Hi, I am about halfway through the process of digitising my media and I need to check I’m not making a mistake. I have just bought a 6TB Seagate external hard drive which I was planning to put all my media on to and then use this for my Plex. My plan was to have this permanently plugged into the back of a smart TV, which is connected to my hub and therefore other devices, but before I finish adding all my files I need to know If Plex will allow me to access the hard drive without it being connected to my laptop?
Any support would be most welcome. I am very new to this and want to get it right.
Plex is a Client/Server architecture, the files are usually hosted on a server and the clients (TV,Roku,etc…) are streamed the file from the server. The maybe part, some clients like Android Mobile allow playback of media from local storage. This however would not provide files to other clients.
The first thing a Plex client does is login and try to connect to the server, if it isn’t there it will just throw error messages.
I just replaced a 1TB Croaking Seagate with a 6TB WD-Red (on sale at Amazon for basically the same price) when, after only a year the Seagate, showed up drunk and drove a fork-lift through a nail salon (read: died a fortunate slow-death as I saved ‘most’ of what was on it).
Both of the above are/were internals, but I have 2 8TB WD My Book Externals that are, Blazing Fast, Silent, Cool-Running, Contain Red-WD NAS Drives, were both on sale at the time for about $90 each and while I haven’t had to replace a WD drive recently - I have replaced 2 dying Seagates… Recently - and never again because I will NEVER buy another one… EVER.
the drive(s) connect(s) to your Plex server - not your TV <----that’s called a Client/Device/TV - It isn’t called a Server. You may have some luck with Networked Drives for your Server <—that’s called a NAS (Not A Server), but it doesn’t connect to your TV.
You can probably connect a storage device to your TV and play files from it - and in that case you don’t need a Plex Server and would probably be better off not even trying to use one <—unless you connect the storage to the Plex Server, instead of the TV in a more ‘traditional’ configuration.
Note:
The BEST the Seagate ever did on a Direct Transfer was about 45MBps - the Worst ANY WD-RED does (internal or external through USB-3.0) is about 140MBps and no, I don’t need to be hit over the head with it to know who is better at Read/Writes when they’re all spinning at 5400 RPM).
Note 2:
It is ‘My Opinion’ Seagate Drives are junk. I hope you have better luck with yours than I have with any of the dozen or so I’ve replaced on the Friends and Family Maintenance Plan with WD drives over a long and storied career.
Note 3:
The two happiest days in a Seagate Owner’s Life are:
The day he saves a bunch of money on what he thinks is a bargain - and
The day he finds WD-REDs on sale at Amazon, rips the smoldering Seagate Ship wreck out and vows never to buy another one as long as he lives (at any price).
Guys, thank you for your responses. So if I were to swap out my seagate for a WD-RED then that would a) give me storage capacity for my media and b) act as a NAS drive which I wouldn’t need to keep connected to a laptop and that would be recognised as a server by Plex?
Sorry, I’m aware that this may sound like some dumb questions but I’m really not technical in the slightest.
Yes, the WD would probably be more reliable/snappier - especially over the long-run.
No, the Storage, be it a traditional NAS or Simple External needs to be connected to the server and be on 24/7 and spun-up - just like the server.
‘Temporary’ Storage and Plex are like two wildcats in a sack. You don’t want any part of it.
Except for some limited (very) specific models, NAS stands for Network Attached Storage (also Not A Server) and doesn’t have the horsepower to pull off server duties. A WD External falls into this category - great storage, lousy Plex Server.
To create the friendliest environment you need to have a Plex Server that can run 24/7 with Storage that also runs 24/7.
Anything else is going to be problematic.
You can’t expect the ‘server’ to run from ‘Storage’ when it’s off. If you want a Plex Server it needs to be on and it’s Storage needs to be awake, visible, warmed up and ready to deliver.
Just to add a different perspective, I’ve not had any issues with the 13 TB of external Seagate drives I use for my media storage: a 1 TB drive which is ~5 years old; a 4 TB drive which is ~3 years old; and an 8 TB drive which is ~ 6 months old. My luck with Seagate over the years has been very good; my luck with WD decidedly less so.
All drive manufacturers go through rough patches and/or put out models which, for whatever reason, have higher failure rates than should be accepted. Having said that, the best things you can do to protect your data, if that’s important to you is to by a drive from a reputable manufacturer (WD, Seagate, Toshiba, HGST, et al…) with a decent warranty. And, more importantly, BACK YOUR DATA UP.
This is the 2018 drive report for Backblaze; 2019’s data is less interesting for WD users because Backblaze has de-emphasized their drives lately.
The second chart has annualized data for 2016, 2017, and 2018.
I have in the past preferred wd harddrive but my recent experience with wd and seagate has changed my mind. I now prefer seagate, however no hard drive is perfect and you should have a backup plan in place no matter your preference of drives.
For reference I have 20 hardrives with about half of them being external and half being internal. I also have a mix of each of the following wd, seagate and toshiba. All work but my preference s is seagate followed by wd followed by toshiba due to heat and quick access (one of my wd drive is super slow due to SMR).
My point is this: I have had no problems using external or internal harddrives. I also have used multiple manufacturers with little to no problem. ( I am running linux and do mount all my drives by uuid in fstab, so that they are always mounted in the same location for plex. I also mount all my drives with “defaults,auto,rw,nofail” so that my system will boot even if a hard drive fails curtsy of ChuckPA)
Anyway my experience is that internal or external will work and all three of the hard drive manufactures have good disks and bad disks.
Now for your first question, the hardrive needs to be “connected” to your plex server. this can be internal (usually sata) external, (usb hopefully 3.0 or above), and or network (nas). Plugging a hardrive into a smart tv or device running a plex client will not allow for you to share the media throughout the plex eco system.
I just put a new WD-RED 6TB in the last available spot internally for the Server Machine (that Amazon Sale is right up my alley). I’m now transferring some Media from another WD-RED to the New WD-RED at 174MBps. The BEST I’ve ever gotten out of a Seagate is 45MBps, but I didn’t have long to hate it 'cause every one I’ve ever had blew up in under 2 years - the last one in 19 months.
Could the new RED blow wide open in a few Minutes/Days/Months? Sure. Do I think it will, No, I hope not, but from now until it blows (eventually) those data transfers are going to be SWEET!
145G - in 12 minutes (I think - walked away, came back, done)… Awesome.
Cheers for all this input guys. I just want to check very quickly. There is no way I can plug the External Hard Drive directly into my home hub and have all my devices source if from there?
Sorry, I think my explanation maybe the issue here. In summary.
I have all my media on an External Hard drive
I want to be able to access this from multiple devices
I do not want to have my laptop connected via USB 24/7
Ideally I’d like to be able to access this drive from all devices
As all devices are connected to my homehub, I’d like Plex to find the server via the homehub
And permanently connect the external hard drive to the homehub via USB
That’s what I’m trying to do. But every time I download the server it defaults to my laptop. I want to avoid Plex thinking that the link to the External drive is via a port in my PC
Plex is a Server/Client thing - if the Server isn’t on, it can’t serve any clients.
You can probably just connect the TV to the Home Hub (whatever that is) and your life will continue pretty much as it has before.. It just won’t be as pretty.
Think of Plex as your Home Hub, 'cause that’s what it’s designed for - to be ON 24/7 ready to leap into action delivering content to anything that can play media from it - anywhere on the spinning space rock.
The Server running Plex has been on ever since it rolled out of the peanuts and is only ever off when I have it’s guts splayed out all over the table - like yesterday when it was having a new HDD installed…lol
(It even gets monthly maintenance - an air can shoved into all it’s dusty bits - while it’s ON!)
