Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

ounapuu.ee

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 163 posts

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#21

Post by markerz »

Aurornis wrote: post #10
econ wrote: post #2

OT > Half of tech YouTube has been sponsored by companies like... It just struck me that the product reviews are a part of the social realm that is barely explored. Imagine a video website like TikTok or YouTube etc where all videos are organized under products. Priority to those who purchased the product and a category ranked by how many similar products you've purchased. The thing sort of exists currently in some h…

The reason you don’t see videos arranged by product is because everyone knows not to trust unknown creators telling you how great a product is. Viewers want to see opinions from specific people they’ve come to trust, not the first video that comes up for a product.

Alternatively, unknown creators have less incentive to falsely promote or lie. It’s the reason I tend to trust random strangers on Reddit than popular YouTubers who have achieved monetization and sponsorship.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#22

Post by tw04 »

leobg wrote: post #19

I was about to buy a NAS. I find the idea of using an old laptop instead interesting. Especially since it comes with UPS built in. The author is using a ThinkPad T430. Any experiences?

If you don’t need any performance it’s a great backup strategy. If your only way of connecting the drives to the laptop is USB I would be concerned about data integrity if it’s important data.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#23

Post by dleeftink »

Aurornis wrote: post #8
speedgoose wrote: post #4

I admire the courage to store data on refurbished Seagate hard drives. I prefer SSD storage with some backups using cloud cold storage, because I’m not the one replacing the failing hard drives.

I would also prefer having a large number of high capacity SSDs so I could replace my spinning hard drives. But even the cheapest high capacity SSD deals are still a lot more expensive than hard drive array. I’ll continue replacing failing hard drives for a few more years. For me that has meant zero replacements over a decade, though I planned for a 5% annual failure rate and have a spare drive in the case ready to g…

Curious, what's the use case for wanting your data backed-up without fail? Is it personal archives or otherwise (business) archive related?

Not to say you shouldn't backup your data, but personally I wouldn't be to affected if one of my personal drives errored out, especially if they contained unused personal files from 10+ years ago (legal/tax/financials are another matter).

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#24

Post by beala »

leobg wrote: post #19

I was about to buy a NAS. I find the idea of using an old laptop instead interesting. Especially since it comes with UPS built in. The author is using a ThinkPad T430. Any experiences?

The official TrueNAS docs recommend against using USB drives [1]. My understanding is that between the USB controller, flaky connectors and cables, and usb-to-sata bridges of varying quality, there are just too many unknowns to guarantee a reliable experience. For example, I’ve heard that some usb-to-sata controllers will drop commands and not report SMART data. That said, there are of course many people on the internet who have thrown caution to the wind and report that it’s working fine for them.

Personally I’m in the process of building a NAS with an old 9th gen Intel i5. Many mobos support 6 SATA ports and three mirrored 20 TB pairs is enough storage for me. I’m guessing it’ll be a bit more power hungry than a ugreen/synology/etc appliance but there will also be plenty of headroom for running other services.

[1] https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/13.0/gettingstarted/coreha...

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#25

Post by econ »

Aurornis wrote: post #10
econ wrote: post #2

OT > Half of tech YouTube has been sponsored by companies like... It just struck me that the product reviews are a part of the social realm that is barely explored. Imagine a video website like TikTok or YouTube etc where all videos are organized under products. Priority to those who purchased the product and a category ranked by how many similar products you've purchased. The thing sort of exists currently in some h…

The reason you don’t see videos arranged by product is because everyone knows not to trust unknown creators telling you how great a product is. Viewers want to see opinions from specific people they’ve come to trust, not the first video that comes up for a product.

They don't have to tell you anything. Just unbox and show what they got.

I just purchased a bicycle chain cleaning device. It was absurdly cheap. The plastic was extruded poorly, it was hard to assemble, it was not entirely obvious how to use it. However! It did the job and it barely got dirty. I expected it to be full of rusty oil both inside and outside but it accumulated just a tiny smudge on the inlet. If anyone made a video it would be a fantastic product.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#26

Post by amelius »

tw04 wrote: post #22
leobg wrote: post #19

I was about to buy a NAS. I find the idea of using an old laptop instead interesting. Especially since it comes with UPS built in. The author is using a ThinkPad T430. Any experiences?

If you don’t need any performance it’s a great backup strategy. If your only way of connecting the drives to the laptop is USB I would be concerned about data integrity if it’s important data.

Why is USB so bad at data integrity. Doesn't it have error detection/correction? If so, that sounds like a huge design flaw.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#27

Post by patrakov »

stirlo wrote: post #6
speedgoose wrote: post #4

I admire the courage to store data on refurbished Seagate hard drives. I prefer SSD storage with some backups using cloud cold storage, because I’m not the one replacing the failing hard drives.

And I prefer to have a healthy bank account balance. Storing 18TB (let alone with raid) on SSDs is something only those earning Silicon Valley tech wages can afford.

Not really. I know that my sleep is worth more than the difference between HDD and SSD prices, and I know the difference between the failure rates and the headache caused by the RMA process, so I buy SSDs.

In essence, what we together are saying is that people with super-sensitive sleep that are also easily upset, and that don't have ultra-high salaries, cannot really afford 18 TB of data (even though they can afford an HDD), and that's true.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#28

Post by whazor »

leobg wrote: post #19

I was about to buy a NAS. I find the idea of using an old laptop instead interesting. Especially since it comes with UPS built in. The author is using a ThinkPad T430. Any experiences?

When I used a laptop as server, the battery became a spicy pillow. I think laptops are not designed to be running continuously and on warmer temperatures than normal.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#29

Post by EvanAnderson »

dleeftink wrote: post #23
Aurornis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also prefer having a large number of high capacity SSDs so I could replace my spinning hard drives. But even the cheapest high capacity SSD deals are still a lot more expensive than hard drive array. I’ll continue replacing failing hard drives for a few more years. For me that has meant zero replacements over a decade, though I planned for a 5% annual failure rate and have a spare drive in the case ready to g…

Curious, what's the use case for wanting your data backed-up without fail? Is it personal archives or otherwise (business) archive related? Not to say you shouldn't backup your data, but personally I wouldn't be to affected if one of my personal drives errored out, especially if they contained unused personal files from 10+ years ago (legal/tax/financials are another matter).

Any data I created, paid to license, or put in significant work to gather has to be backed-up with 3-2-1 rule. Stuff I can download or otherwise obtain again is best effort but not mandatory backup.

Mainly I don't want to lose anything that took work to make or get. Personal photos, videos, source code, documents, and correspondence are the highest priority.

Re: Testing two 18 TB white label SATA hard drives from datablocks.dev

#30

Post by m2has »

leobg wrote: post #19

I was about to buy a NAS. I find the idea of using an old laptop instead interesting. Especially since it comes with UPS built in. The author is using a ThinkPad T430. Any experiences?

I’ve use an P51 for about a year now with no issues. I initially bought 6bay DAS, but I’ve since moved to pure SSD storage inside the laptop.
Post reply on HN