Based on customer feedback and our own experience we found that:
- The latest drivers and firmware generally work better than older ones. If you are experiencing a problem with your storage device, contact the device's manufacturer to obtain and install the latest updates for the device. Remember that all devices in the storage stack may affect the overall performance, so you may want to update not only, for example, your external disk drive, but also the controller the drive is connected to.
- The more expensive hardware designed specifically for high-performance servers generally works better than cheaper one intended for consumers.
- The external hard disk drives that come with some special backup-specific features, such as backup software or a "quick backup" button, perform more poorly than generic external enclosures with generic HDDs.
- A number of our customers experienced problems with Silicon Image controllers.