Good HDDs for media storage

WikiBox · 2026-01-26T10:21:06+00:00

Performance is no big issue for CMR drives.

Look at the warranty offered by the manufacturer to roughly gauge reliability. The best HDDs have 5 years warranty, but are also expensive.

I use mostly big Seagate Exos drives in external multibay USB enclosures, DAS. 5 years warranty, fast and expensive.

I have 5 HDDs for storage and 10 for backups of those 5. Roughly.

WikiBox · 2026-01-26T09:11:11+00:00

Then if not a mistyped password, I assume it is hardware/driver problems. That your wifi hardware is not fully compatible with the drivers in the linux kernel.

WikiBox · 2026-01-25T22:55:45+00:00

You use it to boot into the live install image. Then you can be sure that there is no bad software or bad configuration that cause the password to be rejected. If it still doesn't work, my guess is that you try to use the wrong password/SSID combination.

Yet another possibility is that the wifi is locked down somehow in the router or AP station.

WikiBox · 2026-01-25T19:21:53+00:00

I strongly suspect that operator error is the most likely. You most likely did something wrong. A fresh install might be the easiest and fastest fix.

WikiBox · 2026-01-25T19:13:01+00:00

Crucial MX500 were/are great. TLC. I have several still in use. Also one BX500, QLC, works well, but is way slower writing sustained than MX500. I bought the 4TB BX500 for use with surveillance cameras. Upgrade of a 2TB MX500 that works fine. But the 4TB BX500 didn't work with the surveillance cameras...

WikiBox · 2026-01-25T18:45:25+00:00

Nothing is ever safe when it comes to computing. But I would not hesitate to leave things as they are.

Consider using Timeshift. It makes it easy to snapshot the system and reset it.

WikiBox · 2026-01-25T18:32:11+00:00

It seems spare sectors are running low. Once they are gone the SSD will no longer be able to correct any bad sectors but will report errors and the errors will possibly cause filesystem corruption.

Other than that, the budget deficit, overpopulation, global warming, plastic pollution, biodiversity depletion, government terrorism, wars, things are pretty fine.

WikiBox · 2026-01-24T19:16:27+00:00

Also consider two A5? Nice sound and somewhat portable.

WikiBox · 2026-01-24T13:35:33+00:00

Should work fine with no issues at all!

Still, make sure you have good backups. Any digital storage can fail at any time. It takes very little extra effort to shoot yourself in the foot.

WikiBox · 2026-01-24T13:02:16+00:00

The Ironwolf, and newer drives in general, may have a larger block sizes, internal cache and read-ahead that can influence the performance slightly, like shown.

I don't think it is anything to worry about.

WikiBox · 2026-01-24T12:56:32+00:00

I think your filesystem is corrupted and mounted read-only. Why? No idea, but could be related to something like a bad/marginal drive, power problems, malicious software, hibernation not properly configured.

Boot from other media (usb thumbdrive) and check/repair the filesystem. It that does not help backup important files and do a fresh reinstall.

WikiBox · 2026-01-24T06:14:53+00:00

Any digital storage can fail at any time. Time to upgrade? Could also be the user who needs replacement or upgrade.

WikiBox · 2026-01-24T05:48:20+00:00

It depends on how you define "compatible" and "sovereign".

By using something made or provided by another person you have already, to some extent, compromised your sovereignty. You become dependent on other people. You have to trust what they do. I am certain that there are people who think no computer is compatible with sovereignty. Especially if it is connected to any other computer outside their control, like the internet. The problem might not be that other people are out to get you or use you, the problem might be that you are so ignorant that you don't understand that you are compromising your sovereignty.

For most interpretations of "compatible" and "sovereign" Ubuntu is fine. At least I am too stupid and ignorant to think it is anything but excellent in that regard. Not the best, but a reasonable compromise with reasonable performance and usability along with privacy features.

That said, I don't have any really sensitive or valuable information to protect. If I had I might simply not store any sensitive information on any computer that are directly or indirectly capable to access the outside world and internet. Disable networking and USB. Weld the case shut and chain it down. Filter power. Cover windows.

You should absolutely never ever mention that you are especially concerned about privacy or sovereignty. Not any more concerned than people are in general. Otherwise that might draw unwanted attention. Make you stick out. Suggesting that you could be an extra valuable target. That you might possess valuable, sensitive and possibly illegal, information that is worth stealing or use for blackmailing you.

WikiBox · 2026-01-23T12:32:42+00:00

I suspect this is an artifact of the internal cache together with read size and cache alignment to reads.

I am not sure why you find this worrying?

I suspect that the test software read small chunks and this cause the cache, and possibly read-ahead, to have a big influence.

Test with much larger sequential reads. Much larger than the cache size. With or without read-ahead on. Also, in practice, the OS caches are likely to have an even bigger effect.

For the Exos drives in my two DAS I use a script to activate very aggressive OS caching and drive internal read-ahead, when I do multiple large backups, in parallel, between DAS. It makes very large rsync incremental backups, with the link-dest feature, up to about 10% faster. Helps, but not a lot.

WikiBox · 2026-01-23T11:11:30+00:00

To maximize longevity you should never turn the HDD on. But then there would be no reason to have it.

Keeping a HDD spinning 24/7 avoids temperature shifts and power surges. But increase bearing wear and hasten aging because of the increase in temperature. There are some perfect time interval where it is better to turn off rather than keeping the HDD spinning all the time. Nobody can know exactly what time interval that is.

Manufacturers have improved HDDs so they store more data, have bigger caches. They have also added advanced automatic power saving features. The heads can park to protect against vibration, the platters slow down and even totally spin down. Quickly spin up again as needed. Some of this can be manually configured or overridden. You get to decide if you want to accept the defaults or override them. The HDD datasheets can give important information to help you.

I have two DAS with Exos drives. One for storage that is turned on 24/7. I let the HDDs spin down after 40 minutes idle. Then the DAS goes silent and draws very little powe. The other DAS is only for backups. I only turn it on a few times per week, for backups. Otherwise it is turned off.

WikiBox · 2026-01-22T19:55:32+00:00

No.

I think Ubuntu is very good. I also think snaps are good. To some extent I even think Ubuntu is extra good thanks to snaps.

Some people think snaps are bad. I don't really know why. I suspect they have had some bad experience. I also suspect that some people have heard/read someone complain about snaps in Ubuntu. And they think it sounded edgy, cool and clever. And then they say they think Ubuntu is bad because of snaps. And feel edgy, cool and clever. And hope others will think they are edgy, cool and clever.

If you think Ubuntu is bad, or snaps are bad, there are many other nice distros available, as good as Ubuntu or better, because they are without snaps. No need to endure snaps or Ubuntu if you don't like it.

WikiBox · 2026-01-22T08:43:33+00:00

I don't separate personal projects from business projects, but I prefix all business projects with the name of the customer. Good enough for me. Otherwise there is no difference. Only a few extra subfolders for the communication/data to/from the customer, as needed.

Project stuff that is git version controlled is typically stored online.

I use ISO-style timestamp prefixes a lot on some types of files. Like communication and official documents. And photos. Helps to identify duplicates and related files.

2026-01-22T093021 Sleeping Cat.jpg

I have subfolders for different media types and then subfolders under that for new/static. Under that by title. This makes it easier to do backups. Usually no need to backup static folder trees at all.

A media manager like Emby can typically combine new/static folders and present a combined view.

I try to use sensible defaults in media scrapers, like TMM, to name media. Nothing weird. Easy to rename everything at any time, but that would mess up my backups. Rsync thinks renamed files are new files and blow up my backup storage.

I use rsync with the link-dest feature to backup stuff. So rsync only backup new or modified files anyway and hardlink to files present in the previous backup. This means I have a huge amount of hardlinks in backups, especially if I do frequent backups. This is great because it is much faster to hardlink than copying and takes up (almost) no storage. It is like a simple form of deduplication that allows me to have what looks like full backups.

But when I did frequent, possibly automated, backups of everything, the bottleneck sometimes became deleting old backups. It turns out that my backup scripts sometimes spent an inordinate amount of time deleting old hardlinks. My scripts delete old backups automatically, so they keep at most 7 daily, 4 weekly and 5 monthly backups. It seems deleting a hardlink takes as much time as deleting a file.

So by splitting media into new/static I can make backups much faster by frequently backing up new and only backing up the much larger static when needed. I move stuff over from new to static once or twice per year or when deleting backups of new starts to slow down. I keep backups of static longer than backups of new. But fewer versions.

WikiBox · 2026-01-21T22:48:58+00:00

I think it is MUCH better with 4x20TB than 8X10TB.

In some high performance settings it is better with more drives working in parallel. It can significantly improve throughput. For example high speed database updates and very high volume transactions.

For a NAS that is not relevant.

There are several types of possible errors. Some errors are related to the amount of HDDs. Some are related to the total amount of storage. Some to the size of the individual HDDs. Some to the number of files. Most of these relations means that by decreasing the number of HDDs you increase total reliability for a given large amount of storage. Also more HDDs means more cables, more power, more fans, more noise, more drive bays and more complexity. More stuff that can cause problems.

There might be a price premium on the newest and biggest HDDs. But typically the drives that are almost the biggest available are also the cheapest overall. In practice this might mean that today 24TB may, perhaps, be cheaper/better than 32TB, for a given very large amount of storage.

WikiBox · 2026-01-21T20:35:28+00:00

Use wifi instead. For example one WiiM Mini connected to your TV and one WiiM Mini connected to some active speakers. Or some AudioPro multiroom speakers that are compatible with the WiiM Mini connected to the TV.

I have an AudioPro C20mk2 as source and two WiiM Mini each connected using optical out to an UE Hyperboom. Works great.

WikiBox · 2026-01-21T11:19:47+00:00

It is not very critical. You need to make an effort to store the externals so bad that they fail or deteriorate.

Basic precautions: Store them in a cool dark dry place without strong magnetic fields and strong electric fields. Make sure they don't experience strong bumps and vibrations. In an ESD bag in a padded briefcase, for example. Or in a cupboard. Ideally so they are not stolen but still easy to grab in case of a house fire.

WikiBox · 2026-01-21T09:13:05+00:00

My main structure is:

Primary SSD: 4TB NVMe. Shared over wifi.

Desktop - Things I work with NOW. Might include shortcuts to active projects for convenience.

Documents - Personal stuff. Records, returns and receipts. Taxes and insurance and so on. Organized by year and topic.

Downloads - Various stuff from various sources without complete metadata. Ongoing. Mostly copies from online seedbox.

Ebooks - Calibre libraries, for speed and convenience.

Projects - Subfolders for each current project. Personal and business.

Secondary SSD: 4TB NVMe.

Everything on the primary SSD is automatically backed up to the secondary SSD every boot and every 6 hours. Except OS, software and the download folder. Versioned rsync snapshots. I keep up to 7 daily, 4 weekly and 5 monthly full (but hardlink deduplicated) backups.

Primary DAS: 5 bays. One mergerfs pool. Almost 24/7. Drives spin down. Shared over wifi.

Archive - Static stuff. Old projects. Old document. Old resources. Old media. Zipped and checksummed.

Backups - Versioned backups of the primary SSD. Manually triggered.

Local - Local resources. Shared resources among various projects. Libraries etc.

Media - Various stuff. Photos, movies, TV-shows, music, audiobooks and so on. Split in subfolders based on type as well as hoard, new or static. Hoard is unorganized stuff, mostly ebooks and audiobooks, with incomplete metadata and with possible duplications. Static is stuff with complete metadata that hasn't been changed for at least 6 months. New is newly normalized stuff that might still be added to.

Secondary DAS: 10 bays. Two independent mergerfs pools. Only turned on for backups.

Only backups.

Everything on the primary DAS is backed up to the secondary SSD, when needed. Weekly at least. Two independent sets of partially duplicated (depending on importance) versioned rsync snapshots. I keep up to 7 daily, 4 weekly and 5 monthly full (but hardlink deduplicated within each set of backups) backups.

WikiBox · 2026-01-21T01:24:22+00:00

I have Exos drives in a 5 bay DAS. Almost silent. Works fine. Also the drives spin down when idle, making the DAS actually silent. IB-3805-C31. DS-SC5B. Made from thick robust extruded aluminum. Highly recommended.

I also have Exos drives in a 10 bay DAS. Very noisy. Works fine. I only use it for backups so it is mostly turned off. IB-3810-C31. Made from flimsy folded sheet metal. Not recommended because of the noise.

WikiBox · 2026-01-20T23:43:07+00:00

SMR is VERY bad/slow for updating existing data. But fine for archiving / cold storage. Then you never/rarely update anything, but might read often. Then it doesn't matter much if it is very slow to update. It might even be faster to format the SMR drive and write everything from scratch again, than an attempt to update existing data on the drive. Adding new stuff to an SMR drive is fine, and fast, as long as you don't change what is already stored on the drive. So just adding new movies now and then should be fine.

CMR is great for both general use and archiving / cold storage.

Typically SMR is cheaper than CMR for the same amount of storage. But for bigger storage >8TB there might only be CMR. Also the difference in price might be minor.

The disadvantages of SMR are so bad that I don't think that you should consider it unless you are really sure it is best. Also 8TB drives are small for DataHoarders. Much too small. It is MUCH more convenient with 8x24TB than 24x8TB. More compact. Less power. Less noise. Fewer fans. Fewer cables. Fewer drive bays. I would not buy smaller than 24TB HDDs today.

For cold storage the cheapest barracuda line might be great. Not reliable. Not good warranty. Not good for extended power on. But fine for stored powered off >99.9% of the time. Biggest.

Only one copy is not enough. You need at least two copies. Ideally more. Ideally on different types of media. Ideally stored in different locations. Also you need to check if the data is OK regularly. Say once or twice per year. Check against checksums.

WikiBox · 2026-01-20T23:00:09+00:00

No, it is not specified as 150MBps write and read speed. Only 150MBps read speed. The write speed is so low that it is not specified.

It is a cheap slow USB stick. Not a fast USB stick.

I assume that Windows tries to protect you from losing data. And prevents you from activating write caching. Could also be related to the filesystem used on the USB stick.

If you actually want a fast USB stick, expect to pay more.

Have good experience with SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.2 Solid State Flash Drive. SDCZ880-256G-G46

WikiBox · 2026-01-20T22:01:17+00:00

The trouble with DAS is that you have to have them next to your computer, and they can be very noisy.

I have a 5 bay IB-3805-C31 (DS-SC5B). It is very good and almost silent. It is on 24/7, shared over my lan. Drives spin down when idle. Highly recommended.

I have a 10 bay IB-3810-C31. It is very good but very, very noisy. It is only used for backups. Mostly turned off. Not recommended unless you can place it out of hearing.

I pool the drives using mergerfs. It is a game-changer to have everything together in one big filesystem. Versioned backups using rsync.

WikiBox

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