this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
171 points (97.2% liked)

Selfhosted

37745 readers
661 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Been finding some good deals on 2.5 disks lately, but have never bought one before. Have a couple of 3.5 disks on the other hand in my Unraid server. Wondering how much it matters wether I get a 2.5 or not? What form factor do you prefer/usually go for?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 142 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You'll usually want 3.5" on anything that isn't a laptop for the price and higher max speed

[–] [email protected] 86 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

And theoretical reliability. Stuff breaks down quicker at smaller sizes says my lizard brain

[–] Blue_Morpho 40 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

Smaller stuff has smaller mass and therefore can be more reliable.

There were portable mp3 players with mechanical hard drives that were reliable despite extreme abuse.

[–] Addv4 14 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Smaller stuff has to be more complex to get to the lower mass, which is usually what causes the biggest issues. The hdds in those ipods had some extra stuff to make them more reliable, but even then, move them too quickly and they show it.

[–] Blue_Morpho 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Smaller doesn't need to be more complex. 3.5" drives weren't more complex than 5.25" drives.

A smaller head means a smaller drive actuator. Less mass and smaller size means it can compensate much quicker in response to vibration detection.

Back when full height 5.25" drives were the norm, you couldn't pick up your PC while running without causing an error. Those tiny CF card sized drives failed but took extreme abuse compared to big drives.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I tell my wife 3.5" is more reliable but she's not buying it :(

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Except the mp3 players from Archos, which gave up after setting up. Twice.

[–] yggstyle 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Man my 6000 was immortal. Outlived 2 desktop drives and survived a car roll while in use. I was convinced they had made some blood pact with Nokia lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I got mine, moved some songs into it and an hour into listening the drive started clicking and the player was dead. Amazon replaced it and it was exactly the same. I forgot what model it was, but the discs were extremely fragile.

[–] yggstyle 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

In general laptop drives were a gamble so it's not shocking. I'm curious if I got a later batch or something or just got lucky.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That was one of those 1 and something inch tiny drives. They were crap

[–] yggstyle 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Maybe we were talking about different units then - this is the one I had:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Archos+Jukebox+Recorder+20+Hard+Drive++Replacement/103263

Standard 2.5" laptop drive 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yes. Mine was tiny.

1000016447

[–] noobface 4 points 4 weeks ago

I dunno I RMA'd my Nomad so many times.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Oh man, I remember a Philips mp3 player I had for the longest time as a kid. You could hear the little clicks of the hard drive. Lost it on a hike, unfortunately.