Drives: Storage solutions for professional IT infrastructures
Whether for servers, workstations, or backups, drives are the backbone of any professional IT infrastructure. From classic hard disk drives (HDD) to fast SSD and NVMe solutions to specialized tape drives, the right choice ensures data availability, performance, and long-term scalability.
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IBM System Storage TS3500 Tape Library Model S54 - Tape library expansion module - no tape drives
HPE STOREEVER MSL2024 2 LTO-6 ULTRIUM 6250 SAS TAPE LIBRARY
HPE DL380 Gen10 6242 1P 32G NC 8SFF Svr.
IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape Library Model F3S - Tape Library - LTO Ultrium - 4 Gb Fibre Channel
HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 5118 2.3GHz 12C 105W 2P 32G-2R P408i-a 8SFF 2x800W Performance Server
Lenovo TS2260 6160-H6S - Tape drive - LTO Ultrium (2.5 TB / 6.25 TB) - Ultrium 6 - SAS-2 - external - 2U - encryption
What types of drives are available?
The requirements for drives vary depending on the area of application. The following types are particularly relevant in the IT sector:
HDD and SSD drives
- Hard disk drive (HDD): High-capacity mechanical storage – ideal for cost-effective data storage.
- SSD drives: Faster, quieter, and more robust than HDDs – perfect for operating systems, databases, or virtualization environments.
- NVMe drives: Modern SSDs with PCIe connection for maximum speed – suitable for I/O-intensive applications.
Tip: Combine SSDs for system performance with HDDs for cost-effective mass storage – e.g., in a RAID array.
Tape drives for backup and archiving
Tape drives are specially designed for long-term archiving and large backup volumes:
- LTO (Linear Tape Open) tape drives: Reliable backup solutions with high capacity – e.g., LTO 7, LTO 8, or LTO 9 drives.
- RDX drives: Robust, mobile backup systems for small and medium-sized businesses.
- Magnetic tape drives: Proven technology for offline archiving of sensitive data.
- ZIP drives: Rather historical, but still in use in some special environments.
Which drive is suitable for what?
What are the advantages of an SSD or NVMe drive?
- Significantly faster access times compared to HDD
- Lower power consumption
- No moving parts → higher reliability
- Ideal for operating systems, databases, VMs
When are tape drives useful?
- Long-term archiving of large amounts of data
- Low cost per TB
- Protected from cyberattacks with offline storage
- LTO 9 offers up to 45 TB (compressed) storage capacity, for example
Secure archiving: LTO drives support WORM (Write Once, Read Many) functionality – ideal for legally compliant archiving.
Drives in server use: What to consider?
A professional drive for server use must perform better than a conventional desktop drive:
- SAS drive: Optimized for continuous operation, fast data transfer, high reliability
- RAID drive: Supports RAID configurations for greater data security and failure protection
- RAW drive: Without file system – e.g. for virtualized environments or special applications
- SCSI drive: Still in demand in legacy systems
Which file systems are common?
- NTFS drive: Standard for Windows servers
- GPT drive: Supports partitions >2 TB – ideal for modern storage environments
- Dynamic drive: Supports volumes across multiple physical disks
Drives: new, used, and refurbished at it-market
At it-market, you will find tested drives for all common manufacturers and requirements. We offer new, used, and refurbished drives with tested quality.
Benefit from:
- 3-year warranty for comoanies
- Up to €2,500 buyer protection
- Short delivery times
Do you have any questions? Our sales team will be happy to answer any questions you may have about IT hardware and IT remarketing.