2 hours ago, JorgeB said:

after booting from it, format the data partition btrfs and copy or move the data from the other pool

Is file manager the best way to copy or move?

I worry using mover might conflict with the complex mover-tuning rules I set up.

57 minutes ago, CS01-HS said:

Is file manager the best way to copy or move?

I worry using mover might conflict with the complex mover-tuning rules I set up.

I wouldn't count on Mover Tuning for this. Either remove it or use File Manager.

On 3/19/2026 at 2:00 AM, Tucubanito07 said:

Does this kernel release support intel quick sync out of the box?

I'm also interested in this....

Correct me if I am wrong. The only purpose of the flash boot drive is to hold the OS and license until it is loaded into RAM to run; thereafter is sits doing nothing until the next reboot. Since one hardly ever reboots a server (otherwise it would not really be a server), the flash drive basically does nothing for most of its life. And the MTBF becomes infinite. I am not sure why some Lime staff (the ones who wrote the blog) feel that flash is unreliable: it makes me question their technical competence and makes me wonder why I should trust my server to their software. Hopefully the ones putting out the Blog are not the ones programming UnRaid. Please confirm what product I bought.

44 minutes ago, zulu153 said:

The only purpose of the flash boot drive is to hold the OS and license until it is loaded into RAM to run; thereafter is sits doing nothing until the next reboot.

Any changes in the webUI (configuration) are written to flash so they can be reapplied at boot,

45 minutes ago, zulu153 said:

flash is unreliable

Seems that recent flash drives are hit-or-miss. A whole thread about that here:

49 minutes ago, zulu153 said:

And the MTBF becomes infinite

That certainly has not been the experience of many. Plenty of threads on this forum about these problems. That is why the programmers have provided another method.

USB boot is also something that often gets brought up as a problem. Especially in discussion where people claim that running Unraid from a USB drive is an issue without really understanding how it actually works (the running from RAM thing). Now there is an option to use internal boot instead, which removes what is honestly a somewhat imagined barrier to run Unraid and it lines up with other systems. It also comes with a more robust filesystem, using ZFS instead of FAT, and the option to run a mirrored setup for added reliability.

Edited March 26Mar 26 by Niklas

4 hours ago, zulu153 said:

Correct me if I am wrong. The only purpose of the flash boot drive is to hold the OS and license until it is loaded into RAM to run; thereafter is sits doing nothing until the next reboot. Since one hardly ever reboots a server (otherwise it would not really be a server), the flash drive basically does nothing for most of its life. And the MTBF becomes infinite.

The description of what it does is correct the conclusion is not. There are occasional writes done to the flash drive such as when you change settings or update the system or a plugin (but not dockers). Additionally despite not being written to or read from the drive is connected to a system and powered on (what level of sleep / power down it achieves may be dependent on the system). Add to that the fact that consumer usb flash drives are of dubious quality and rarely specify a MTBF value. The reality is some of use have gotten lucky and have good quality devices that have lasted 10+ years, others have failures in weeks or months.

The issue is not flash memory in general its consumer flash drives specifically. Their declining quality is something that the unRAID community has been tracking for a long time (and bugging the developers about). Its become more and more difficult to find good quality usb flash drives. A lot of newer USB3 flash drives are designed without adequate cooling potentially reducing their life. Unfortunately we can't even really keep up a list of known good devices because models come and go constantly and clones and counterfeit devices are rampant.

On 3/19/2026 at 1:00 AM, Tucubanito07 said:

Does this kernel release support intel quick sync out of the box?

What do you mean out of the box, i.e. not having to do force probes on the drivers?

11 minutes ago, SimonF said:

What do you mean out of the box, i.e. not having to do force probes on the drivers?

Right now my intel quick sync does not get recognize and I am not able to pass it through any container. @JorgeB said on 7.3.0 it would be supported with the newer Intel 7 265K CPU's. The support was supposed to be on kerne 6.18 LTS.

Here is the thread I am talking about. https://forums.unraid.net/topic/197664-intel-7-265k-igpu-not-in-devdvi/

Edited March 26Mar 26 by Tucubanito07

5 hours ago, zulu153 said:

And the MTBF becomes infinite.

This misunderstands flash in the first place, but that's not specifically at issue here. The USB stays powered on; it may stay hot, especially usb3 devices. And combined with the writes that happen when changes to configuration are made (possibly syslog if you have that enabled to flash...) and also occasionally issues folks have encountered with ASPM and USB suspend causing corruption, there are in fact several reasons an alternative is quite attractive. So MTBF is never even approaching infinite.

My first (Samsung Bar 32GB, in a usb2 slot) died after 3 years (no syslog to flash). I've had corruption issues as well. All recoverable, but incredibly frustrating to chase down. Will eliminating boot from USB fix these issues? That's not a given either, of course (I've had one SSD fail as well) but even the "good" consumer USB drives are increasingly problematic (as others have already noted). And they're not obvious as USB corruption, so I've now replaced all of the hardware in my server (I don't believe I'm alone having gone this far).

1 hour ago, Tucubanito07 said:

Right now my intel quick sync does not get recognize and I am not able to pass it through any container. @JorgeB said on 7.3.0 it would be supported with the newer Intel 7 265K CPU's. The support was supposed to be on kerne 6.18 LTS.

Here is the thread I am talking about. https://forums.unraid.net/topic/197664-intel-7-265k-igpu-not-in-devdvi/

Are you running the beta version of Plex which I believe is required to support the XE driver?

7 hours ago, zulu153 said:

the flash drive basically does nothing for most of its life

The electronic parts of a consumer flash drive are not built to be used 24/7. That's why many flash drives die after some years. I have much better experience with Enterprise Flash Drives, but those are expensive (thanks to AI > 100 €).

3 hours ago, mgutt said:

The electronic parts of a consumer flash drive are not built to be used 24/7. That's why many flash drives die after some years. I have much better experience with Enterprise Flash Drives, but those are expensive (thanks to AI > 100 €).

I have to disagree with you on that.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using specific consumer drives 24/7.

A legacy, large node MLC NAND USB flash drive is a perfect fit for the 24/7 duty in Unraid.

Stable NAND paired with a simple controller (nearly zero activity/heat) is what makes it so reliable.

Granted, modern enterprise drives universally come with much more advanced controllers than legacy drives. However, this is driven by necessity rather than choice.

Modern NAND flash is significantly less stable and requires more sophisticated error-correction algorithms to ensure reliability.

Edited March 27Mar 27 by Lolight

11 hours ago, SimonF said:

What do you mean out of the box, i.e. not having to do force probes on the drivers?

10 hours ago, SimonF said:

Are you running the beta version of Plex which I believe is required to support the XE driver?

I am running the Plex version that allows me to use intel quick sync using the extra parameters field on the docker template.

Update: now seems like it is working and I am 7.2.3.

Edited March 27Mar 27 by Tucubanito07

On 3/26/2026 at 8:46 PM, primeval_god said:

The issue is not flash memory in general its consumer flash drives specifically.

Some additions and refinements worth considering:

On power consumption -- the idle current draw is determined by the controller's workload rather than by system power management.

A controller managing QLC NAND's 16 voltage states continuously draws more idle current than a controller managing stable large-node MLC regardless of what the USB bus or system does.

The NAND type determines the controller's idle workload -- which determines the heat generated -- which determines the degradation timeline.

On luck -- the variance between drives lasting weeks and drives lasting 10+ years isn't random.

It's determined by NAND type and node geometry.

The 10+ year drives are almost universally large-node MLC from the pre-2012 production era.

The drives failing in weeks or months are overwhelmingly modern consumer drives with QLC or late-node TLC NAND.

The outcomes are deterministic and verifiable rather than luck-dependent -- which matters because deterministic outcomes are addressable through hardware selection while random outcomes aren't.

On brand quality -- the declining quality is universal across consumer brands rather than specific to lesser-known manufacturers.

Samsung, Kingston, SanDisk -- all current consumer USB flash drives from major brands use NAND that makes them unsuitable for always-on boot duty.

The relevant quality signal is NAND type and node geometry rather than brand reputation.

On cooling -- USB drives have never had meaningful thermal management beyond metal casing.

The thermal problem in modern drives isn't inadequate cooling of otherwise stable NAND -- it's that QLC and late-node TLC NAND generates continuous controller heat from instability-driven maintenance workload regardless of the drive's physical design.

Better cooling of an inherently hot controller is less effective than selecting a controller with inherently low idle heat requirements.

The USB Flash section guide covers the NAND hierarchy and ChipGenius verification methodology that makes the "can't keep a list" problem tractable -- chip-level verification remains valid regardless of model changes and counterfeiting.

Edited March 28Mar 28 by Lolight

On 3/26/2026 at 9:52 PM, _cjd_ said:

...folks have encountered with ASPM and USB suspend causing corruption..

...My first (Samsung Bar 32GB, in a usb2 slot) died after 3 years (no syslog to flash)....

...And they're not obvious as USB corruption, so I've now replaced all of the hardware in my server (I don't believe I'm alone having gone this far).

Good point on ASPM and USB suspend — that's a separate failure mode worth ruling out in BIOS independently of drive quality.

The drive failing ambiguously rather than obviously can lead you down a very expensive rabbit hole.

The Bar Plus at three years tracks — it's the least bad widely available option rather than a genuinely reliable choice for Unraid.

On 3/26/2026 at 10:03 PM, Lolight said:

I have to disagree with you on that.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using specific consumer drives 24/7.

A legacy, large node MLC NAND USB flash drive is a perfect fit for the 24/7 duty in Unraid.

Stable NAND paired with a simple controller (nearly zero activity/heat) is what makes it so reliable.

Granted, modern enterprise drives universally come with much more advanced controllers than legacy drives. However, this is driven by necessity rather than choice.

Modern NAND flash is significantly less stable and requires more sophisticated error-correction algorithms to ensure reliability.

I very much agree with you.

I have a Patriot Supersonic Boost XT which has been running for years.

On 3/26/2026 at 11:00 AM, zulu153 said:

Correct me if I am wrong. The only purpose of the flash boot drive is to hold the OS and license until it is loaded into RAM to run; thereafter is sits doing nothing until the next reboot. Since one hardly ever reboots a server (otherwise it would not really be a server), the flash drive basically does nothing for most of its life. And the MTBF becomes infinite. I am not sure why some Lime staff (the ones who wrote the blog) feel that flash is unreliable: it makes me question their technical competence and makes me wonder why I should trust my server to their software. Hopefully the ones putting out the Blog are not the ones programming UnRaid. Please confirm what product I bought.

You're wrong, there is write and read on the usb drive, for logs etc. So you have minimal but consistent read write on the flash and you see the numbers go up.

14 minutes ago, starbetrayer said:

You're wrong, there is write and read on the usb drive, for logs etc. So you have minimal but consistent read write on the flash and you see the numbers go up.

Worth noting -- syslog to flash is optional and off by default.

In standard configuration the write activity is minimal.

The bigger issue for modern consumer drives isn't write activity at all -- it's idle controller heat from NAND instability running continuously regardless of user I/O.

A QLC drive generates that maintenance workload whether you're writing to it or not.

Which is why drives fail in always on duty even on systems that change configuration rarely -- the failure mechanism is the NAND type rather than the usage pattern.

The USB Flash section guide covers exactly this.

Edited March 28Mar 28 by Lolight

On 3/19/2026 at 12:01 AM, Intrepid00 said:

Anyone moving to internal boot make sure secure boot is off. It typically isn’t a problem for USB Boot but it will be with internal boot.

What about when you change CPUs, Gemini said upon boot with new CPU the bios will ask to do new keys for fTPM, it said to select Y?

Did anyone try to enforce xe drivers for Intel Alchemist GPUs? I'm asking since this here sounds interesting for power saving.

15 hours ago, Paul_Ber said:

What about when you change CPUs, Gemini said upon boot with new CPU the bios will ask to do new keys for fTPM, it said to select Y?

You can do key replacement the same as usb swaps. Nothing is stored in the tpm

17 hours ago, Paul_Ber said:

What about when you change CPUs, Gemini said upon boot with new CPU the bios will ask to do new keys for fTPM, it said to select Y?

If you are using fTPM and change the CPU you will most likely then need to transfer the license, like if the flash drive was changed.