Thread 106253098

Are HDDs docking stations worth it if I just want to transfer some games for cold storage? Anyone have any good recommendations for that? Or can anyone vouch for a raid system instead? Ultimately I just want to make sure my current HDD able to randomly update two HDDs that I keep stored on a shelf just in case if my PC busts.

>cold storage
optical media works better for that, you can get BD-Rs up to 128 GB in size

>>106253098 (OP)
I have that same exact model, OP. It works just fine for transferring or making backups. I wouldn't use it as an external working directory/network attached, though.

>>106253098 (OP)
make sure it has a fan or ventilation.

>>106253098 (OP)
Just buy an external drive. They usually cost less.

>>106253098 (OP)

yes if at sight visitors might leave your pc alone

never tried raid

>>106253098 (OP)
I have that exact same enclosure kek. honestly was cheap enough so why not?

>>106253109
I've had bad luck with BD-Rs. I don't mind working with HDDs.

>>106253137
thanks. I see it on amazon. Can you elaborate regarding the external working directory concern? I genuinely want your collective thoughts. I'm not exactly rich, but I will invest whatever money I have to if it means storing 1TB worth of backups properly. RAID seems to be more trouble than its worth, honestly.

>>106253137
>I wouldn't use it as an external working directory/network attached, though.
I use the same one as a NAS attached to a laptop, works fine for me desu

>>106253169
what's the catch? Why are they cheaper? I'm honestly impressed.

Axagon works

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Lay-Flat-Docking-EC-DFLT/dp/B00LS5NFQ2/ref=asc_df_B00LS5NFQ2?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79852149837934&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=77731&hvtargid=pla-4583451676644884&th=1

This is actually pretty cheap. I see OP and you guys are recommending this....its fucking cheap. you guys sure its not ganna blow up kek??

You guys just gave me a great idea. O have some DVDs laying about. I'm going to burn all my OS .iso files to these disks.

>>106253207
>Why are they cheaper?
they use lesser quality drives inside them

>>106253224
They're sata-usb interfaces they don't need to be expensive at all

>>106253223
My ADHD doesn't let me pick a system. There are too many methods to fulfill what I'm trying to accomplish. Look at this fucking thing. It has clone function? Based...

>>106253224
why would it blow up? Sabrent is a pretty well-known brand, quality is pretty good

>>106253248
Yeah man have fun

My CD-Rs are only 700MB and my DVD-Rs are 4.7GB. I'll have to burn multiple OSs onto disc jfc

>>106253343
ahh damn

>>106253248

clone never works as drive id and data are something something

>>106253098 (OP)
>Are HDDs docking stations worth it if I just want to transfer some games for cold storage?
yes but chose wisely
>Anyone have any good recommendations for that?
the sabrent one in your pic works very well, I've tried many over the years and it's the only one that never had any kind of time out when transfering over 10 TB of data.
>Or can anyone vouch for a raid system instead?
avoid multi-disks usb enclosures (DAS), they're very unreliable, I've tried everything from chinkshit to icy dock or even sabrent and it's HORRIBLE with copy errors and time out for no fucking reason randomly.
> Ultimately I just want to make sure my current HDD able to randomly update two HDDs that I keep stored on a shelf just in case if my PC busts.
the sabrent one is fine.
>>106253169
don't do that, they use the worst quality parts for external hdd.

>>106253468
this has better reviews anyway. It's literally just a matter of getting an HDD, formatting it if you want to install new content from a computer, and clicking clone.

enjoy your bitrot fag

>>106253098 (OP)
Yes, you should absolutely buy a HDD dock to make backups.
Doesn't matter which one as long at is has at least USB 3.
Super easy to use: your PC will see it as any normal external drive so you can copy your shit over any way you like.

What I do is use new drives in RAID 1 on my live system and do backups on older drives.
When I run out of space I double the capacity so my old drives (now no longer in RAID 1) can fit one copy of the new capacity.

previous situation:
- live: 2 x 4 TB in RAID 1
- backup A: 1 x 4 TB
- backup B: 2 x (old) 2 TB
- backup C: 1 x (old) 2 TB + 2 x (very old) 1TB

current situation:
- live: 2 x 8 TB in RAID 1
- backup A: 1 x 8 TB
- backup B: 2 x (old) 4 TB
- backup C: 1 x (old) 4 TB + 2 x (very old) 2TB

So essentially I always buy 3 new drives of the required capacity and together with older drives I can store 5 copies of all my data (2 live, 3 backups)

>>106253343
>>106253418
at least I'll be able to delete 4.7GB of data on my external HDD

>>106253243
>>106253515
What about the Western Digital ones like the Anons in the Homeserver thread use?

>>106253098 (OP)
Why a whole dock?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GLL41MA

>>106254353
Forgot pick. This all you need.

when did it become possible to simply click and drag a file into a CD-R and it writes? when did this happen? I can delete, too!

>>106254405
With CD-RW like 25 years ago.

>>106254452
wrong! it simply makes a mirror image the file to be written.

>>106253248
a clone button always scares me. i imagine accidentally pressing it and wiping one drive out.

>>106254501
Could be. I never used CD-RWs.

>>106253243
Cheap ones also fail if you so much as bump them into something.

>>106254361
I'm nor saying I'm a retard but if that was disconnected by accident or anything wouldn't that massively fuck up the HDD? How tight is that connection?

>>106254786
You live with toddlers running around?

>>106254786
Have you ever pulled a USB without safe ejecting first? Same deal. Bad idea if you're in the middle of a transfer and that specific data will probably get corrupted but realistically shouldn't affect anything else.
There is a minuscule chance of the filesystem corrupting if your OS happens to be doing something funky with the drive in the background, which I've had happen on Windows before.

>That's a lot of games anon...
Games?

>>106253098 (OP)
I have one of those, it works OK.
But I had a cheaper one before that if you plugged in the usb before the hdd had spun up completely it would permanently destroy the hdd.

I have given up and moved on to m.2 enclosures. much MUCH more portable and durable.

>>106253098 (OP)
>>106253552
I have both of these exact models and they both work fine for copying data to/from individual drives but I would never use the clone function on the dock or RAID together drives connected with USB. That's just asking for trouble. If all you want is to manually drag and drop some files to a single drive, they're fine.
For a more reliable backup with RAID I recommend you have another machine on the network that can be your backup target and use something like Borg with a GUI like Vorta or Pika Backup on your desktop to back it up automatically.
I use Borg Warehouse on my server because it's a single docker container and it can send notifications to my phone and laptop if a host doesn't make a backup when it should. If you don't want to mess with all of that you can just install Borg on the server alone and it will use SSH on the server for authentication.
Captcha: The price you pay for cloud storage

>>106253098 (OP)
Hey I bought this this very week, kinda funny that it would show up here. It does the job I guess but this feels really really goddamn cheap.

>>106253552
I have a chinkshut version of this. Works great for copying shit quickly.

>>106255721
Good post

this is probably a schizo suggestion but have you considered tape?

>>106253617
nigger.

>>106255891
>cheapest drive is 3,5k dollar and you probably need a controller card or some shit as well

>>106255929
true, but for something like a Dell PowerVault TL4000 you can store 48 and its a reader. so it's not as painful of a pricepoint considering its acting like a storage cluster instead of just a lector.

>>106253515
>don't do that, they use the worst quality parts for external hdd.

God some people are fucking retarded.

>>106255721
Does anyone have suggestions for local (external drive) or cloud backup for my clients who are extremely old? Backup is a real pain point for them. Even copying files to an external drive is completely foreign and it's extremely hard to teach. It would ideally be automatic or at least a one-click thing.
If they were on Linux I would recommend Pika Backup like I use on my laptop but they're not. Vorta looks like it would probably be too hard for them but I haven't actually used it myself.
How's the Backblaze backup client?

I have pic related, can recommend. I did have to replace the fan with a quiter (noctua) fan though it was datacenter-server-loud not just a little loud.
Also have an external usb dock but sata is faster and just works better

>>106253109
Didn't sony recently say they are ditching bluray? How long will discs still sell?

>>106253109
I think a HDD will still end up being cheaper.

>>106253098 (OP)
Yes but more in the sense of you having lots of old drives from old PCs and stuff. I have a shelf of old drives I've had to pull things off of. Or friends/families computers I scrap/repair.

>>106256088
OneDrive since it already hijacks your documents folder.

>>106253098 (OP)
Nah, just buy some sata to usb adapter if it's a one time thing. You won't be restricted by the form factor either.

>>106256469
Yeah, OneDrive is a nightmare and I have to give everyone the talk about not signing in to a Microsoft account unless it's absolutely necessary. It's not a real backup, anyway, it's a syncing service.

>>106256255
according to https://blu-raydisc.info/licensee-list/discmanuid-licenseelist.php TDK can also make 128 GB discs (but I don't think they actually sell those, maybe it will change when the Sony discs disappear from market)

>>106256004
yep, some people are retarded enough to buy external hdd, dumbfucks

>>106257022
External HDD quality doesn't matter when you write to it once, then turn it off and keep it in your cupboard.

>>106253098 (OP)
I have the one in your pic and it works fine for me for making backups. haven't tried it for active use.

>>106253098 (OP)
>>106253248
>>106253552
Be fucking careful about these clone drive tools. They will destroy your data if you leave the HDD on it(without using the clone). Even just powering on the HDD without plugging into the PC have chance of destroying the data.

>>106257092
Just use ZFS and it will never do that.

Depends on how much storage you're aiming for.
> <2TB
Install an SSD.
> >2TB on a desktop
Install a HDD.
> >2TB on a laptop
External HDD. Doesn't have to be in a case. You can use a USB to SATA cable. It's probably cheaper than the enclosure and does the same thing electronically.
> More SATA slots or case HDD spaces than your desktop supports
You're probably looking at building a new machine at this point. It's not that complicated to do.

>>106257115
Pro tip: external HDD should be standard HDD with USB 3.0/ethernet connection with SATA adapter. Do not buy cheap junk.

>>106257140
Yeah. I agree. That's what you should go for.
Just make sure your cable/enclosure that provides the adaptor can adequately power the drive you get.

>>106257153
If you want to be cheap, buy laptop grade HDD, that way USB port itself can power it more than enough.

>>106256494
PCIe lanes buddy

>>106257662
Relevance? A dock is still going to be connected via USB.

>>106254858
i have this and its decent

>>106253207
>$24/tb is impressive
it's fucken dog shit overpriced garbage jfc, i hate how you can only get sensible prices on hard drives when some datacenter rejects a shipment and a bunch of drives flood serverpartdeals or something. That's how I got a bunch of 18tb HC550's for around $12/tb brand new once... shit was so cash. literally...

>>106257801
>I saved $1200
I hope you bought something with it because it is becoming worthless by the hour with these inflation rates.

>>106257858
they went in my NAS which is still running

>>106257874
a NAS doesn't cost that much

>>106257801
>buying used drives
dont mind me... Just flashing the controller with malware ;)

>>106257923
they were brand new like i said, warranty and all. I know two sentences is a lot to comprehend for your generation but try.

>>106257923
Malware to do what, exactly?

>>106258057
>brand new
>serverpartdeals
hahahahahahhaha

>>106258121
They get new shit in sometimes, 90% of the stuff on there already is refurbs/used and is clearly stated.
No reason to lie on the shit they get new

>>106257894
oh you meant with the $1200 yeah i bought shares of Main street capital corp

>>106253169
>why buy an external hard drive
>just buy an external hard drive
Retard.

You will pay 300 USD for 1TB and you will be happy

>>106257092
Yeah, and you speed up your computer by deleting system 32. Why are you peddling nonsense?

What is a great and logically priced HDD brand? My Western Digitals have been pretty good. Do I stick with that?

Ok you fucks, I need you to hold my hand. I genuinely feel like a dumb fuck. Call me whatever you want, I understand where you would be coming from. With that fucking said, I have only a need to transfer all the videos on youtube that ever put a smile on my face, some GOG games, and the occasional movie here and there. I'll be ordering a 10 TB HDD to transfer my shit from my dying HDD.
So what is the best damn tool to use? I want to have 3 HDDs sitting on my shelf that will have a copy of whatever is on my HDD. (And I will format them first because I may write on them later)
So with everything you know about the hell I'm planning, what do I do? Do I get the thing in the OP and just literally drag and drop the files from my dying HDD to the one that would be connected? Is that good enough? I feel like I'm overthinking this bullshit.

>>106253181
Sorry, for taking so long, have a picture.
In my experience, it tends to shutdown or timeout while constantly attached. I didn't trust this from having used other USB external HDD attachements. They simply stopped connecting having fried something on their cheap boards perhaps.
The Sabrent in the image(yours/mine) worked very well for over a year only acting as a backup device that I would attach and then immediately transfer to. Then I would detach it and leave it alone. I used it for both 3.5" & 2.5" HDDs.
>>106253184
Mine was also attached to a laptop, Lenovo T540p Win10 IoT LTSC, but it treated it as though it needed power savings somehow. I didn't trust it connected all the time. I also hated the overly bright LED, so I taped it. ;3

>>106260725
>but it treated it as though it needed power savings somehow
I don't think that's laptop-specific. mine does the same when connected to my desktop also since that's the machine I did the setting up on. I think that's just the way the controller chip on the enclosure is set up. I've had mine connected 24/7 for months and it's still fine, it just makes the HDD stop spinning when not in use after 10 minutes, I can live with that (and it makes less noise when I'm sleeping, since my laptop server is right next to my bed)
> I also hated the overly bright LED, so I taped it. ;3
I see I'm not the only one kek

>>106260725
Thanks for the info. What I'm doing exactly is what others have mentioned. I have my main PC which has 1 TB on it, and today I am going to purchase three HDDs that have 10TB each. What I want to do is transfer upgrade the computer to have that extra 10TB. Whatever I put on it, I will also connect the other two new HDDs and plan to copy files from the 10TB to the backups at least once a month. I think based on what you are saying, it's a fine system regarding the item listed by OP. I will take warning to what you mentioned and not have it constantly plugged in. Do you think my plan is fine?

>>106260725
>>106260750 (me)
pic related btw. I taped mine with black electrical tape so it doesn't look too bad. my server's the open laptop on the table, and there's my Thinkpads with it. under the table there's also a 5-bay DAS enclosure, also connected to the laptop

>>106260750
Yeah, That is to date, the birghtest LED I have ever seen on a device. Holy shit. It isn't recessed so you gets you from every angle, too. Has to be intentional.
>>106260761
>Do you think my plan is fine?
I like the idea, and the dual backup solution seems professional. I wish you luck whatever you choose to do.

>>106260761
After I posted, I remembered Sabrent claiming there was a maximum capacity for the drive, you might want to check that out before you purchase.
Here is the model I own: Sabrent USB 3.0 EC-DFLT
https://www.newegg.com/sabrent-ec-dflt-dock/p/N82E16817366069
Here is one I saw that has a 6TB capacity limit Sabrent USB 3.0 DC-DFFN
https://www.newegg.com/sabrent-ec-dffn-dock/p/N82E16817366078

>>106260859
the first one mentions it only supports 8TB, which I find weird. I'm not sure which of the two models I own but I have a 14TB drive inside and it works just fine

>>106260814
That whole corner would be blinking bright blue with out the tape. lol Looks nicely layed out.
>>106260859
DC-DFLT has an *GB capacity rating.

>>106260869
I never tried to push it, it was just something I remembered though it never affected me in anyway.

>>106260873
>That whole corner would be blinking bright blue with out the tape
well yeah, that's why I covered it up kek. unironically made it hard for me to sleep with it on
>lol Looks nicely layed out.
basically my laptop corner yeah. my router is downstairs so they're all connected to wifi, and that's the place in my room that's right above the router. all the laptops are using AX210 wlan cards so I can almost use my whole 2gbps net without issues, good enough since running wired isn't an option
>>106260890
when I bought it off amazon I don't think mine mentioned a max capacity. I'll go find it in my history in a bit, dinner's ready

This has to be the most fucking kind/peaceful /g/ thread to have ever existed...I'm so proud of you, anons.

>>106260575
>I feel like I'm overthinking
Yes

I'm angry, anons! Angry my seagate is failing on me after 4 years! How dare some of the sectors go bad! I hardly LITERALLY NEVER practically used it! It's empty! But now that I put my captain hat back on, NOW it wants to be an ass and is in "caution" status. What the fuck, do I get a new seagate, or go WD?

>>106253098 (OP)
yes actually, i have a USB to SATA off an old shucked external HDD and it has been incredibly convenient for shuffling files between random SSDs i've stolen from work

a dedicated version of the connector is only like 20 bucks too, you dont need a whole "docking station" just the plug

if i have an old external hdd that keeps disconnected when i plug it into my pc via usb, do you think it's worth cracking open its enclosure and trying it in one of these caddys? im thining the usb port itself on the external hdd might just be fucked

anybody else have a cheap multibay they leave plugged in 24/7? I bought as a temp solution and haven't unplugged in close to 5 years

>>106260575
get picrel and just dragondrop* the files you want, i.e.e your games, porn, and old tax filings. when your internal HD finally dies just install an entirely new one (they are literally free) and either pop the "backup" drive right in there or continue using the usb to sata cable to dragondrop the files back to your new main drive

*this is not a software just a cutesy way to say "drag and drop"

>>106254786
no. i've used mine with literal HDDs using le slow spinny disk and nothing bad has ever happened even when i haveb een drunk and knocked it off the shelf or whatever

>>106261075
>before seeing the disclaimer, I googled "dragondrop software"

kek

>>106260890
>>106260906
I checked and mine says EC-DFLT on the box. safe to say that one works with over 8TB drives at least
>>106261065
the 5-bay one I have is also always plugged but that one is used a lot less in my case since I haven't set it up over SMB yet. it's a cheapo one from Orico

Am I an old man or is storage cheaper than it once was in the 2010s? I fucking swear, TBs are so cheap now.

>>106261175
just you, i havent noticed any severe drop in storage prices. there's the slow creep of stuff getting bigger in general but not like a huge crash in prices. i still gotta pay like a hundred bucks fo a 256gb usb key, fuk dat nigga

shitty small drives (160-320gb) are basically free though because people throw out laptops so often now but those drives don't meet normal consoomer market (i am stealing them from recycling places and/or computers i personally decommission at work)

Are NVMe good for cold storage or do I stick with HDD?

>>106261279
In cold storage, only capacity, then quality matters. Speed is practically irrelevant, it could be crappy SMR HDD and it would be okay because you will only write it once.

>>106260814
>>106260761
>>106260750
>>106253137
>>106260725
im gonna explain the idle shit

its normal and its built into the enclosure. i've had a 2 bay orico bay that was also sleepng after 5-10 mins and had massive latency mounting shit with nfs.

i reached out to the orico support, got the firmware updater tool and changed the setting for the enclosure. now my drives never sleep.

this process is different for each of these chinesium brands. try to find the firmware shit, go to support ,etc

>>106260956
It would be a toss up to me. Both have reliable lines. Here is my old as 500GB Seagate Barracuda. Old Age and Pre Fail aren't nice to read, but it works well and I don't abuse it. I just occasionally drop a 20-30GB compressed file onto it.
>>106261075
One of these (similar) came with my PNY SSD, and it is incredibly handy. Love that little guy.
>>106261098
lol
>>106261121
Like I said I have never tested the limits, and 14 TBs is almost double the capacity rating, so I just think it is there(the limit) to cover their ass for extended use from large capacities.

>>106261236
8 or so years ago it seemed like $15/tb was the goldilocks zone for hdds.
Now it's a fantasy.
Inflation is outpacing storage tech

Thanks anons. I don't need that much data. 1TB should be good for now. (I think)

>>106255891
>a tape backup
>for four fucking folders less than 500gb
shiggy diggity

>>106261311
Thank you, I always thought it was the operating system.

>>106261493
Tape reader itself will set you back few grand unless you buy some used bootleg.

Nevermind, the one with the fan is what I am getting per what you lads said. That being said, I want to fuck the sabrent employee. I want to fill her with my data, anons ;_;

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013WODZH0/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A29Y8OP2GPR7PE&th=1

>>106261489
Aw, don't buy 1TB HDDs. Since you're buying 2, presumably to contain the same data, you can triple your capacity by buying used. https://www.ebay.com/itm/171510465498
If you really don't think you'll go beyond 1TB just go solid state.

>>106261584
Or double it for the same budget but have triple redundancy and a 3 year warranty instead of 1. https://www.ebay.com/itm/176971361735

>>106261584
>https://www.ebay.com/itm/171510465498

Ironically I work at eBay Concierge Customer Service. That seller has quite the lovely history with the company kek...(internally, you can't even see all of the removed feedback that seller has begged for)

>>106261693
Bound to have plenty of issues selling used hard drives at that kind of scale. I bought 2 drives from goharddrive and had no problem, knock on wood.

>>106261311
oh yeah my Orico also does that. I'll have to see if I can find anything like that, but really it sleeping doesn't bother me and it's quieter at night at least. if I want to stop it from sleeping I can just run a command to touch a file on the drive every couple minutes, it did work when I tested it and since I'm on Linux it'll likely save me from having to use a disposable Windows install

>>106261860
>Bound to have plenty of issues selling used hard drives at that kind of scale

you, sir or madam, can work at eBay Customer Service ;)

>>106261893
>touch a file every couple minutes
Brilliant.

>>106261951
Yeah, where do I sign up? I'll see what happens when it's time to claim my warranty I guess but I'm still glad I went used over new.

>>106261979
if a seller promises a warranty on eBay, that is a trust that the buyer will have to have in the seller since eBay only guarantees the eMBG (eBay Money Back Guarantee) kek

>>106260928
The need to secure your data even if it's just your fap folder is serious business to those of us that have suffered data loss in the past

>>106261236
>i still gotta pay like a hundred bucks fo a 256gb usb key
?
I got one for like $30 on sale a few weeks ago.

>>106261279
Solid state drives can work as cold storage but only if you literally put them in cold storage. Putting them in the fridge can get them to hold a charge for over a decade.

I have one of these with a 2TB HDD I was going to install in an old machine before the old computer's mobo gave out. I had this drive lying around for a couple years before buying this enclosure.
I haven't used it very many time since, but I noticed that the actual controller chip in the enclosure's PCB overheats pretty bad when running (meaning oscillation/malfunction). I can use my drive just fine, but that chip is going to give out much sooner than it should.
Could be that this Inateck thing is poorly made. Could be that mine is simply defective, I do not know. I only noticed after the warranty period, so Inateck offered no help.

>>106264442
That's so fucking based. Thanks for the response by the way. I asked chatgpt about it earlier and it really said as long as you plug it in every now and then it's fine.
You know, anons, I know this is fucking random as shit, but wouldn't it be cool to be an old man one day an office with bookshelves of data? Just fucking neatly lined stacks of HDDs, all organized as if I am the reincarnated scholar of the lost library of Alexandria, hoarding insane amounts of data. Video games, porn, movies, shows, books, magazines, instruction manuals. Just terabytes of knowledge in a world full of whatever is the modern day zoomers who have lost the ability to obtain such data. Living in a world where the internet is a dystopian nightmare where torrenting and pirating are impossible, and the only services available are subbing and purchasing overpriced corp trash. Those who are the data gods of those days to come will be the gigachads of tomorrow.

>>106265027
Everything about that image tells me it won't last a year. It is just Cheap Chinese Crap®™

>>106253243
>>106254316
Lesser just means isn't up to stupid enterprise standards. A business with thousands of drives likely expect few issues. They also cost more. They are almost never under that kind of load in a consumer's setup.

You will know if you need better equipment.

>>106265181
It is older than that.

>>106265135
I think your fantasy will be close to coming true someday in our lifetimes. There is A LOT of data we were told would forever be on the internet that's gone now. So many random youtube videos and artist galleries just deleted without a trace. I kick myself for not archiving things I have an interest in sooner, but now all I can do is back it ALL up as best I can. I archive more niche stuff like random furry animations and japanese twitter artists because those are more likely to disappear than big budget movies and games and I only have so little storage space.

>>106265406
>I archive more niche stuff like random furry animations and japanese twitter artists
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

>>106253169
>just buy a refurbish that didn't pass critical tests enclosed in shiny chinkesium for long term storage, They [[[usually]]] costs less

>20 TB externals at best buy for $229 each
>Buy two. One for using and one for backup.
>Extremely cheap. So much cheaper than any alternative. Plug and play. No need to deal with enclosures, raid, running drives going bad, wattage.

Why would you need anything else?

>>106259857
Not that anon, but I also think it's better to avoid those docking station with offline cloning function. It uses button to activate, so if there's any faulty mechanical part, there's a risk it would accidentally run the cloning function and destroy your data.

>>106266072
You'll find out soon enough

>>106253098 (OP)
I do with with a bunch of WD drives, all 6-8tb.

>>106266072
open them and check if there's a BarraCuda or an EXOS in them. if it's the former, rip

I have 16 of these 10-bay HDD towers. They're connected via USB 3.0 over a 16 port USB hub (Acasis) to my computer.
Most of them are filled with either 8TB, 16TB and also 20TB HDD's.

I mostly store TV-series from different streaming services and BD-Rips, movies and documentaries. I also store E-Books and such with "nice to have and know" stuff.
The only thing i don't have that much of is music. It's less than 50TB at this point. But still a well maintained library.

>>106253515
>avoid multi-disks usb enclosures (DAS), they're very unreliable, I've tried everything from chinkshit to icy dock or even sabrent and it's HORRIBLE with copy errors and time out for no fucking reason randomly.
>>106268629
>I have 16 of these 10-bay HDD towers. They're connected via USB 3.0 over a 16 port USB hub (Acasis) to my computer.
So are usb enclosures reliable enough for always connected external storage or not? What about eSATA?

>buy new faster dock
>it doesn't work with 8tb harddrives for some reason
>shit doesn't even tell you this fact

>>106253098 (OP)
Orico from Ali is ok

The cool thing about HDD backups is that you can put them in these cool 80s like era storage boxes and use them as nerdy desk decorations.

>>106268837
>So are usb enclosures reliable enough for always connected external storage or not? What about eSATA?
While my HDD 10-Bay towers are always physically connected to the hub, i only have those on where i need to access one of the disks.
Since each HDD can turned on/off independently from the others, i don't need them to be on all of them all the time.
Each tower has a standard PC power supply built in by default, you can even replace them with a semi passive ones of better quality. Which makes the towers noise level lower.
I also built in a fan regulator and let the casings fans run at a much lower speed. Reduces noise furthermore.
Despite all these measures, i never faced any temp issues.

When i have accessed an HDD in these towers, i let it run for some hours straight and then shut it down again.
I had no HDD fail on me for the past 12 years and i went the 10-Bay HDD-Tower route for about eight years ago.
The collection is combined at about 1.2 Petabyte now and a RAID 6 would require me to go 19" rack mount with a lot of additional shit.
Not doable in a 41 squaremeter apartment where i live together with my wife.

The main reasons i don't go for a RAID sytem are:
1. power consumption
2. Noise level
3. Constant heat coming from them

Can't host such a RAID nor in my living room or bedroom either.
Additional to this, we live under the roof and it's getting freaky hot with about 36 degree celsius during summer here.
Eight towers are data and the other eight towers are basically holding a mirror of the content.

I consider buying an LTO drive and a shit ton of cassettes to make a cold storage backup that i can store at a different location.

About the reliability of USB connections:
I never had any trouble using US for data transfer of any kind. At leat not sine i'm using macOS.
It also for sure depends on good USB hardware. Shitty USB-controllers will make your life hard.
Pic related is the hub i'm using. It's 3.1

>>106268629
>The only thing i don't have that much of is music. It's less than 50TB at this point.
How the fuck? I've been hoarding flac files for 10 years and my music collection is less than 1TB.

>>106253098 (OP)
Just get a usb sata adapter with power for 3.5

>>106269795
>How the fuck? I've been hoarding flac files for 10 years and my music collection is less than 1TB.
I already started collecting music in the late nineties. Ripped my own CDs to 320 kbps mp3 files.
FLAC wasn't a thing back then as i think.

At a later point (in 2002) i got access to the entire music archive of "Sveriges Radio" which is located in the city of Kalmar and is said to be one of the largest in the world.
I took home buckets of CD's and let them rip on ripping rigs i installed at home and brought them back the next day. I kept going with this for years. That's why i have the library.
My problem was to save the ever and constantly growing collection. So i madebought and burned some of it on DVD's and also loaded it onto external HDD's to store all the data.
At that time, 160 GB was nearly the max size and i bought these Maxtor One Touch external HDD's in packls of 10 to store all the content almost every second month.
Crazy times :-D

Nowadays, my music collection is located on three 20 TB HDD's. But i haven't added any music files in years.
It's mostly TV-series i am focussing on now.

>>106269987
Absolutely based. May you fare extremely well in the age after the internet apocalypse.

>>106269987
btw put that music collection on soulseek

>>106256532
Even if these did exist (they don’t) it would just be rebranded Sony BD-R’s. They are the only ones with the technology to make them. Either buy the old stock or switch over 100 GB BD-R’s.

>>106270214
I maybe should, yes.

Problem is just that the sheer size of my collection, not only music but also TV-series and movies made admins ban me from some filesharing networks.
Back in the days, i had a 10mbit up/down fiberoptics line and wanted to share with me on DC++ / ODC. And they simply didn't belive that my collection was at a several TB already in 2003.
Despite the admins of some hubs test-downloading, they blocked me anyway. Salty ass fuckers :-D

The only way i share now is with friends and family who usually come over with their external HDDs. Or they use my 2TB FTP to pull stuff i put on there.
I would like to setup a site on the dark web (I2P) to provide all this tuff to people, but it's so fucking slow and i would as said be required to run a huge RAID-Server. But i can't really do this right now.

>>106253098 (OP)
if there is data that you absolutely cannot ever fucking lose in your entire lifetime, like some type of tax documents, family photos, etc, you need to use archival quality optical media stored offsite, ideally in multiples. NAND flash, HDDs, and even tape drives have degradation issues within your lifetime. Anyone saying otherwise has no idea what the fuck they're talking about. Note that it can't just be any optical media, it MUST be archival quality

Question about using bluray disks as backup since I've never used optical media before. You can only write to these once right? My preferred setup is to put ZFS on 2 hard drives and mirror them so I can have error correction. How would I do that on a bluray disc? Is it basically the same where I make an encrypted filesystem and mount it then drag and drop?

All you need is that $50 two-bay Sabrent dock

It's a life improver

maybe an nvme enclosure too

>>106270602
I just can’t justify the 5x premium of M-DISCs over regular BD-R’s. The whole ‘this fancy coating suddenly increases the lifespan of our discs 20x’ sounds like billshit to me.

Do any anons have insight on diy'ing a hard drive enclosure with a SAS expander? Seems like a fun project but I'm skeptical of my ability to not fuck something up.

>>106272542
If you are just asking about 3D printing, you should check out >>>/diy/ as well, since many of them are professional printers.
If you are going to do more than just 3D print and plug in play abunch of cards and hdds, you will need to explain a bit more about the hardware you wish to use.
My ignorant take is going to be check to make sure you have the bandwidth and support for the amount of drives you wish to include.

>>106271291
look man I don't know what else to tell you. You don't need to back up ALL your data on the expensive shit, just anything that you in no way could replace if there's a real data loss event, and something you can just store and completely forget about. You shouldn't rely on standard storage methods for that.

>>106271291
>this fancy coating suddenly increases the lifespan of our discs 20x
Well, just from experience, I can tell you that the number one reason many of my CD/DVD have failed is a degredation of the material. If they claim they applied a coating to combat that, then I would think it legit since it is the only reason I have ever seen them fail. Even deep scratches have been repaired to return 100% integrity. It wouldn't hurt to give it a look see if it was truly important.

>>106273049
BD-R’s are much more durable than CD’s and DVD’s in general (as long as you get the HTL variety). Paying a big premium for fancy coated DVD’s made sense 15 years ago. Doing the same for BD-R’s doesn’t.

>>106273332
I admit some ignorance on the longevity of blu-ray discs. I also won't put it past manufacturers to embrace planned obsolescence for optical media and then sell a solution to combat it.

>>106253098 (OP)
that specific hard drive dock from SABRENT is a good way to LOSE YOUR DATA because it doesn't work as expected and formats drives in a way that can't be read without the dock

>>106260814
>>106260725
wait till you try reading the HDD you're using in that shit SABRENT in a different dock
you're in for a surprise

>>106253098 (OP)
yeah as long as you can check them once or twice a year, and as long as your data isn't that important or you have a decent redundancy strategy
if you truly need cold storage then optical media is still king, really doubt you need that for games, even redundancy seems overkill

>>106275065
4K emulation in docking stations and USB HDD enclosures were a thing during USB 2.0 times, but with USB 3.0, 4K emulation is not a thing anymore and they also take HDDs larger than 4TB with native allocation.

>>106275272
Not this SABRENT.
It's a known problem with this model.
Also the 4K emulation was for drives over 2TB not 4TB.

This is like the only dock on the market that does it wrong.
Issue?
It works... when it works.. in the dock, with HDDs used in the dock.
When you try putting a HDD in this dock directly into a bay in a PC with SATA or in another dock, or in an enclosure, shit hits the fan.
Also if you have a drive with data on it, you usually can't take it out of a PC and use it with this dock without reformatting.

This thing is a disaster.

>>106275039
How in the fuck? HDD docks don't format drives at all. I have never heard of something like that since like the very first PC HDDs which basically had controller cards that handled the HDD itself directly. Nowadays HDDs just receive a command over a standard SATA interface and the controller is built into the drive itself. The external dock is nothing but some USB to SATA adapter which translates the SATA commands it gets via USB to SATA.

What in the everloving fuck is this Sabrent thing actually doing to make the drive unreadable in anything else?

Steer clear of WD Easystore and Green drives. Those tend to have lower quality parts, WD's Blue, My Passport, and other products are the ones to go for. Great stuff, more often reliable than the competition.
Please do not try to hang on to old HDDs past 10 years of age. They may last well beyond that, they may up and suddenly die on you just after 10 years. It is completely unpredictable. replace after 8-9 years to be safe, but WDs are generally reliable up to 10.

>>106253224
>>106271110
>>106253257
>>106253552
Sabrent looks questionable with how inexpensive their products are. "Too good to be true" often is. On the other hand, iDSonix, Vention, Orico, and Baseus are similarly inexpensive and generally good. Baseus now sells locally in the USA, used to be Aliexpress/fleaBay only. Something about sabrent is kind of off-putting. Probably only my own autism.

>>106254405
Wangblows has been able to do that since 7. CD-RWs can be used like flash drives while their rewrites last, and CD-Rs are finalized whenever you want. You can keep adding to a CD-R until it is out of space. You can also choose whe3n files get written, it tends not to be immediately unless you want it to.

>>106256469
>>106256503
Onedrive can be disabled in Settings and/or Registry. Literally a non-issue if you aren't a techlet or if you are on Winhoes 10 or older. Onedrive is (potentially) fine as a backup, so long as it is NOT your sole or main backup. Jeets' and the feds' unrelenting faggotry ensure that local, physical backup on spare drives remains everyone's best option, yes.

>>106257051
>not maintaining your data up to date
Can't keep it in a cupboard, dufus.

>>106261047
Replace that drive.

>>106261279
SSDs need eventual recharging. It is supposed to be done by getting your data out, doing a full, slow format, then putting your data back in. Process to be repeated every 5 years. Lazyass anons want to instead store and forget. HDDs and Blu-ray discs are better for such a purpose, SSDs require slightly more effort to maintain.

>>106275468
Probably some kind of security key it is adding, i would guess. I would have to look at it myself, but I'm hesitant to spend on Sabrent junk.

>>106275500
>Please do not try to hang on to old HDDs past 10 years of age
thank you, anime girl
Does that also apply to HDDs that were just sitting in a drawer?

>>106275532
Some real evil shit if it's doing that. Then I'd have to wonder what it does if you plug in a drive that isn't empty. It also can't read it? Worse, it fucks it up?

>>106253098 (OP)
That's how I backup my pool. Just rsync to a 20 TB drive every now and then which I connect with a USB dock.

>>106275500
>Please do not try to hang on to old HDDs past 10 years of age.
I saw a graph the other day showing that HDDs suddenly spike to have 3x failure rates once they hit 5 years of age. Going from 2% to 6% almost instantly. But I think that data only included HDDs that were actively used. I'm more curious about HDD survival rate when they're only plugged in for a couple days every year.

>>106275468
It doesn't format the drive, it addresses the device with different assumptions.

If you plug a drive in, it doesn't work, you remove it, then plug it back into something it previously worked in you're fine.
Problems occur when you initialize+format it inside the dock. Standard procedure for normal drives, but surprisingly this model does things awkwardly and people only learn about it when they either upgrade the dock or replace it or simply try plugging a drive into something else after using this dock for years.

Theoretical situation...
>be me
>based backupper, trying to be a REAL boy
>buy HDD dock
>back up my data in 12 different physical locations
>feels good to be me
>house burns down
>lose dock
>buy new dock
>backups can't be read
>UH OH
>ALL my 11 off-site backups are bad??
Yes, but not really, you need some funky autismo software to de-fuck your data. You don't lose your data, it just becomes practically inaccessible unless you buy another SABRENT dock running the same firmware.
Oh, did I mention to this date, different units of this dock still ship with variable firmwares?
You might get one with the issue, or one without it.
So, if you're using one with the issue then get a replacement it's not even guaranteed to be plug n play style compatible with drives used in an old SABRENT.

There are lots of posts on reddit about this and SABRENT themselves don't make any mention about this behavior on their site or in any specs and their excuse is "I unno m8, it comes from a factory in chyna, we'll try contacting them!" which basically admits they're just buying some chinesium shit with their label on it.
The same style dock has been sold by UGREEN, but they stopped selling it.
SABRENT is primarily a pajeet owned business that makes its money by reselling chinese products with their label. Some of their stuff is fine, but this one, is not. Their other docks are fine.

>>106275688
It's not DRM/Encryption but a conversion.
Just a huge inconvenience.

>>106253098 (OP)
I use (see image) and it's absolutely worth having.

I have business records and personal records (taxes etc), that I need to have secured copies of; and most computer users accumulate a lot of files over time.

So I have two hard drives where I make backup copies of my more important files; and then keep the loose hard drives in my safe.

>>106253098 (OP)
yeah i have pic related works well enough if a bit slow but thats guna be any external drive desu

I have a Startech cloning dock, requires no computer, and I want to get an eraser too, but I think simply loading a manually zeroed drive into source and using clone would do the same thing. I've used other docks and one of the problems they can have is that two ssds of the same capacity from two different manufactures are never identical, so if you fill a drive and its slightly larger than the target the clone function might not work until you erase some files from the target. I never allow my drives to go above 90-95% full so it isn't an issue for me, but I find that the equivalent sizes go like this: PNY Micron ~226GB, Sandisk ~224GB, and PNY will have ~219GB) of course those details aren't available on benchmark sites, the raw amount of available bytes, you have to use CrystalDisk to check that.

>>106276554
240GB is 240GB.
240GB is 240GB.
240GB is 240GB.
There is no brand difference.
You either get 240GB, or you don't.

What you're referring to might be the difference between Gibibytes (binary) vs Gigabyte (decimal) but they all advertise using decimal units so 240GB from ShitBrandA should be the same 240GB from ShitBrandB.

240GB as advertised means 240,000,000,000+ Bytes

I have a 5tb double platter WD external usb HDD that I want to copy hundreds of thousands of files onto from my phone and a micro sd card
but i don't know how to do it

>>106275768
>I'm more curious about HDD survival rate when they're only plugged in for a couple days every year.
In my very limited experience, survival rate is 100% up to 10 years, kek
But the 10 year advice is a great rule of thumb. Most anons bitching about their WD drives that suddenly died tended to be at the 10 year mark or past that, too.

>>106277032
or the kike manipulated students, who trusted their data to a portable 2.5" HDD that failed within a year with crashed heads erasing their homework and school projects

be smart and don't depend on any single drive
back up your data people
then and only then
after having it backed up
can you really trust the 10+ year survival rate

relying on a single drive is not worth the risk

most raging 1 star review come from buttmad students who thought they could get by with one (1) copy of their data and start fuming when that one (1) copy of it is no longer accessible because the product they bought with a 1-year warranty failed them unexpectedly

>>106268629
>connected via USB
bruh

>>106275323
>Also the 4K emulation was for drives over 2TB not 4TB.
I know, it's just that i never had a 3TB drive. Only 2TB and 4TB drives.

I have, as you can see in an earlier comment of mine a slightly different model (an older version) of the 10-Bay HDD towerSabrent sells, sold under the name Icy Box / Raidsonic, and i had Win10 running before i went over to macOS years ago.
The computer i used back then, had four SATA connections internally on the motherboard, where i had each of these ports occupied with 8TB Seagate Archive drives.
When i bought said HDD tower, i fitted all four HDD's into that tower and i had no problems accessing (read/write/edit/rename/erase) the files on these four HDD's under NTFS GPT formatting.

I neither had problems with all the other HDD's i had used in docking stations from Sharkoon and IcyBox . These were mostly USB 3.0 to 3.1, but i also had six USB 2.0 docks, whereas two of them didn't take HDD's over 2TB unless they emulated 4K with 512e.
These two docking stations caused problems with 8TB drives formatted on them. I could not fully access the date on neither the internal SATA prots of my computer, nor could i fully access these same files when i had the HDD's put into the 10-Bay HDD tower.
But these were the only HDD's i had to re-format.

Cannot talk for the other newer 10-Bay HDD-Tower Sabrent sells, but as i researched, they are made in the same factory as the identical model Raidsonic / IcyBox sells under their name.
Maybe Sabrents model got equipped with a cheaper USB to SATA controller or it's a firmware thing. But both the Sabrent and the IcyBox go for about the same price. Allthough i found huge deviations depending on the reseller and country they were sold in.
I have in total now 16 of these older IcyBox models running and as i tried end tested it out, they seem not to emulate 4K.
But i will dive deeper into this.

https://www.ssi.com.tw/product/storage/enclosure/3-5

>>106277455
Where exactly is your problem?

>>106278648
That's a SATA or SAS job