Hard drive corrupt? About to lose files?

GDB2222

JustAnotherSaver said:

GDB2222 said:

It’s easy to be wise after the event, but, as others have suggested, I’d have removed the drive from the PC and left it until I had time to deal with it properly. In the meantime, I would have a fully functional PC to do my work on. The data you want to recover would not have become more corrupted if the disc had been put on a shelf for a while. 

Perhaps I misunderstood, but I thought the data on the disc is not stuff you need right away?

I've highlighted the key point.

I guess you're a calm individual. That is an option of course. If I was like you then I could've taken that approach.

However I know ME. When there's such a problem as this, I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on anything else tbh. It's all I would've been thinking about. Can I get the stuff back, yes/no, how much has gone, has the vital stuff gone or the insignificant stuff or both. Questions questions questions.

So the only way I could then crack on with the other jobs was to get this job to a point where I could accept it - which was get back as much as I could in good time.

Then anything beyond that can be done at a later date.

I am NOT a calm individual, but I have learnt to think about what I want to achieve and prioritise that. Later on, when you are calmer, maybe you can reflect on your choices and perhaps learn something useful for the future. Probably not right now, though!

JustAnotherSaver

debitcardmayhem said:

Yet but you have time

Like a book.

I knew someone would play the role of barrister.

GDB2222 said:

 Probably not right now, though!

No.

Probably not...

JustAnotherSaver said:

One of the reasons I'm about to pull the trigger on a NAS.

I just need to pick one.

Ideally speaking I would like a 4bay NAS minimum, BUT that costs and I wasn't planning on buying one yet.

So I'm now looking at 2bay NAS enclosures to get me up & running.

I had been looking at some in and around the £200 range +/- around £20.

However a guy has pointed me in the direction of the Synology DS220+ over the ones I was looking at based on what I would like from it, if I can stretch that far.

Ergates

JustAnotherSaver said:

One of the reasons I'm about to pull the trigger on a NAS.

I just need to pick one.

Ideally speaking I would like a 4bay NAS minimum, BUT that costs and I wasn't planning on buying one yet.

So I'm now looking at 2bay NAS enclosures to get me up & running.

I had been looking at some in and around the £200 range +/- around £20.

However a guy has pointed me in the direction of the Synology DS220+ over the ones I was looking at based on what I would like from it, if I can stretch that far.

I've got one of the older brothers of those - I forget the model number - it's been merrily humming away under my desk for years without issue.

JustAnotherSaver

Ergates said:

I've got one of the older brothers of those - I forget the model number - it's been merrily humming away under my desk for years without issue.

Stretching to £315 isn't really what I wanted to do. I was in & about the £200 area for now. 

If I was going straight in at 'end result' which is what I like to do then I'd go 4-bay.

BUT, 'life' happens & right now a suitable 4-bay is just out of my range. By that I don't mean it's a smidge out of my range, I mean it is totally out.

However, I have a lot of faith in the guy who suggested I should go that little bit further & opt for the 220+ over the cheaper ones I was looking at. Very knowledgable chap on another forum who I'd put on par with someone like tallmansix on this forum - knows what they're talking about.

My dilemma is, after reading about them, IS there going to be a 222+ coming this year?! Who knows. So do I bite the bullet & get the 220+ now, or hold off for [unknown - weeks, months, a year] & get the 222+ when it lands ... ASSUMING it'll be not a million miles off the £315.

I'd be gutted if I bought the 220+ & then the following week they released the 222+, which is essentially what happened when I bought my bicycle computer ... except it wasn't the following week, it was 2 weeks later. Very annoying.

So my plan right now is basically copying various files & folders to an external hard drive and also break my no-subscribing rule and take out a cloud storage plan temporarily. Google Drive appears cheap enough.

Once I finally get the NAS, whichever model it may be, I'll consider cutting the cloud storage plan, depending on things at that moment in time.

That's the plan at the moment anyway.

gefnew

Some backup ideas for a nas system.
QNAP TS-251+-2G 16TB 2-Bay NAS with 2 x 8TB Seagate IronWolf Drives £280.88 with Code @ ebay / box-deals | hotukdeals

[Deleted User]

gefnew said:

Some backup ideas for a nas system.
QNAP TS-251+-2G 16TB 2-Bay NAS with 2 x 8TB Seagate IronWolf Drives £280.88 with Code @ ebay / box-deals | hotukdeals

Already out of stock which isn't surprising, would have bought one myself right now just to get 2x 8TB Ironwolf for £280 and sold the NAS empty for £100 or with my old 4TB drives in it. There was also another with 2x8TB WD Reds with 3 left but by the time I clicked buy they had gone as well.

Definitely a bargain but offers like that won't hang around.

@JustAnotherSaver .....

Time for you to start planning what you doing with the NAS before you press buy though. Fast forward in your mind to the day one or more of the disks WILL fail or the NAS hardware dies - could be 3 months or 5 years but it WILL happen.

1. Is this going to be backup only from your PC or any original data on here (and therefore needs backing up elsewhere)?

2. How much data do you envisage storing? A purchase like this should see you through 3-5 years, you don't want to be short of space in 6 months and got no room to expand. Buying a 4 bay and just putting 2 disks in it for now could give some headroom for the future without the full cost now.

3. Are you going to use RAID for speed / resilience and if so which one as this will reduce the storage - eg if you buy a 2x 8TB:

 - RAID 0 for speed (striping) full 16TB space available but whole thing trashed if 1 disk fails and you need to restore it all from backup.

 - RAID 1 (mirror) which will give you 8TB (half) available but will allow you to swap a hard disk when it fails with no with low risk of data loss or downtime (recommended).

-  You could also do JBOD - 2 disks joined as one volume but no resilience or speed advantages from that, either disk fails and you need to restore both disks from backup.

- 2 separate volumes - no speed or resilience advantage, can be trickier to manage the space in two fixed volumes but only have to restore the failed drive from backup when it dies.

- If you get a 4 bay then you will be able to use RAID 5 or 6 as well which offer resilience with 50% - 75% of total space usable.

4. RAID is not a backup btw - just provides speed and/or resilience against downtime. Also the convenience of joining up multiple disks into 1 volume.

RAID 1, 5 and 6 enable you to keep using the NAS and data whilst your await your new disk to replace the failed one.

5. The reason I ask number 3 is because when you boot the QNAP for the first time it will ask you that question and you will be locked into the answer once you commission and use the disks unless you wipe and factory reset.

Don't want to be doom and gloom but the more disks you have, the more frequently you will need to deal disk failure. However with a combination of RAID and good backups it will be a stress-free experience when the inevitable happens.

Although it gets costly to have more, having just 2 copies of your data is precarious. The day that either your original or backup drive dies you are down to 1 copy only and you are on borrowed time until you can create another copy. 

With massive amounts of data, making a full 8TB backup in an emergency could be enough to finish off the life of the disk with your only copy of the data. You've bought a lot of new disks around the same time, odds are they will fail around the same time as well - sods law says when your backup fails the original disk will be on its last legs as well if they are same age / model (or vice versa - original fails, backup will by dying).

Same applies when you come to rebuild the RAID array following a disk failure - chances are all the other disks are the same age and approaching end of life and the massive workload to rebuild the array will finish one of them off - which is one of many reasons why RAID should never be considered as a backup.

JustAnotherSaver

Funny this got resurrected a little as I was actually going to terrorise you via PM about NAS enclosures but since we're now discussing them...

I was on YouTube last night & in my suggested feed was a different approach which I hadn't thought of & since you're saying to me present a problem & you'll give a solution then that's what I'll do.

So basically I was considering a NAS. The DS220+ is what I've been swayed to although I did really want a 4-bay enclosure (but I had originally planned on buying next year/year after).

Anyway, this video basically converted the guys old PC in to a NAS. He said server & I suppose he's right, but it sounded like an alternative to a NAS to me & he was using TrueNAS so shoot me.

Which got me thinking...

My end plan is to replace this PC with a new PC. This PC is 12 years old. What I do with this PC at that point, I don't know. Try and sell it but for what it is, I'd get peanuts for it.

So I wondered whether it'd be better, rather than buying a typical Synology NAS enclosure, converting this PC in to one.

Looking stat-for-stat, I wonder if this PC would be more powerful than the NAS enclosures I'd be looking at? Which surely would be beneficial where Plex is concerned?

On the topic of which, people keep talking about transcoding. I thought I would be direct playing, since it's all over my home network?? Although granted, any family outsiders would be transcoding.

Also, if it makes a difference any, then I paid up for the Plex lifetime pass.

Obviously (to me) the big difference is this is a big tower which takes up a bit of space & is a bit unsightly to just be 'there', whereas the Synology is a nice little box that would sit discreetly behind the TV or if I could make it happen - in the hallway.

Basically would one approach be preferential over the other?

gefnew

You could have a look at this .
Build a NAS Device With an Old PC and Free Software - Practically Networked

[Deleted User]

JustAnotherSaver said:

Funny this got resurrected a little as I was actually going to terrorise you via PM about NAS enclosures but since we're now discussing them...

I was on YouTube last night & in my suggested feed was a different approach which I hadn't thought of & since you're saying to me present a problem & you'll give a solution then that's what I'll do.

So basically I was considering a NAS. The DS220+ is what I've been swayed to although I did really want a 4-bay enclosure (but I had originally planned on buying next year/year after).

Anyway, this video basically converted the guys old PC in to a NAS. He said server & I suppose he's right, but it sounded like an alternative to a NAS to me & he was using TrueNAS so shoot me.

Which got me thinking...

My end plan is to replace this PC with a new PC. This PC is 12 years old. What I do with this PC at that point, I don't know. Try and sell it but for what it is, I'd get peanuts for it.

So I wondered whether it'd be better, rather than buying a typical Synology NAS enclosure, converting this PC in to one.

Looking stat-for-stat, I wonder if this PC would be more powerful than the NAS enclosures I'd be looking at? Which surely would be beneficial where Plex is concerned?

On the topic of which, people keep talking about transcoding. I thought I would be direct playing, since it's all over my home network?? Although granted, any family outsiders would be transcoding.

Also, if it makes a difference any, then I paid up for the Plex lifetime pass.

Obviously (to me) the big difference is this is a big tower which takes up a bit of space & is a bit unsightly to just be 'there', whereas the Synology is a nice little box that would sit discreetly behind the TV or if I could make it happen - in the hallway.

Basically would one approach be preferential over the other?

Risky putting your NAS on to the 12 year old hardware - you have already had some funny business with the SATA ports, I'd personally retire it - but TrueNAS and UnRAID are great options to convert it and get more life from it.

Then there is the electricity, a NAS could be as little as 10-20 watts (£25-£50 per year) running 24/7 versus the PC at £250 per year for 100 watts say (not sure exactly what your PC draws but you can see the difference paying for the NAS itself). 

Plex - remote users won't be transcoding if you have sufficient upload bandwidth and they are using suitable Plex clients (desktop app etc) - I have 40mbps upload and most of my media is in the 5-15 mbps bit rate so I can support 2-8 remote streams without transcode. Typical FTTC/VDSL will only have 10mbps upload so you might get away with 1 or 2 streams ok.

Local users won't be transcoding either provided the client is compatible with the encoding for the movie - eg Plex browser won't do H.265 so it will always transcode but the Plex desktop app will.

I doubt your CPU would cope with more than 1 transcode at 1080p - modern CPU's have optimised transcoding (Intel Quicksync) so even a Celeron Gen 10/11 may be better suited that your 12 yr old CPU)

And then there is the space / noise of the old PC.

JustAnotherSaver

[Deleted User] said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

Funny this got resurrected a little as I was actually going to terrorise you via PM about NAS enclosures but since we're now discussing them...

I was on YouTube last night & in my suggested feed was a different approach which I hadn't thought of & since you're saying to me present a problem & you'll give a solution then that's what I'll do.

So basically I was considering a NAS. The DS220+ is what I've been swayed to although I did really want a 4-bay enclosure (but I had originally planned on buying next year/year after).

Anyway, this video basically converted the guys old PC in to a NAS. He said server & I suppose he's right, but it sounded like an alternative to a NAS to me & he was using TrueNAS so shoot me.

Which got me thinking...

My end plan is to replace this PC with a new PC. This PC is 12 years old. What I do with this PC at that point, I don't know. Try and sell it but for what it is, I'd get peanuts for it.

So I wondered whether it'd be better, rather than buying a typical Synology NAS enclosure, converting this PC in to one.

Looking stat-for-stat, I wonder if this PC would be more powerful than the NAS enclosures I'd be looking at? Which surely would be beneficial where Plex is concerned?

On the topic of which, people keep talking about transcoding. I thought I would be direct playing, since it's all over my home network?? Although granted, any family outsiders would be transcoding.

Also, if it makes a difference any, then I paid up for the Plex lifetime pass.

Obviously (to me) the big difference is this is a big tower which takes up a bit of space & is a bit unsightly to just be 'there', whereas the Synology is a nice little box that would sit discreetly behind the TV or if I could make it happen - in the hallway.

Basically would one approach be preferential over the other?

Risky putting your NAS on to the 12 year old hardware - you have already had some funny business with the SATA ports, I'd personally retire it - but TrueNAS and UnRAID are great options to convert it and get more life from it.

Then there is the electricity, a NAS could be as little as 10-20 watts (£25-£50 per year) running 24/7 versus the PC at £250 per year for 100 watts say (not sure exactly what your PC draws but you can see the difference paying for the NAS itself). 

Plex - remote users won't be transcoding if you have sufficient upload bandwidth and they are using suitable Plex clients (desktop app etc) - I have 40mbps upload and most of my media is in the 5-15 mbps bit rate so I can support 2-8 remote streams without transcode. Typical FTTC/VDSL will only have 10mbps upload so you might get away with 1 or 2 streams ok.

Local users won't be transcoding either provided the client is compatible with the encoding for the movie - eg Plex browser won't do H.265 so it will always transcode but the Plex desktop app will.

I doubt your CPU would cope with more than 1 transcode at 1080p - modern CPU's have optimised transcoding (Intel Quicksync) so even a Celeron Gen 10/11 may be better suited that your 12 yr old CPU)

And then there is the space / noise of the old PC.

Fair point.

It suits me as I actually wasn't wanting the answer to be use the PC.

The Synology software looks not too bad & there's plenty guides on YouTube.

Going DIY route (for someone like me) is risky business.

Oh and it must've been the other forum I go on for computer related stuff that I mentioned the SATA ports on. I got to the bottom of it in the end - a squirt of WD40 electrical contact cleaner spray did the job. The port is working again. So I guess just some dirt on the contacts or whatever.

Means I can send the 4-Sata port expansion card back, get my £30 back & go back to the 2-port expansion card.