Been finding some good deals on 2.5 disks lately, but have never bought one before. Have a couple of 3.5 disks on the other hand in my Unraid server. Wondering how much it matters wether I get a 2.5 or not? What form factor do you prefer/usually go for?
You’ll usually want 3.5" on anything that isn’t a laptop for the price and higher max speed
And theoretical reliability. Stuff breaks down quicker at smaller sizes says my lizard brain
Smaller stuff has smaller mass and therefore can be more reliable.
There were portable mp3 players with mechanical hard drives that were reliable despite extreme abuse.
Smaller stuff has to be more complex to get to the lower mass, which is usually what causes the biggest issues. The hdds in those ipods had some extra stuff to make them more reliable, but even then, move them too quickly and they show it.
Smaller doesn’t need to be more complex. 3.5" drives weren’t more complex than 5.25" drives.
A smaller head means a smaller drive actuator. Less mass and smaller size means it can compensate much quicker in response to vibration detection.
Back when full height 5.25" drives were the norm, you couldn’t pick up your PC while running without causing an error. Those tiny CF card sized drives failed but took extreme abuse compared to big drives.
I tell my wife 3.5" is more reliable but she’s not buying it :(
Except the mp3 players from Archos, which gave up after setting up. Twice.
Man my 6000 was immortal. Outlived 2 desktop drives and survived a car roll while in use. I was convinced they had made some blood pact with Nokia lol.
I got mine, moved some songs into it and an hour into listening the drive started clicking and the player was dead. Amazon replaced it and it was exactly the same. I forgot what model it was, but the discs were extremely fragile.
In general laptop drives were a gamble so it’s not shocking. I’m curious if I got a later batch or something or just got lucky.
That was one of those 1 and something inch tiny drives. They were crap
Maybe we were talking about different units then - this is the one I had:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Archos+Jukebox+Recorder+20+Hard+Drive++Replacement/103263
Standard 2.5" laptop drive 👍
I dunno I RMA’d my Nomad so many times.
Oh man, I remember a Philips mp3 player I had for the longest time as a kid. You could hear the little clicks of the hard drive. Lost it on a hike, unfortunately.