Would like some opinions on how i should put two new 10TB Ironwolf's to use.

I am currently running 1x 10TB Ironwolf as my parity drive.

I have several other 10TB's as data drives.

Currently have about 7TB of free space left in the Array.

Would like opinions on wether i should use 1 of the new drives for Parity 2 and 1 for data or should i just put both of the new drives into the data array?

thanks.

20 minutes ago, crizz1111 said:

Would like opinions on wether i should use 1 of the new drives for Parity 2 and 1 for data or should i just put both of the new drives into the data array?

Not sure there is 'best' option, but you do not mention how many drives you have. It a risk evaluation decision that only you can make as it is trade-off off space v safety but as the number of drives increases so does the chances of having 2 simultaneous disk failures.

There is also the consideration of how good you backup strategy is as if it is good then the second parity drive is probably not worth it. If you have a very good backup strategy then it is worth considering if you should run without having parity at all.

Parity increases redundancy, not safety. Backups for important data trumps adding additional parity drives. So IMHO if you're considering a second parity drive for 'safety', I'd just use it for backing up instead. +1 for if your backup strategy is already on point, just chuck it into the array for extra space.

A 'second' for a backup strategy of non-replaceable data. Duel parity makes data restoration much easier if you monitor your array for problems. But there are other ways to lose data than through drive failures. Think of events like fire, flooding, theft of equipment, and, yes, even Malware. Offsite storage should be a part of your planning.

EDIT:

For a look at the statistics of drive failure, look at this post:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/50504-dual-or-single-parity-its-your-choice/

Edited June 11, 20251 yr by Frank1940