USB Drive selection (SOLVED)

[Joop]

Hi All,

 

I'm currently ordering a new server and i wanted to pickup on Unraid again.

In the past i always had a good experience with Unraid and don't think that Snapraid/ZFS or other solutions would be an great fit for my needs.

As i've ordered my gear i'm looking into the USB drive that is required for unraid.

I was able to find that the minimum needs to be 1GB and maximum should not exceed 32GB.

However there is not a clear candidate that is being recommended.

So i was wondering if i would be able to use the following stick that i still have laying around.

 

SanDisk 128GB Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C

 

Is this something i could use or would you definitely recommend getting a 32GB or smaller stick?

Thanks for helping me out on this one!

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Joop

[itimpi]

The problem is whether the BIOS can properly handle the USB stick during the boot process, and the lifetime of the drive when it is left plugged in 24x7.   
 

Experience has shown that USB2 drives tend to be more reliable than USB3 ones and USB2 ports more reliably than USB3 ones.   Since Unraid runs from RAM other than a few seconds during the initial load there is no practical advantage to faster drives.   There is also not much point in larger storage capacity as Unraid will not need (or use) it.   It is also normally recommended that you do NOT go for the nano sized drives as they are more likely to suffer from heat issues in a server where they are left plugged in 24x7.  USB3 drives are also prone to running hot.   The 32GB limit is due to the fact that if formatted by the OS Windows and MacOS will format larger drives as vFAT rather than FAT32.  The recommendation is normally go for a 8GB or 16GB USB2 drive as the best compromise between being big enough, price and trouble free operation.

 

I do not think there is much (if any) experience of USB-C and you are welcome to see if it works for you.  Using such a high-spec drive does feel like a waste  I would be interested to hear the results as going forward USB-C is going to become more common I would think.

[Squid]

The VW Microbus of flash drives: https://www.newegg.com/p/0BD-00MW-000H4?Description=dtse9&cm_re=dtse9-_-9SIA12K2N94425-_-Product

 

There is no substitute for this one within unRaid.  It'll never die

[Joop]

Thanks. Just order one of those. 
Just one more thing. 
 

2 hours ago, itimpi said:

Experience has shown that USB2 drives tend to be more reliable than USB3 ones and USB2 ports more reliably than USB3 ones. 

On my motherboard there is a USB 3.1 slot which i could use to prevent it from being knocked off the machine as it is on the inside of the case. 
however you recommend using a 2.0 port. 
Because i’m getting the 2.0 stick i was wondering if it is still better to use the 2.0 port on the outside of the case. 

[itimpi]

1 minute ago, Joop said:

Thanks. Just order one of those. 
Just one more thing. 
 

On my motherboard there is a USB 3.1 slot which i could use to prevent it from being knocked off the machine as it is on the inside of the case. 
however you recommend using a 2.0 port. 
Because i’m getting the 2.0 stick i was wondering if it is still better to use the 2.0 port on the outside of the case. 

There is no rule that says you HAVE to use a USB 2 port so you can try it and see if it works OK on your system.