October 2, 20232 yr Just wondering if this is good practice or not. My array right now is an 8TB parity, and then a few 8TB and 5TB in my array. I picked up 2 14TB drives on sale the other day, so i was about to replace my parity with a 14TB and one of the smaller drives as well. The problem I have is what if the new parity or the new 14TB storage drive fails and I need to replace quickly. I would order another 14TB asap, but shipping might be a few days and Id be worried about losing data during that time period. Ideally Id order a spare 14TB that would be unused and it would be ready to be swapped in when/if needed. Would it make more sense to just install the drive and use it as a 2nd parity? This would mitigate some of the worry I have about the quality of these drives. (so 2 decent drives is better than 1 great drive). Or is it better to just buy an extra to use when needed? TLDR: Should I keep a spare drive on hand (unused) or use that spare drive as a parity?
October 2, 20232 yr I always keep a spare the same size as my largest drive. If I upgrade my largest size, the old spare goes into my server (and I make sure I order 2x of the new larger size or it doesn't go into my server until I have a spare).
October 3, 20232 yr I do the same. It all comes down to how "mission critical" your server is, and your wallet.
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