I have a Lacie External drive that I use as my media drive. Had/has all my CDs and DVDs ripped to it.
I used it connected to a PC for a media server. The drive was fine but was working fine when accessed by the PC it was plugged into but having issues connecting to it from other PCs on the network as well as my streaming devices.
So I shut it down awhile ago and went to try to get the media server working again.

The power lights up makes all the normal sounds shows up in Windows explorer as Local Disk (F
I double click it and get the error:
F:\ is not accessible
The parameter is incorrect

The drive is not very old and my understanding is Lacie is a pretty solid company.
Is this thing toast? Anyway to salvage it??
Granted I have all the hard media still but it literally took me almost a month to rip everything.

My brother lost a Lacie external HD that just went belly-up. Only a year old. For some reason, XHDs aren't very robust. I just lost a G-drive last week. Maybe there is a case for online backup.

This is why we back things up!!
I thought I did and sure enough I did. Went thru my back ups in the safe and found probably 99%. I have probably ripped a couple things since the last backup but no big deal.
A bit over 3 Terabytes backed up.

So what sort of drive should I replace this with as it will be utilized as a Media server and on pretty much all the time?

Maybe consider a Synology NAS?

First, kudos for backing up.
Second, no kudos for putting the primary data on usb drive.
Better to use an internal drive (or network NAS) rather than one of those plastic-encased usb drives....for recovery reasons.
I keep my media on a RAIDED NAS QNAP device and back it up to a usb drive.
Check in the disk management interface to see if it is visible.
Otherwise, if you already have a backup - just put on new drive and move on.
It might be salvageable but it takes some specialty software and might not be worth the effort especially if you have the backup.
It took me months to RIP 800 CD's (600gb of FLAC files) - and even though I have all the CD's - the thought of doing it all over again makes me cringe.

What is the difference if it is on a USB hard drive vs. an internal drive?
Seems overly complicated to crack open a computer to add a drive when I can just plug into the USB.

As for NAS I have a couple of his albums ripped to that drive.

 
Rather than buy a pre-made external hard drive, how about purchasing an enclosure and spec'ing a quality HDD to go inside of it?

Another vote for Synology NAS. I have WD Red's in mine.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
 
Rather than buy a pre-made external hard drive, how about purchasing an enclosure and spec'ing a quality HDD to go inside of it?

I've had better luck doing exactly that.

Synology NAS, WD Red drives. 2 drives for redundancy, or 4 drives setup as hybrid raid.

You'll get network access, and it'll be cheaper in the long run as you replace drives over time

Reading about the NAS what benefit will I gain over just sticking a WD Red Drive in my PC and running Plex?

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Reading about the NAS what benefit will I gain over just sticking a WD Red Drive in my PC and running Plex?

I suggest looking into It Was Written.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Reading about the NAS what benefit will I gain over just sticking a WD Red Drive in my PC and running Plex?

Plex will benefit from a full computer (transcoding, media cataloging, etc). I wouldn't consider a NAS. Plus you already have it working.....
With Plex + firesticks I can have the lion king up & going in less than 30s on any of 4 TVs. I don't own a disc player (other than BluRay drives for ripping) My 1yo doesn't know how good he has it. Now if I could just get 'baby shark' out of my head.

I have a couple WD Reds (4TB), Greens (2 & 3TB), Hitachi 4TB and Toshiba 6TBs between 2 boxes (1 at home, 1 at moms, plex server/offsite backup). Only HDD I've every had croak was a 1.5TB WD green that started it's life in a USB drive......
USB is fine for small & portable. You want internal, SATA or better for media serving.
Just the bumping around would nix a portable drive for any always on-use, IMO.

I use UnRAID - I have 2x 6TB + 1x 4TB. I have 10TB of storage (6+4), but if either of the data drives dies, I pop a new one in & it rebuilds. If I run out of space, I can add drives at will. UnRAID can run plex on 'real' hardware using docker (not NAS, I have i7-7700k) + run win10 in a VM on top, making it my 'home PC', but all my data isn't exposed to microsofts buggy bullshit. Nothing like watching a movie & having the PC restart due to an update..... Unraid keeps Plex/Data/win10 separated - one can take a shit & the others don't even notice.

Faster transfer rates for an internal drive assuming your PC supports SATA III, if it's less than 5 years old it should. You can install a hot swap bay if you have the space in your tower. I am assuming you are using 3.5" drives but I included a link for the 2.5" bay. I have both of these in a tower and they work great.

3.5"
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod..._title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2.5"
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod..._title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have had a Synonlogy NAS(not the rapper :]) for almost 8 years now. I run 2 4TB WD Reds in RAID 1. I put all my media on it and stream from there. I also use it back up various PC's. I have yet to try PLEX.


As a last resort you can remove the HDD from that Lacie unit and see if it will be recognized on another PC. Odds are it won't but there is chance the interface is failing and not the HDD itself. It's also possible they are using some proprietary interface, in which case you won't be able to read the data without the Lacie interface.

Pretty much just going to write off the Lacie drive.
Have pretty much all of it backed up so not really worried about it.
Want a good way to store 3TB of media with some room to grow. That 3TB is 20+ years of media so 4TB should be fine for quite so time.
I buy media far less than I used to.

I like that hot swap bay idea for the PC I have I guess I need to pop open my PC and see what I am working with. I know I have one available bay for that hot swap drive.

I am not much of a computer guy as most of you all have likely figured with all my stupid questions. So the NAS seems a bit over whelming with added cost of at least $175 (not including drives).

Install a Red or Black. The Green series has been folded into the Blue (p/n ending in “z”). I have a black 2TB that almost feels like a SSD. Uses a lot of power, but is rock solid. Who cares about a couple of watts in a desktop anyway?

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
What is the difference if it is on a USB hard drive vs. an internal drive?
Seems overly complicated to crack open a computer to add a drive when I can just plug into the USB.

As for NAS I have a couple of his albums ripped to that drive.

USB Performance is much less, reliability is less.
If you have a ESata or USB 3 or greater then that is not as bad as USB2.
Plus power supply can be bad or finicky.
How hard is it to attach Sata cable and power cable one time?
NAS .... ok got the joke.

quote:

Reading about the NAS what benefit will I gain over just sticking a WD Red Drive in my PC and running Plex?

None that I can think of.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
Install a Red or Black. The Green series has been folded into the Blue (p/n ending in “z”). I have a black 2TB that almost feels like a SSD. Uses a lot of power, but is rock solid. Who cares about a couple of watts in a desktop anyway?

I have an SSD as my only drive currently. Figure just drop a 4TB red in for my media.
And just keep a backup in the safe. I don’t add media frequently now that I have almost everything I own ripped.
Though I need to get a BluRay drive to rip them.

Suggestion for drives to keep as back ups in the safe?

I have one of these:
StarTech.com USB 3.0 to 2.5” SATA III Hard Drive Adapter Cable w/ UASP – SATA to USB 3.0 Converter for SSD/HDD - Hard Drive Adapter Cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H..._api_i_twCsCbB6PDS32

Should I just buy bare drives and store those in anti static bags in the safe?

I currently use a Seagate portable USB drive as the backup. Though seems USB drives overall longevity aren’t very good from some of the posts.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
Install a Red or Black. The Green series has been folded into the Blue (p/n ending in “z”). I have a black 2TB that almost feels like a SSD. Uses a lot of power, but is rock solid. Who cares about a couple of watts in a desktop anyway?

I have an SSD as my only drive currently. Figure just drop a 4TB red in for my media.
And just keep a backup in the safe. I don’t add media frequently now that I have almost everything I own ripped.
Though I need to get a BluRay drive to rip them.

The red is supposed to be the most durable, although I suspect the black to be just as robust, since it carries the longest warranty.

The problem with most portables is they emphasize power savings, and consequently use power saving mechanisms. These drives, like the green series, don’t hold up well acting as permanent attached storage. There’s nothing inherently wrong with using connected storage, provided the HDD’s are properly spec’ed. This is essentially what a Synology is; an external device filled with WD Reds.

If you have room inside the case, however, I don’t see any advantages to going with an external drive for your purposes.

Hi Mark,

Are we talking Windows 10?

Having issues with SMB 1.0 compatibility and Windows Updates that keep disabling it for me.
My NAS is one I graciously got as a karma a few years back.

Check your Windows Features and see if you have (need/want) SMB 1.0 compatibility enabled.

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