I'm trying to select suitable SATA HD for RAID1 via mdadm. I've been reading through https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Choosing_your_hardware,_and_what_is_a_device%3Fand https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Timeout_Mismatch but I'm still confused. I understand that I can use smartctl in order to determine whether a drive is suitable, but what can I do to figure this out before I purchase the drives? I've looked at https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Drive_Data_Sheets but I'm not sure which information I'm looking for. My planned mdadm RAID1 should serve to accommodate the /home directory, so I will not need to boot from the array, and the workload is going to be moderate. I just need to keep the data in /home secure - I'm doing regular backups anyway, but I want to make sure that the /home directory remains useable at all times. The drives will be used on an openSUSE 12.3 x86_64 system with kernel version 3.7.10 and mdadm version 3.2.6 on an Intel Desktop Board DH67BL with SATA 6.0 Gb/s or 3.0 Gb/s. I am aware that these are somewhat dated, but I have some specialized hardware and software installed, and I'm therefore hesitant to update the system with newer versions of the OS. I'm considering Western Digital WD Gold, either 2TB (WD2005FBYZ) or 4TB (WD4003FRYZ). It says 'Enterprise Class', but I cannot find a definitive confirmation that the drive does not suffer from the TLER or SCT/ERC issue. Is it known whether these drives are suitable for mdadm RAID1? Are there drives that are more suitable for my application? Thanks a lot, Hans
