Choosing a 2.5" HDD Caddy

[Protagoras]

I use external HDDs (spinning disks) on my PIs since the internal SD cards get trashed hosting databases. I tried some USB 'sticks' but these also get trashed.

I thought that it would be a simple matter of selecting an additional caddy from the usual on-line shops but I'm uncertain about what's currently on offer.

The available models seem to have one USB connection on the computer side and are designed for SSDs. My existing ones have 2 computer USB connections to provide adequate power for the drive, and do work reliably.

Is it the case that this is a case (pun intended!) of new designs needing only one power source, or do the single USB power source ones only work with SSDs in the caddy.

I want a caddy powered from the PI USB with no external power adapter, but I'm struggling to find one that I'm convinced will support 7200rpm ex-laptop spinning disks.

[sadkingbilly]

i've got several single USB caddy's, using SSD's AND HDD's, no problems, but i only use them for backups (<>1TB) so not continuously.

[ladymuck]

So... you want to buy a HDD and chuck it in some kind of housing to connect it to your computer?

The ones I've used have always had external power rather than dual USB for power and data. For me, that was more convenient as an extra socket is easier to manage than multiple USB ports.

[Protagoras]

So... you want to buy a HDD and chuck it in some kind of housing to connect it to your computer?

Yep.

The ones I've used have always had external power rather than dual USB for power and data. For me, that was more convenient as an extra socket is easier to manage than multiple USB ports.

I've ordered a couple of Caddies from Amazon that are specified for disks up to 5400rpm which hopefully will work with my 7200rpm spare disks. Raspberry PIs have 4 USB ports and so I prefer to power the disk from the PI and simplifies startup and shutdown although most these run 24*7.

In an ideal world I'd find USB stick to use for the databases since DB files are small, but the number of writes is such that the ones I've tried only last a few months. Curiously, old small capacity sticks lasted longer than newer, larger ones.

[Protagoras]

i've got several single USB caddy's, using SSD's AND HDD's, no problems, but i only use them for backups (<>1TB) so not continuously.

That's interesting. I did get a M2 SSD and put that in a caddy with single power lead, but it proved unreliable, frequently losing connection. It does, of course, work perfectly as a backup device.

[woody1]

In an ideal world I'd find USB stick to use for the databases since DB files are small, but the number of writes is such that the ones I've tried only last a few months. Curiously, old small capacity sticks lasted longer than newer, larger ones.

Even just using USB sticks for backups, music, films, I've found they don't last that long. Currently using a SanDisk one which seems to be holding up.

Laptops these days don't seem to use HDDs anymore. Mine has eMMC. Is that likely to fail like SD/SSD at some point?

[sadkingbilly]

Yep.



I've ordered a couple of Caddies from Amazon that are specified for disks up to 5400rpm which hopefully will work with my 7200rpm spare disks. Raspberry PIs have 4 USB ports and so I prefer to power the disk from the PI and simplifies startup and shutdown although most these run 24*7.

In an ideal world I'd find USB stick to use for the databases since DB files are small, but the number of writes is such that the ones I've tried only last a few months. Curiously, old small capacity sticks lasted longer than newer, larger ones.

ah, i assumed PC connx. maybe Pi has lower power to USB? i know not.

[Protagoras]

The 7200rpm disk has been running in one of these cheap caddies for 5 days, no problem so far. The caddy has 2 USB connections to provide power.

[Protagoras]

Laptops these days don't seem to use HDDs anymore. Mine has eMMC. Is that likely to fail like SD/SSD at some point?

I thought that eMMC was being phased out by manufacturers in favour of SSDs , especially for higher end products - how old is your laptop?

I've seen SD cards trashed by excessive writes, SSDs by dodgy power supplies.
Last year I found and spun up a SCSI HDD not used since the 1990s and it was still working. It remains to be seen whether that's possible with consumer grade SSDs.

Top end SSDs are used widely in servers and storage arrays and from what I've seen the failure rate is extremely low. Of course, in such environments, there's no data loss from multiple disk failures anyway. These are naturally reassuringly expensive!

It's possible to read the wear level from many drives - including eMMC - to help with estimating life expectancy, but at the end of the day, we still make backups.

[woody1]

I thought that eMMC was being phased out by manufacturers in favour of SSDs , especially for higher end products - how old is your laptop?

A couple of years or so (it came with Win11). It's only a low-end ASUS.