Used WD Blue as a 2nd Parity Drive?

[amardilo]

Hi there. Have people used old WD Blue drives as parity drives in Unraid?

 

I built an Unraid server less than a year ago and I filled it with old WD Red drives I had (2* 6TB drives - 1 used as parity and 4* 4TB drives). So far it's been good but I have a spare 6TB WD Blue drive laying around (it was used previously for my Xbox One games inside a generic USB 3 enclosure). It's about 3 years old and currently unused.

 

Can I repurpose the drive and use it as a 2nd parity and are WD Blue's OK (had many issues with WD Greens in the past when I used them inside a Drobo so worried this might fail quickly) as parity drives on a computer that is on all day?

Edited March 5, 2019 by amardilo

[JonathanM]

Barring some statistical anomalies like some seagate 3TB models, the failure rate of a specific drive of whatever model is more closely tied to luck and how it's been handled over its lifetime to date.

 

I would much rather trust a bad reputation model drive with a clean health report and a known history of gentle treatment than an enterprise level drive that was once dropped on the floor.

 

That said, a smart report on the drive in question would go a long way to answer your specific question.