Is there a timeframe when I should replace my USB drive? (Strange booting issues)

[flyize]

I had a very odd problem happen this weekend (of course while I was traveling). I went to reboot the Unraid server and it didn't come back up. When I got home, I was able to determine that Unraid would only boot sometimes (possibly only when I came out of the BIOS config). When I got back home to troubleshoot, I tried multiple USB ports. I also upgraded the BIOS. I also removed a recently added M.2 device (Google Coral).

 

While it seems to somehow be 'fixed' now, the only explanation I can come up with is maybe the USB drive is dying? Anyone got any better ideas on what went wrong?

 

Drives are so cheap that I guess I'll just replace it, but is this something that I should just be doing every couple of years or so?

[Lavim1305]

Hi,

 

It sounds like you were experiencing an issue very similar to mine I had a few months ago where Unraid will occasionally boot from the USB device and then say it does not see a bootable device. I would have to unplug the USB device, plug it back in then reboot my system for Unraid to boot. I ended up replacing my USB device since it was acting strange. My guess is it was on its way out the door. I haven't had an issue since I replaced the Unraid USB device. I'd say replace it every couple of years since USB read/write life expectancies are shorter than traditional HDDs/SSDs.