I use a simple 2.5" external usb drive connecter to my router as a shared drive on my home network. I also use it to run my router's torrent download tool and get new content.
The external drive is not new and I worry that with the constant load it might fail one day. It's also slow sometimes when watching content directly from it with kodi.
What would you suggest I replace it with? Would a 3.5" external usb drive be safer?
13 Comments
SheeEttin@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 3y
Any drive has the possibility of failure. If you value the contents, have a way to recover, either by restoring from backup or by re-downloding your media.
scottywh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y
Correction:
Every drive has the certainty of inevitable failure.
It's only a question of when. Backup everything and backup your backups if you care about the contents.
Leax@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 3y
Thank you!
bobsuruncle@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 3y
All drives will ultimately fail, could be 10years, could be 10mins. If you don’t want to lose your data, back it up. Have a storage drive and a backup drive. Don’t both connected them to the router. Use an alternative method to connect , like to a computer and have run a backup protocol on a regular basis. As for 2.5 over 3.5, the 3.5 are usually faster but it probably doesn’t matter reliability wise.
Leax@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 3y
Thank you!
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 3y
2.5" vs 3.5" HDD doesn't make much difference in speed, you could get an SSD instead maybe.
All drives will fail sometime, I wouldn't worry about constant load being an issue, that's generally better for HDDs.
Leax@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 3y
I see thank you!
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3y
Unless you're getting a fancy NAS grade drive I can't imagine a 3.5" drive would be any more reliable than a 2.5" drive.
If you're worried about the health see if your router gives a smart reading from the drive, or if it doesn't just plug it into your PC and get a reading from time to time.
Leax@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3y
I did just that now, and my old drive has a "caution" rating already. Will change it soon I guess! Thanks!
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 3y
A single drive is always going to be a potential point of failure. Definitely make periodic backups to a different device if you don't want to potentially lose everything on it without warning.
There are more complicated solutions available, such as a RAID array, but it sounds like you want to keep things relatively simple. In that case, I don't think there will be a whole lot of difference between 2.5 and 3.5 inch drives -- except that there are 3.5 inch drives designed for data center applications which may net you some extra reliability. You'd likely need to get such a drive and put it into your own external enclosure, though.
That said, there's only so much you should expect to get out of a single drive connected via USB (relatively slower transfers, reliance on the bespoke external bay, potentially not getting warned if SMART status changes).
Leax@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y
You're right, if I really want to improve things, I should go for a Raid solution, but that invoke a NAS or a desktop pc I suppose, so... Maybe next year! Thank you!
TheHolm@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 3y
Old saying. If you do not have 3 copies of you data, consider it lost already. Get another drive, in your setup type does not mater what size. And if there any important data on that drive, create a couple of backups in different places.
Leax@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y
You're right! I do have another drive for backup