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.

    • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
      21·
      9 months ago

      Simply put.

      3 copies of anything critical.

      2 types of media

      This is more difficult for non business as non HDD storage is expensive but one cloud backup can work instead.

      1 copy stored off site.

      Having three copies at home is not much help if your house burns down etc.

        • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
          62·
          9 months ago

          One thing it doesn’t mention is that a sync is not a backup. If deleting a file in one copy of the data triggers a delete in another copy, then it doesn’t count as a copy.

          • Romkslrqusz@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            The right sync is actually an excellent backup, and compliments other methods (like local storage) quite nicely.

            Any worthwhile sync will delete to a recycle bin and support versioning of files. A bad actor would have to have account level access to dump the recycle bin, which proper use of MFA can limit in the majority of cases.

            A sync will also make it easier to propagate files to an offsite copy, as you can have a connected device in a separate location.

            One of the most important aspects in backups is convenience. Anything that is a task or chore risks getting put off - I see it all the time.

            • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
              1·
              9 months ago

              I guess I didn’t get my point across. I wasn’t tryig to say it can’t happen automatically, just that if deleting it in one copy als, deletes it in another then it’s useless in an accidental deletion scenario. Having versioned deletion is different and would mean the file was not deleted.