With SSDs being much faster and becoming more affordable (apart from the current spike due to AI), do you think that HDDs will become obsolete as long-term storage and be dominated by the SSD?
Pretty much the title, I'm struggling to understand how important is it because I'm reading a lot of conflicting information.
It apparently facilitates random access, but how important is that extra bit of performance for random access?
If you listen to articles or youtubers you get the impression that a DRAM-less drive will be way slower and deteriorate muchfaster (almost like they are a SCAM by the constructors), while reddit posts often emply that it doesnt really matter or make a noticeable difference.
I imagine it matters more for SATA than NVME SSDs, but I have no idea how much.
I also have no idea how an index is supposed to make the SSD last longer.
And it also seems that some CPUs are capable to compensate for it using the system RAM wich is slower, but again, how slow? (and when they say "Some CPUs" i have no idea if it's something rare or if it's like "anything that came out less than 8 years ago")
So yeah, I'm left confused and about to enter a rabbithole
I have nearly 14 gb of my 15 gb taken up by device backup, i need help
So here's the deal, I bought a bus powered usb c external hard drive from seagate like the one in the picture not knowing that it needs external power to run. Based on my research (after I bought the thing) I saw that I need a docking station for this to work. For those who has this kind of external hard drive, can you beautiful people recommend some CHEAP docking stations that I could use for this? I'm from the Philippines so if you can recommend docking stations available in my region that would be best. Thank you!
I found a good deal with a local shop and I'm switching to faster and bigger SSDs. To make it even cheaper for me, I want to sell the old ones, but before doing so, I want to ensure it's 100% clean, with no way of recovering my old data. Please recommend a data erasure you know works.
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I've been working on the architecture for a privacy-first encrypted storage app, and I'm intentionally keeping it as simple as possible.
The core idea is that every additional feature increases the attack surface, so the application only does two things:
Upload (encrypt locally before upload)
Download (decrypt locally after download)
Some design decisions:
Users receive a 24-word recovery phrase during registration.
The recovery phrase derives the Master Key.
The Master Key is never used directly. It only derives purpose-specific keys using HKDF.
Every file has its own derived encryption key.
File metadata is encrypted with a separate key hierarchy.
The server never sees plaintext, encryption keys, or the recovery phrase.
The local password is only used to unlock an encrypted Master Key vault stored on the device.
A maximum of two authorized devices can be linked to an account.
Users can export an encrypted Vault containing all ciphertext and encrypted indexes at any time.
The long-term goal is that even if the company shuts down, users can still recover all their files using only their 24-word recovery phrase and the exported Vault.
The philosophy is simple:
The server stores data. The client owns trust.
I'm not trying to build another cloud drive with collaboration, document editing, AI features, or social functionality. The goal is to build a storage system that does one job extremely well: protecting user data.
I'm interested in feedback from people with experience in cryptography, secure storage, or zero-knowledge systems.
What potential weaknesses or design mistakes do you see in this approach?
Hi everyone,
I run a flooring contracting business and I’m currently optimizing my workflow for handling field photography. I have a Ugreen DXP6800 Pro NAS at home, and I’m looking for a robust way to sync project photos from my crew's phones directly to the server.
The Workflow Requirements:
Instant Offloading: I need a solution where my workers can snap photos on-site, have them immediately upload to a specific folder on my NAS, and—this is critical—automatically clear the images from their local device storage immediately after the upload is confirmed. I want to ensure privacy and save storage space on their phones.
Security & Access: I’m already using Tailscale for remote access. I want to provide "zero-trust" access to my crew, meaning they should only be able to reach the specific folder/service needed for uploads, without having any access to my home network, admin dashboards, or personal data.
Low-Friction for Crew: The upload process needs to be seamless. I want a "set it and forget it" solution—they take the photo, the app handles the rest in the background.
My Tech Stack:
Hardware: Ugreen DXP6800 Pro NAS.
Networking: Tailscale.
Media Management: Immich (currently using it for my personal archive).
My Questions:
Best App/Client: What is the most reliable mobile app/client that supports "upload and delete from local" functionality seamlessly over a VPN (Tailscale)?
Access Control (ACLs): What is the best practice for using Tailscale ACLs to restrict my workers' access so they can only write to a specific share without exposing the rest of my NAS?
Permissions: How should I structure the folder permissions to ensure they can write new files but not rename, delete, or modify existing project archives?
Integration: Has anyone successfully automated this "upload -> Immich" pipeline? Ideally, I'd like the photos to land in a specific folder and be automatically picked up by an Immich External Library.
Any advice on software, specific app configurations, or security setups for this kind of "field-to-server" workflow would be greatly appreciated!
im investing in my first hdd to help store my photos and videos right now
i could get just a simple 8tb drive which would almost tripple my current storage (i have about 3tb in 2 ssds i use) or i could go all in and just get a beefy 18 tb drive
this isnt going to do much besides sit on my desk and backup my stuff, but this stuff is not cheap right now so i want to make a wise purchase
(eventually id want to set up a raid system but thats not anytime soon)
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Please advise if this is even possible or an app exists.
I have a number of external storage devices with many, many files. I would like to be able to browse the files in those structures, not necessarily the files themselves, but names and file paths.
The image above is a graphical representation of the file trees. Something like this. Or even an output of the filetree, but that's somewhat a slog to get thru.
Thanks in advance for any advice offered.
for context: i do video projects with friends. i have an old (working but slow) phone laying around wich i thought i could just kinda store some pictures and videos on since my laptop storage is full
Edit: any budget options for something like an SSD?
Hi everyone, I apologize in advance if I sound stupid, i’m not the smartest when it comes to pcs. I had a Unionsine 1TB external hard drive that I was using to support the extra storage brought on from mostly Asetto Corsa and other SIM related games. I’m not sure at all if that was the best way to be storing it but either way the hard drive randomly stopped working on me and now half of my games won’t launch. Not too sure where to go from here, nothing too crazy was on it that I care about, but what’s my best option now? I was looking into SATA SSDS and the nvme m.2 but the prices are insane, i’d like to not spend more than $100-150 but I also don’t want to have to re buy something like this in another 2-3 years and have all my storage/files corrupted and wiped. Any help on the best route is super appreciated. I’m not sure what exactly the boot drive is or if I need more storage or speed booting things up and storage.
Current specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K
GPU: ASUS RTX 3060 12GB
RAM: 16GB DDR5-5200 (2x8GB)
Current SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe
Motherboard: MSI Z790
OS: Windows 11
A 16-year-old SATA II SSD exceeded its rated endurance by surviving over 1 petabyte of writes—about 25 times its official TBW rating—showing that some SSDs can far outlast their expected lifespan.
I'm running a server and have a ton of storage, specifically 1TB for 4 Euro. Would anyone be interested or provide constructive criticism?
Hi all, I am totally new to NAS and have a quick question please. Sorry if this may seem to be a silly one! I'm not tech-savvy.
My son has bought a UGREEN NASync DH4300 Plus, & wants to hook it up to our home's router. I am a bit concerned as he has had his desktop PC hacked a few times and had issues with his details stolen, as he is always browsing internet and somehow manages to visit wrong websites (my guess). Anyways, I've never heard of NAS till now and my concern is that, considering it hooks up straight to the router, does it compromise or risk the whole home internet? I am concerned that if he gets hacked or downloads malware by accident, would it also possibly risk compromising everyone on that network? Is it a greater risk than if NAS wasn't attached to the router? I guess the question really is whether it compromises the whole family's data vs just his?
Any advise would be highly appreciated! Thank you!
P.S.- As I'm not tech-savvy, please explain to me like you're explaining a child lol.. Thanks in advance!
Any hdd recommendations? Looking for one that is able to last long
I’m a documentarian, and I have about 5 x 4tb SSDs that are at capacity. Since the prices have sky rocketed, I wanted to get some advice on getting more storage without obliterating the bank.
I was considering getting something like 2 x ~20 TB HHDs to be mirrored base storage, and just offload all my old footage from the SSDs onto them and reuse the SSDs for new footage and editing, but I don’t know which HHDs are best or what other people usually do in this situation.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Hey all! I hope I am posting in the right place, and perhaps you can help me. I booted up CrystalDiscInfo earlier today and noticed one of my drives was listed under "Caution." It specifically mentions an issue with "Current Pending Sector Count" and "Uncorrectable Sector Count" both at 16. I wanted to look up other ways to verify this, so I ran two other testing methods.
The first was chkdsk. These are the results. Unless my eyes deceive me, that doesn't mention any errors. The second one I tested with was SeaTools, as the drive is a SeaGate, specially the ST2000DM008-2FR102. I've done a Quick Self Test, Quick Generic Test, and Long Generic Test, all of which it passed, though the issues with those values were still in the results at 16. I also took the time to look up any noticeable Critical, Error, or Warning notification in Event Viewer and only found the following all the way back in December 2025. I looked at the following parameters: "Disk," "Ntfs," "storahci", and "iaStorA."
"A corruption was discovered in the file system structure on volume ??. The Master File Table (MFT) contains a corrupted file record. The file reference number is 0x9000000000009. The name of the file is "<unable to determine file name>". This does not state what drive it is."
All of this is having me ask if the drive is at immediate risk of failure. I'm not knowledgeable if it is, but I do know it's an old drive.
EDIT: Running SeaTools "Fix All Short" removed both of the Sector Count issues. They're now back at 0, and the drive is now listed as "Good" under CrystalDiscTools. Was this an error that got flagged, or does SeaTools purge out such problematic sectors?