M.2 SATA/NVMe SSD to USB Adapter for Boot


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I know unRAID runs in RAM but it seems consumer USB drives can be randomly prone to failure at any moment especially if they're cheapo units.

 

My question is, has anyone used an M.2 to USB adapter as their "OS drive" for unRAID? The main benefit here IMO wouldn't be speed obviously but reliability. 

 

Does it work?

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The license is tied to the USB GUID so unless you can somehow get a good GUID and make it stick you should be ok.

A long time ago when I first use unraid version 4.xx some people we're able to use CF card readers and if the card failed it would be still ok since the reader had a good GUID.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

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21 hours ago, dajinn said:

Does it work?

I dont know, but i suspect it wouldnt. I am certain however that it would end up being more trouble than it is worth. Concerns about USB Boot Drive reliability come up all the time from new users and the general consensus around here (and my personal experience) seems to be that it is just not a big deal for unRAID users. unRAID makes very light use of the USB boot drive. Since unRAID runs from RAM most of the reading occurs at boot, and writes happen very rarely (when a persistent setting is changed or an OS upgrade occurs). USB failures do occasionally happen, and as with everything important backups are recommended, but for the most part from what i have seen name brand flash drives prove to be surprisingly reliable for our use case. Sure you want to stay away from the super cheap no-name drives, like those you get free at a trade show or those that come with no markings in packs of 30, but for < $10 you can pick up a name brand 16G USB2 drive that should last for years. I use a Monster Brand 16G USB 2.0 drive that has been working flawlessly for 5+ years now.

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