If you’re putting them in RAID make sure the drives are designed for RAID and the OS/File System can pass the TRIM command on to the SSD’s.

You can always get a case like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IIBO56

And mount four of these in there: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B00V5JHOXQ

Pro or not it can still be air filled.

As long you don’t have SHR disks, 2TB HDD should be find. These days 2TB SSDs are about the same price as a 2TB HDD or at least much more affordable, a lot faster, quieter, and use less power.

Way Overkill.

Single pass read (SMART test is fine) and single pass write (ones, zeros, random, whatever you want) is more than adequate to determine any issues a new disk may have out of the gate, unless you want to isolate a fringe case condition and waste time and wear on your hard drive doing so.

2TB is only the maximum with 32-bit file systems. We’re well beyond that.

From Windows, you should be able to go into disk management, right click the partition and choose “Extend Volume”.

I would think you’d be able to get at least a 4TB HDD for the price of a 2TB SSD, and with the right sale, even an 8TB. WD Blue are CMR and while for some reason hard to come by at the moment, run about $100-130 depending on the day.

Good comparison, thank you.

There’s not many decent free or low price point backup programs for Windows especially.

Honestly, I’ve been quite happy with “Synology Active Backup for Business” (worse name ever), but it does require a Synology NAS, but it “just works”.

For years I used Macrium Reflect. But ever since I switched to Synology several years back I’ve been very happy with it. I don’t like that it’s tied to Synology, but whatever, I guess that’s why I have a NAS. I just hate annual plans, and pricing for Macrium is ridiculous for a “one time purchase”. It’s currently on sale for $239.97 for four PC’s, but normally it’s over $300.

I didn’t realize that Veeam free doesn’t support more than 1 job. That’s very limiting.

Use Robocopy

Nah, all you have to do is drag the folder into the “poolpart” folder and recalculate storage in Drivepool and it shows up. Nothing fancy needed.

WD has the “WD Dashboard” utility that will allow you to run a LONG SMART test.

CrystalDiskInfo does use generic interpretations of disks if it does not have specific attributes for a specific disk in its database. This is likely just a case of CrystalDiskInfo not supporting this SSD, perhaps because it’s not a popular disk or they had issues getting the proper attribute data from the manufacturer.

r/techsupport

You won’t get much empathy or help here. If you don’t have a backup, then consider it a lesson learned. We do feel your pain, but it’s also one to remember so you have backups the next time this happens.

While Microsoft is guilty of a lot of things, these kinds of issues typically end up being a PEBKAC error.

If you really want the data back, send it to a professional.

Otherwise check out the program called “Test Disk”: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

It may help find your lost folder.

WD and Toshiba portable drives have USB soldered on. Seagate portables still have a SATA interface.

Right, but that chart is OLD and talks nothing of modern processes. SLC, MLC are much less susceptible to loss of data because of only 2 or 4 voltage charge states per cell. Looking at QLC especially with 16 different voltage states per cell, just a small voltage loss would mean data corruption.

This is likely more concerning for well worn SSD’s however, and not for a reasonably fresh one.

You don’t need to full format a new hard drive. You can if you want to make sure there’s no errors on the disk.

As far as SMR is concerned, connect it through USB supporting UASP, that’s usually more a part of the USB chipset on the hard drive than anything else. Then you can TRIM the disk. Just be sure to let the disk idle for a bit after trimming it.

Your best bet is to have multiple copies and validate your data regularly. Doesn’t really matter what you store it on.

From comments: https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/pull/15022#issuecomment-1802428899

“This feature will be available in the OpenZFS 2.3 release, which is probably about a year out.”

Dated Nov 8, 2023

So still needs some time to cook.

SMART Stats?

It’s like buying a car and asking “did a get a good deal” without stating anything about the car.

If a second data drive dies during the “snapraid fix” operation for the first failed drive, will the fix for the first failed drive continue without issue?

If a fix operation started and a disk failed, it will fail out and you will have to start over and fix both disks.

Similarly, if one of the two parity drives fails during a sync operation, will the second parity drive allow the operation to complete successfully without any interaction from the user?

No. It will fail out and you will have to rebuild the new parity.

If a fix operation started and a disk failed, it will fail out and you will have to start over.