust and water resistant for all-terrain use
- For Mac compatibility this Hard Drive requires reformatting. Refer to Application Guide for more details
- Password protection built in
- Uses USB 3.0 which is up to 4 times faster than USB 2.0 (USB 2.0 compatible)
- Includes 1-month complimentary membership to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan. Must redeem by January 31, 2020
4.Toshiba Canvio Basics 4TB
Features
- Sleek profile design with a matte, smudge resistance finish
- Plug and play; Easy to use with no software to install
- Quickly add more storage capacity to your PC and other compatible devices
- USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatible with no external AC power cord needed
5.Western Digital 4TB
Features
- Desktop performance gaming hard drive
- Performance storage available in up to 10TB* capacities | * As used for storage capacity, 1TB = one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less depending on operating environment.
- Designed for gamers, system builders, and creative professionals.
- Western Digital’s StableTrac and Dynamic Cache Technology increase reliability and optimize performance
- An industry-leading 5-year limited warranty** | ** See official Western Digital website for warranty details.
WRAP UP
Best Hard Drives for Freenas – Hard drives are the storage tier where (virtually) all data ultimately resides in FreeNAS. While they are the lowest cost tier of storage, hard drives are important for data integrity. Over the years, we have started to segment our builds based on drive size, so 2-8 drives, 8-16 drives and builds with more than 16 drives. We also suggest using larger drives. The reason for this is simple, each drive takes up space and uses power. At the same time, each drive has a cost to connect. Each drive takes a hot swap bay, some cabling, a disk port on the motherboard, a controller, or a SAS expander/ PCIe switch. As a result, connecting fewer drives costs less over time.