Storage guides for buyers who hate overpaying

How to choose a hard drive

A practical framework for matching capacity, speed, condition and warranty to your real workload and budget.

HDD vs SSD

Cost per terabyte, speed, reliability, noise and power compared — and how to split a budget between the two.

NVMe vs SATA

Why SATA caps at ~550 MB/s, what PCIe generations really deliver, and when the faster interface is worth it.

How much storage do I need?

Size your library and headroom with realistic per-file estimates so you buy once instead of twice.

Recording & reliability

CMR vs SMR

How shingled drives write, why they can stall NAS rebuilds, and how to tell CMR and SMR apart before you buy.

Hard drive reliability

SMART attributes that matter, the bathtub failure curve, vetting used drives and knowing when to replace one.

SSD endurance & TBW

What terabytes-written ratings mean, how much endurance you actually use, and which workloads burn through it.

Data recovery

First moves when a drive fails, what DIY can and can’t fix, and when to stop and call a clean-room lab.

Builds & NAS

NAS hard drives

Workload ratings, vibration tolerance, TLER/ERC, helium and why CMR is non-negotiable in a multi-bay array.

RAID explained

RAID 0/1/5/6/10 in plain terms: usable capacity, fault tolerance, rebuild risk and why RAID is not backup.

LTO tape backup

When a tape drive pays for itself, generation compatibility, and how to build a true cold archive.

Data backup strategy

Build a resilient 3-2-1 plan across disk, tape and off-site that survives a single drive failure or ransomware.

Use-cases

Gaming storage

How much NVMe modern games and consoles really need, and where a cheap bulk HDD still earns its place.

Storage for creators

Card-to-archive workflows for photo and video: fast scratch, working drives and a safe long-term tier.