The General Technology Thread

[IndyBeerman]

Did some addition thinking today, and decided to add a 5.25 inch SSD Dock/mobile rack that will hold 6 2.5inch SSD's, has independent HD activity lights, requires only 1 power plugin, and has a back mounted fan to help keep the
drives cool course 6 separate sata plugs, Going to dump my e-sata external 2TB traditional drive and will be able to use 5 of the 6 bays. This could get interesting.

 

[Hop]

I now have a pile ot 1T WD Blue drives and would like to play around with building another NAS/Media Server. I know these are not the best drives but they're free.

What's a nice hot swap multi drive enclosure for making one? I'm thinking at least 4 HDD, maybe more.

 

[IndyBeerman]

I now have a pile ot 1T WD Blue drives and would like to play around with building another NAS/Media Server. I know these are not the best drives but they're free.

What's a nice hot swap multi drive enclosure for making one? I'm thinking at least 4 HDD, maybe more.

Newegg has this below that's hot swapable, anything that holds more than 4 3.5 inch drives will cost boo koo $$$'s.

I got a 3.5 inch Seagate 2TB platter HD in a external drive hooked up via E-sata that I'm going to replace with another 2TB SSD. It's a power hungry thing that even with a fan in the enclosure it generates a substantial amount of heat. I decided to go all SSD's because of the cost savings on power and overall longer life span along with the added speed increase on data transfer. It's a win-win all around, especially with the way SSD's have been dropping in prices. The only way I'm going to get faster transfer speeds is throwing in a PCI-e NVME-2 card, but Not going to waste money on that because my MB doesn't it as a boot drive.

https://www.newegg.com/athena-power-bp-tla3051sac-other/p/N82E16817995111?Description=3.5%20hard%20drive%20RACK&cm_re=3.5_hard%20drive%20RACK-_-17-995-111-_-Product

 

[jkaetz]

I now have a pile ot 1T WD Blue drives and would like to play around with building another NAS/Media Server. I know these are not the best drives but they're free.

What's a nice hot swap multi drive enclosure for making one? I'm thinking at least 4 HDD, maybe more.

3.5" or 2.5” drives?

 

[wtburnette]

Quick question showing how out of the loop I am for tech, can you image from SSD to SSD? I know previously going from HDD to SSD it was best not to, but I'm curious if going SSD to SSD works fine.

 

[qwerty]

Quick question showing how out of the loop I am for tech, can you image from SSD to SSD? I know previously going from HDD to SSD it was best not to, but I'm curious if going SSD to SSD works fine.

Yes, it is no different than when you would image a HDD.

 

[wtburnette]

Yes, it is no different than when you would image a HDD.

Thanks. I'll have to find a shareware program or something and image my current 256GB drive that has been almost filled for the last year or so. I bought a 1TB drive but haven't installed it yet.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Thanks. I'll have to find a shareware program or something and image my current 256GB drive that has been almost filled for the last year or so. I bought a 1TB drive but haven't installed it yet.

spend a little and get a good program. $30 last I looked.

Acronis True Image Home allows for cloning drives after booting off the CD.

 

[Phase2]

spend a little and get a good program. $30 last I looked.

Acronis True Image Home allows for cloning drives after booting off the CD.

Not needed. wtburnette knows Linux.

Just use a couple of commands to clone drive 1 and copy to drive 2.

https://www.tecmint.com/clone-linux-partitions/

 

[Hop]

I've been using a bootable USB stick with Clonezilla installed. It even clones bitlocker encrypted disks.

https://clonezilla.org/

 

[wtburnette]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[qwerty]

Acronis is great and I have used it for years but was pleasantly surprised with Macrium free version https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

[wtburnette]

Thank you, will check it out just in case.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Well I finally got everything in that I needed. The adventure starts this afternoon. Hopefully the install, cloning goes off eithout a hitch. But we all know how the best laid plans of mice and men turn out.

 

[wtburnette]

Good luck.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Good luck.

Thanks!

Installed and running. Will clone the new boot drive tomorrow, got a late start and I got a World Of Warships Tourney @ 7:30 so not enough time.


This had to be the absolutely easiest install I've ever done. Everything went SMOOOOOOOTH. Heck I spent more time blowing out all the built up dust inside the case than I did on installing.
Front cover popped off and back on with nary a issue. Only needed 1 of the power cord extensions. Heck I had more problems trying to pop off 2 old SATA cables on the MB and inserting a drive bay screw than anything else.
My fingers on my left hand are not as efficient as they used to be pre mini stroke even though it's been 2.5 years now.


Transfers from a SSD to another SSD are just wicked fast. I moved 50 gig of MP3 files off my C drive to the new drive, looked up at the drive activity light for a second and back to the monitor and the transfer was done.
Also the fan on the unit is hardly noticeable. This has been a welcome addition to my gaming rig, and highly recommend it for additional sotorage and drive backups. It's going to ease my paranoia of losing data and being down for a long time.

 

[IndyBeerman]

So what's everyone's thought of using a NAS rated SSD as the main drive in a personal computer?

Was talking to a friend that is a heavy gamer and he told me that he switched to a Western Digital NAS Red 3D NAND 1TB SSD because it should be able to
handle the constant read/writes/heavy use a whole lot better that the WD Blue. Getting ready to clone my drive and swap to the new SSD, and I may buy one of these
and hold off for a couple of days.

 

[bwframe]

Anyone else have an issue with Xfinity reporting excessive data usage in January?

They started sending me over usage notices a week ago or so. I went over the terabyte a few days ago. Now I'm up 200 or 300 gigs over that.

It looks as if the meter is running way faster than normal? While it's colder and there is more inside time, my routine streaming and other use hasn't really changed much. Certainly hasn't doubled or tripled.

I wonder if this issue is not related to a software glitch xfinity had back in October?

Comcast Blames Software Glitch for Broadband Data Meter Error

.

Thought I'd post a follow up to this issue, although it seems as if it's a rare one?

February was an overage month as Comcast reported for me also, using up my second courtesy overage month granted by them.

March through June were "covid months" at Comcast and overages weren't counted while we were all in lockdown. Strangely, my data usage showed much lower numbers during these months.

July, the first month back from lockdowns, Comcast's data clock appeared to be working double or triple time again.

This is the second time this year that my data usage has used up all of Comcasts courtesy months. Next time I get charged by the gig for the overage.

The good news is that I seemed to have found the fix/work-a-round/whatever. I put my Arris cable modem on a separate power strip and turn it off on occasion. It doesn't seem to matter how long or when the modem is turned off, just that it's not constantly on.

As long as I break the connection with Comcast, once in a while, their data reporting clock runs much much slower. I have even tested this by streaming multiple audio/video streams that were feared to be the culprits for my abnormally high data usage. And at the same time downloading multiple video movies and shows.

I don't know why this works, but I'm very happy it does. I'm back to normal usage, without fear of foolish Comcast data over-reporting. I still check Comcast's data usage figures for my account a few times a week and save a screen cap for record, in case of dispute.

 

[Cameramonkey]

The joys of running a smart router that tracks usage. i would be able to dispute my overages based on my firewall's logs. Not that they would listen to me and take my graphs as gospel, But if push came to shove, it would be pretty compelling when discussing the situation with our local "on your side" reporter.

 

[bwframe]

The joys of running a smart router that tracks usage. i would be able to dispute my overages based on my firewall's logs. Not that they would listen to me and take my graphs as gospel, But if push came to shove, it would be pretty compelling when discussing the situation with our local "on your side" reporter.

You might be able to get this done, but not me.

Even if I had the smart equipment, after spending hours and hours and talking to techs of all levels, I'm not convinced that they even have a clue about how their stuff works.

My last conversation with a Comcast tech confirmed that the two prior techs before him were lying to me and leading me on a crazy goose chase. Some sort of upgrading my account problem to a high level monitoring division that would determine the exact issue, blah, blah.

Two weeks into my high level monitoring, I gave the last tech my case number and the rest of the details that I was following up on, given by the advanced higher up division leader. The last tech stated there was no record of any of that. He basically said there is nothing to be done other than back off of streaming audio/video.

All the Comcast techs ever gave me was bull. It seems to be proven by trying to run their metering of my data up by streaming and downloading heavier than normal without it showing up at their crazy fast clock rates that was reported in my account's "overage" months?