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.
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.
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.