Hi,
I have a 1tb ext hd. It’s getting full so I will be getting another. I have looked online about combining them but places say it’s makes them slow and risks failure.
What are your experiences with this? Does it cause a higher risk of failure than any normal hard drive?
Thanks.
If you are using Windows I strongly recommend using StableBit’s DrivePool to combine disks. I also recommend getting two new drives and turning on 2X duplication to protect against one drive’s failure.
Currently drives are pretty cheap. you can get a 4TB external drive for $109.00 or even less:
I have a total of 12 drives of various sizes combined using DrivePool for a total available space of 50TB. In the past, But not recently, I have had a drive fail and I lost nothing of importance. I do not duplicate everything as part of what I have can be recreated pretty easily.
The drive created by DrivePool is not noticeably slower and, for media storage, it would not matter much as media storage is not very demanding at all. Just about any network is MUCH slower than the slowest drive access I have ever seen from DrivePool.
If you are not using Windows there are, probably, similar tools to pool drives. One thing to look for is that the pooling software does not encrypt the files so they can be read without the use of the pooling software. DrivePool does that and it makes recovery even from a computer failure quite easy.
BTW: The “Plex data directory,” that is the directory where Plex stores its database, should never be stored within the pool. That is pretty much true for any pooling software. Good pooling software allows for data to, as needed, be stored outside the pool but on a drive that is part of the pool.
Or, just add another drive and then add it to your existing libraries. I wouldn’t consider adding external drives to any kind of pool. Unless you need to have one large drive pool, Plex doesn’t care where the media is located.
@kegobeer-plex said:
Or, just add another drive and then add it to your existing libraries. I wouldn’t consider adding external drives to any kind of pool. Unless you need to have one large drive pool, Plex doesn’t care where the media is located.
Some people continue to insist that external drives are in some way less reliable than internal drives but that has NOT been my experience since 2004. That is for over 10 years I have had fewer external drives fail or loose access than I have had internal ones.
While you can use separate drives with separate libraries and allow Plex to effectively pool them it is just easier to use good pooling software to put them together and with duplication turned on there is good redundancy and even should the computer fail you can read and use the files on all your pooled drives.
That is there is no increased risk and increased ease of use so there is zero downside to using good pooling software like DrivePool to combine multiple drives.
At the moment I have a 1tb ext hd that contain all my media. It would only be used for media. I wanted another 1tb drive but from reading about doing this, without combining them I would have to have movie 1 and movies 2 (or something like that) on plex.
I have never had a hard drive fail and at the moment all I have is stored on one drive. Would combining it with a second increase the chances of something going wrong with one or both? or are the chances of a drive failing after being combined the same as standalone?
Some disk drives, particularly “backup” external USB drives, are not engineered for 24/7 operation. I use an external RAID-5 volume of four 4 TB NAS drives.
@richardhanney said:
At the moment I have a 1tb ext hd that contain all my media. It would only be used for media. I wanted another 1tb drive but from reading about doing this, without combining them I would have to have movie 1 and movies 2 (or something like that) on plex.
no you don’t, you can add multiple file paths to a single library, so “Movies” can map to multiple drives.
I have a number of different folders that Plex combines into one big library. The separate folders are from previous media server attempts. So I have a westerns folder, thrillers folder, etc. However, my Movies library simply points to all these different folders and combines them together. The same would be said if you simply add another drive and dump more media on it. Adjust your existing Libraries to include the new folders on the new drive. That would be the simplest way to expand. Not necessarily the best from a data protection point of view, but certainly the easiest.
@dduke2104 said:
Some disk drives, particularly “backup” external USB drives, are not engineered for 24/7 operation. I use an external RAID-5 volume of four 4 TB NAS drives.
The WD Passport Ultra runs on my MyCloud NAS as backup. It’s only spinning when doing a backup but it’s plugged in 24/7. That being said it’s not spinning all day like some people believe it is. I know because the LED blinks fast when it’s spinning and that only happens during a weekly backup.
@Elijah_Baley said:
If you are using Windows I strongly recommend using StableBit’s DrivePool to combine disks. I also recommend getting two new drives and turning on 2X duplication to protect against one drive’s failure.
If he’s using Windows 8.1 or 10, he can use the built in solution called “Storage Spaces”. He doesn’t need an external program to do it. Storage Spaces is pretty good actually. Can do the same thing as RAID 0, 1, or 5.
I just bought two 6 TB WD reds for my movie storage. Going to set them up as 2-way mirror with Storage Spaces which is the same thing as RAID 1. That way if one drive dies I have a backup.
Storage spaces is nice, but if the OS dies that data can’t be accessed unless you rebuild the OS and claim the storage space. DrivePool allows you much more flexibility than storage spaces, in regards to accessing individual drives in the event of an OS failure and in many other aspects. Having used both, I would go with DrivePool over storage spaces.
@kegobeer-plex said:
Storage spaces is nice, but if the OS dies that data can’t be accessed unless you rebuild the OS and claim the storage space. DrivePool allows you much more flexibility than storage spaces, in regards to accessing individual drives in the event of an OS failure and in many other aspects. Having used both, I would go with DrivePool over storage spaces.
actually that is wrong. storage spaces can be used on any Win 8.1 or 10 machine. If your computer dies you can move the drives to another 8.1 or 10 machine and it’s back up. you don’t have to rebuild the OS to claim the storage. I mean you can but to be faster you can just move it to another computer.
storage spaces is built into windows so it’s free. that’s the big advantage.
@mdnitoil said:
I have a number of different folders that Plex combines into one big library. The separate folders are from previous media server attempts. So I have a westerns folder, thrillers folder, etc. However, my Movies library simply points to all these different folders and combines them together. The same would be said if you simply add another drive and dump more media on it. Adjust your existing Libraries to include the new folders on the new drive. That would be the simplest way to expand. Not necessarily the best from a data protection point of view, but certainly the easiest.
So what you are saying (if I read this right) I can have more than one folder but on the plex player side it will just show as ‘Films’ with no gaps?
I didn’t think that worked because when I setup the folders (Film and TV shows) it asks exactly which folder this is contained in.
How would I say it is there still but it is also here in another drive?
Just edit the library and add a second / or third folder to it…
@Elijah_Baley said:
Some people continue to insist that external drives are in some way less reliable than internal drives but that has NOT been my experience since 2004. That is for over 10 years I have had fewer external drives fail or loose access than I have had internal ones.
The issue is more:
A) External drives are almost always low-end drives made for intermittent use, while “server” type applications are better served by drives designed to run 24/7 (WD Red, etc)
B) External drives tend to be bumped around more and so take more shocks/impacts
C) The regular disconnect/reconnection of the ext HDD connector (USB, whatever) eventually leads to connector failure
D) USB inherently is a horrible and unreliable connection interface and should only be used for temporary use. Permanent HDDs should be connected using something more reliable. Most USB hard drives, for example, do not convey proper SMART status to the computer so you have no early warning that your drive is out until it’s 100% dead.
Of note with C… many drives now integrate the USB controller onto the drive itself. While in the past, you could just extract the drive from the external enclosure when the port on the USB controller board finally failed, or there was a logic board failure, mount the SATA drive to another device then read your data… now that’s no longer an option.
I have 8 4TB WD MyBook External drives connected to two externally powered 4 port 3.0 USB hubs giving me around 28TB of total space (excluding the main hard drive my OS is running on (512GB SSD)) in a RAID5 configuration.
You don’t need to combine drives at all. Plex will take care of it for you. Just attach your new drive and add the path to your existing Plex libraries.
I ran 16 WD MyBook External drives for a couple of years with Plex and DrivePool. Never had a problem.
I eventually took them out of the enclosures, reformatted then and put them in a HDD cases that holds 8 drives each to simplify the cabling and power.
Drives still working great. Nothing wrong with WD MyBook externals.
@cayars said:
I eventually took them out of the enclosures, reformatted then and put them in a HDD cases that holds 8 drives each to simplify the cabling and power.
That doesn’t tend to be an option anymore, as the USB controller is integrated into the drive itself to cut costs and they no longer have a normal SATA connection. If you want a standard SATA drive now, you need to buy a bare drive and put it into your own enclosure.
I have 4 separate drives from building my library as I went.
C: 500gb Intel SSD
D: 4TB Movies1
E: 4TB Movies2
F: 3TB TV Shows, Music Videos & Music
G: 2TB Media Work (for processing, conversions, etc)
For backup I have a dual drive dock and every few days pop 2 4tb drives in, back up and put them in my fireproof safe. I could have them internally but if there’s ever a fire, a mirror in a roasted computer isn’t helping much.
I keep my movies broken down for easy finding when I want to copy them to my tablets, etc. as such;
Movies 1 contains folders: A-C, D-F, G-J, K-M
Movies 2 contains folders: N-P, Q-S, T-V, W-Z
As convoluted as some might think this is, it works for me.
The point is, Plex has no problem combining folders on D & E so I don’t see why anyone would have need for a Drive pooling app.
Hello all,
I have been searching the internet for a thread like this i need some advice bad, im really confused lately im new at learning storage management and duplication. I will try and summarize, and thank you all for the help and support, any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Below is what i have and how far i have gone into this process:
My main computer is a gaming PC/HTPC/Plex Server NAS running 24/7
i7 2600k CPU
MOBO: ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 LGA 1155
16 GB DDR3 RAM
EVGA GTX 1070 8GB ICX FTW2
EVGA 750 PSU
128 GB SSD OS DRIVE x1
275 GB SSD (not installed yet, will replace the 128 GB SSD)
WD EXTERNAL 6 TB (USB)
WD Red 4TB NAS HDD’s x4
Antec full tower gaming case.
Installed all x4 WD RED drives in my tower via SATA, i have no more SATA ports left.
I bought and installed the Drivepool software, because I MUST save my precious PLEX media files, this is the only reason why i am doing this, is to keep this growing collection forever.
Copied my important PLEX media ( 6TB worth) FROM my extneral hard drive, TO the newly setup POOL of all 4 WD RED drives. The directy name and letter are custom to my liking i have it set as “PLEX (P:)” Easy enough.
after all the data copied over i turned on duplication on drive pool x2 and now i have it backed up.
Now this is where im lost or not sure if im doing it right, i want these newly purchased RED NAS drives to be the work load drives for ALL plex incoming and outgoing/remote streams. I do not want plex to stream from my cheap probably faulty external HDD, they will server as the hoard of media streaming and i will continuously be adding more content to this drivepool. (plex media server runs on my current 128 GB SSD OS drive)
How do i set this up, and change over the PLEX media source/directory to these new drivepool PLEX (:P) ?
I have also hear of adding a dedicated SSD (which i have a spare) for the PLEX/drivepool in order to make things work faster, is this true or needed ? i would like to put the SSD to use if it will boost performance and not cause more headache than its worth.
im SORRY for the long post but i feel i needed to explain everything, feel free to ask or offer suggestions. THANK YOU !!! ^:)^
