Lolight

Are you sure that "everybody" actually knows what Memtest is, let alone that the included in the install version is not compatible with EUFI?

Second that!

As @JorgeB has mentioned, make sure to get a USB 2.0 key. Also, try to find one at a local big electronics store. Look for a well known brand, preferably in a large, metal housing. Purchasing online might get you a counterfeit.

But that's the thing, isn't it? I'm not aware of any statistical HDD longevity study based on a scientific methodology as related to differences between models and manufacturers. Which is understandable considering enormous costs required to conduct such a project. Backblaze's conclusions are not studies - they're off the wall interpretations of particular data sets. They're not even remotely good (to put it mildly) at interpretation tasks. But it doesn't matter (to them). They have quickly recognized an opportunity to market their services to the millions worldwide at a super low cost. Here's their own admission: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/10-stories-from-10-years-of-drive-stats-data/ "Little did we know at the time that we’d be collecting the data for the next 10 years or writing various Drive Stats reports that are read by millions, but here we are." "...search engines were falling all over themselves referring new readers to the site based on searches for variants of the title and the post became first page search material for multiple years." Just consider their another very popular "study" based on a bogus criteria which resulted in the outright ridiculous conclusion that there's no correlation between HDD's operating temperatures and failure rates: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-temperature-does-it-matter/ You say they can't be too far from the truth. I'd say that their findings have nothing to do with the truth. Since finding the truth is not what motivates them in conducting their "studies". They don't have any competency for the task. Their competence is in providing backup services, accompanied by the goal of growing their customer base. Their Drive Stats blog is used as a vehicle to efficiently market their services to the main target market. Which really does not do any good to anyone who's looking for any kind of an objective HDD long term quality related data in order to make an informed purchasing decision. The tech media plays its part in spreading around Backblaze's bogus conclusions, often using catchy headlines, as if Backblaze is considered to be some kind of an authority on statistical analysis. And then that garbage gets copy/pasted all over the net. Dispelling Backblaze's HDD Reliability Myth - The Real Story Covered: https://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6028/dispelling-backblaze-s-hdd-reliability-myth-the-real-story-covered/index.html

6.12.0-rc3 is Now Available https://unraid.net/blog/6-12-0-rc3

Also: "Western Digital Redux: My Cloud Alive Again, Ransom is $10M+" https://securityboulevard.com/2023/04/western-digital-my-cloud-richixbw/

I'd also suggest to implement this point in practice.

NASCompares talks multiple for and against. But he doesn't break it down in a simple way for those who've never shucked external HDDs before. IMO, instead of clarifying the subject he muddies it up. My take: shucking external HDDs might still be well worth the risk of potential warranty denial (opened enclosure) as long as the savings are big enough compared to buying internal retail HDDs. But there are certain aspects that need to be considered including the brand. Also as a rule all retail internals come with significantly longer warranty. I prefer to shuck Seagate externals since it's not that hard to guess which particular drive model you will get. All Seagate externals in sizes of 12TB and up contain the exact same NAS/Enterprise variety of Seagate HDDs also sold as retail internals - Ironwolf, Ironwolf Pro or Exos. And there's no need to fiddle with the 3.3V pin mod as it is often the case with WD White Label drives sold as Easystore or Elements externals.

The latest update from NASCompares... Not much of anything new though.

"To celebrate, now through April 10th, take 10% off all licenses and upgrades using r/unRAID in the coupon code at checkout."

Just a few of other factors to consider... 1. Are your HDD's secured in place or loosely sliding in the drawer? 2. Do you always keep them sealed in anti-static bags while in storage? 3. Do you ground (earth) yourself every time you handle bare drives? It's especially important if you have carpeted floors. 4. Do you periodically (at least once a year, preferably every six months) take your HDDs out of storage and spin them up for at least a few minutes at the time? Might be necessary for fluid bearings to renew their lubrication layers and prevent them from becoming completely frozen. 5. Any exposure to strong magnetic fields?

NASCompares reminds of importance of backups and goes over many available in the market backup options:

Welcome! Get a better, NAS oriented case with some room for future expansions (HDDs) and better air flow to keep them cool. Get a motherboard with at least six (better eight) SATA ports: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ And most importantly, get a better quality, High-End PSU (single rail): https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

Thank you for bringing in The Legend! 👏 An outstanding episode - focused on all things Unraid without much of a distraction related to other stuff. IMO it's the best one so far since the change to the new format with Spaceinvader One. Please bring other Unraid plugin and app devs for the future episodes.

Thank you. "Demanded Current" is on the high side. My USB 2.0 drives are within the 100-200 mA range. I don't know if it's really a determining factor, but my 100 mA drives tend to be the ones that run the coolest.

That's probably the safest way to get a legit drive. I wonder if you could check for its "Vendor ID" and "Demanded Current" number, both displayed in the Summary section, by running this little app - https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

Their site is still up - http://greenleaf-technology.com/our-servers/ Have you tried to contact them? "The builds on the website are out of date, I am working on a new website so the custom server email form is the best way to get the build you need and want."

Yeah, just checked the link - it's not being sold by Amazon. All listings are from third party sellers.

Was it sold by Amazon or by a third party seller? Buying directly from Amazon is still considered somewhat safer but still not a sure way to avoid fakes due to product mixing.

I understand your desire to switch brands after experiencing a MB failure. You might try any of the other major MB brands, such as Asus, ASRock and Gigabyte. I think this article provides a pretty good overview of the market: https://www.cgdirector.com/best-motherboard-brands/

Thank you for posting... But I would question the value of such "studies", including findings posted by BackBlaze. There's nothing scientific about them or how they're conducted - just thrown together piles of data headed by a catchy headline. No wonder they're contradicting each other in case of Hitachi. Seems just another case of purposeful creation and publication of sensationalized conclusions, based on bogus, unscientific interpretations, designed to attract as much of publicity as possible. Worked wonders for BackBlaze to promote their brand and services at very little cost.

Yeah, but do you have a particular need for an upgrade? If not - just want to take advantage of a good deal and are curious about the enterprise grade world... There's nothing wrong with that type of an approach either. Just don't be surprised about significantly higher electricity costs, which is inevitable, combined with additional noise and heat, especially when you have to add a stand-alone GPU for 4K transcoding.