Hey folks!
I have a WD easystore 14 TB External HDD connected to my Plex server (running on windows 11).
I am using about 4 TB of it, but not for anything truly important. It’s storing plex media mostly.
I’d like to use it for storing memories. But how do I trust it?
What are good tools for me to keep a check on the drive so that I can hopefully get enough warning when it starts losing sectors?
I have some tool installed based on recommendations online and I started a “surface test” of the disk and it said it’ll take a measly 300 hours. Not ideal.
Get a second one at least. You can’t really trust it otherwise. If the truly important data is relatively small you can even just put it on a cloud service as an extra backup. Or use something like Backblaze B2 and keep it connected to your computer and backed up that way.
Backblaze seems truly interesting. Would they really backup my entire 14 TB and more if/when I’m able to fill it up? And yes, I do have my personal data on two separate cloud services. But can’t trust anyone these days.
Be sure you read their terms regarding external or network-connected drives. I remember something about them not allowing some form of drive external to your computer (because otherwise you could back up several computers, when they want you to pay $20/mo per computer)
No, external drives are supported by their cheapest backup plan. It’s NETWORK drives that aren’t supported.
They would, you’d be paying them monthly for that service. Backblaze has been good to me so far, and their costs are okay for 20 or less terabytes, after that it starts making more sense to place a backup server in a DC.
Yes. I do the exact same thing as you, a Windows Plex server with a huge external hard drive. And Backblaze backs it all up for $7 per month.
Edit: I’m also backing up all of my other devices on the network to that same external drive, by the way. My primary PC mounts that external as a network drive and uses it for a file history backup. And my android phone automatically dumps all my photos to that external using SyncThing. So Backblaze is literally doing everything for $7 per month, it’s a great deal.
Backblaze is also cloud service btw. I use kopia for daily backup to 2nd HDD and also to backblaze b2. 1TB cost 6$/mo so I backup only important files, so no movies etc. Backups are encrypted, and you can also encrypt backups on gdrive for example. That way they cant do shit with your files so trust is less important. Also, test your backups every now and then