Nextcloud on rpi: USB disk recommendations?

🚧 Installation
1

For synchronisation between my various desktops / laptops I use a Nextcloud instance installed on an Rpi3 with a 3TByte USB disk (WD Elements), now, after 2 1/2 years of use the disk seems to be dying (smart selftest fails). I wonder if there are recommendations for a suitable replacement. Since the Raspberrypi does not have a SATA port, it has to be a USB disk again, I guess. But it should be a disk capable of dealing with the frequent read/write load Nextcloud causes. Are there any recommendation?

2

Basically you can use every kind of hard drive with a suitable hdd usb docking station/case.

Then you can also use hdds that are more made for NAS/24/7 operation. I e.g. use WD Red 3TB since öhm 5 years or something. I guess the quality of WD Elements is not too good, especially not for 24/7 as it is made for data storage/backup/mobile stuff where it just runs short durations.

3

Thanks. WD Red sounds like a good idea!

4

but the WD Red are “real” spinning server drives - no SSDs

5

I didn’t think of buying a 3 TB SSD. If they even exist, they must be still horribly expensive, am I wrong?

Edit: Just checked: 650 €+ per disk, that’s definitely too much.

6

ah wait. then I got your posting wrong. it sounded like you want to run something on USB power only.
…in that case…

7

I will certaintly take something with an external power supply again.

8

for smaller amounts I use a USB3 USB-Stick, which is locally mounted via symlinks.
the system on the SD-Card I set to readonly and did not have any failures since then

9

There are also hdd usb docking stations with two or more slots. This makes it easier to schedule backups via rsync script e.g. Personally I have a script that mounts the backup drive every night, dumps database to first drive and rsyncs it it, including nextcloud data to backup drive. That way I always have a current backup, if the main hdd breaks. On the other hand it also rsyncs wrong/accidently removed files, thus sufficient versions/trashbin of Nextcloud should be there.

WD Red for my impression is sufficient for smaller setups where actual disk I/O is not done all the time/from many users parallel. It is promoted to be 24/7 running stable but not 24/7 actively written. Just to keep in mind. Price/endurance was anyway really good that time I bought it.