Thinking about buying more storage. Warn me of the lemons!

SpikesOtherDog, 11 days ago

I started with this approach, but then I found truenas. It runs the entire array in software, which is nice because most consumer equipment doesn’t seem to support raid adequately.

c10l, 11 days ago

Don’t squeeze them into your eyes. Don’t rub them on your skin and go to the sun. Don’t squeeze them on open wounds.

I think this is enough warnings about lemons for now.

As for storage advice, check Backblaze’s reports on drive failures!

backblaze.com/…/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q1-2024…

edgemaster72, 12 days ago

I’ve been pretty happy with Samsung but I’ve heard they had a clunker of a drive with high failure rates lately

This might be the 980 Pro you’re thinking of, in which case updating firmware should take care of that

fiat_lux, 12 days ago

That's probably it, thanks. Good to know it's just a firmware issue too

lemmefixdat4u, 12 days ago

If data reliability is high on your list, but speed is not, use a NAS running RAID 1 (mirrored drives), so one drive can fail without compromising the data.

I used to do RAID 5 on an 8 drive array, but had a failure of the NAS motherboard. And wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t make that model anymore. No easy way to get the data back out of the RAID. I finally paid to recover the data, but learned my lesson. It’s MUCH cheaper to buy duplicate drives than it is to recover data later. If the RAID motherboard failed tomorrow, I would pop the working drive in my computer and it would just work.

Using drive mirroring pretty much eliminates the concern over premature drive failure. If it’s in warranty, pop out the bad drive and send it in for repair/replacement. The NAS will still work. Buy another drive or wait with sweaty palms until the faulty drive is fixed. Rebuild the array.

fiat_lux, 12 days ago

I've always considered doing a raid array but the cheapness of remote servers these days makes it feel like overkill combined with being expensive and centralized. I just have an external enclosure and a mess of duplicate files across smaller outdated drives at the moment. It's not ideal, but that's ADHD for you.

GuyNoIRQ, 12 days ago

For 2.5" SSD I’d suggest a Samsung Evo or crucial mx500. These will top out at like 4TB afaik.

For 3.5" spinner I’d suggest an enterprise class HDD. Specifically WD Gold or HGST. Look up the most recent backblaze drive failure report for some models known to last a while.

Telorand, 11 days ago

Seconded on the Crucial drive!

fiat_lux, 12 days ago

Yep, got a Samsung evo 870 in there, still going strong for like a decade. The HGST spinner I have is also pretty longlived. Weren't they bought out by WD though? I feel like I remember hearing that the quality has declined severely.

Having said that, I do also have a WD .... black? In there that has also lasted. I will check out gold though, and the mx500

backblaze drive failure report

Excellent, this is what I was hoping to find again but i couldn't remember the name. I also assumed it would be paywalled after all these years... if I could even get google to deliver the link.

Thanks a heap, you've been extremely helpful!

Vinny_93, 12 days ago

3 of my 4 SSDs are Samsung, the 850 EVO SATA, the 960 pro pcie 3 and the 980 pcie 4. No complaints at all.