On Thu, 2024-02-08 at 15:36 +0000, Andy Smith wrote: > USB storage is for phones and cameras etc, not for serious > computing. Many people will disagree with that statement and say > they use it all the time and it is fine.
I am clearly in the latter camp. This mail is delivered via a Raspberry Pi 4 that has a 500G USB SSD. Before the Pi4 I used a Pi3 and a Pi2 (I think) with USB disks (first rotating, then SSD). Probably for 5 years or so. Never had a problem (unlike with the SD cards I used before, SD cards always died on me from to many writes after a few months). > They will keep saying that > until it isn't fine, and then they'll be in a world of hurt. This is the same with any hard disk or SSD. If you buy the most expensive "enterprise" disk, with SAS or whatever, it still can break on the next day, taking all your data with you. Actually with USB disks, sometimes you can remove the USB controller, replace it in case of breakage, giving you more or less the same reliability as any "normal" disk. I've never had USB controllers break, though, so I do not care. I just take backups as with any other disk. > I learned not to go there a long time ago and have seen plenty of > reminders along the way from others' misfortunes to not ever go > there again myself. How does a breaking USB disk differ from a breaking SATA disk? /ralph