Raspberry Pi 3 + External HDD - Problems

    Running a Raspberry Pi 3 as a home media server (using openmediavault). I set it all up about 2 years ago and until this morning it has worked very well. All connected up via ethernet to my home network.


    The Pi is currently connected via USB (USB 2?) to an old Seagate 2TB HDD, which is where I put all the files I want to store - but I think the HDD might be dying. This morning it's been making some strange noises (never a good sign), struggling to mount itself, I can't read from it properly accessing it on my PC, I'm seeing strange error messages in the omv web interface, etc. Is there anything I should be doing to check the drive's status and to try to fix it, or do I just throw in the towel and junk it?


    Assuming it's dying/dead, I'll need a replacement - and I'm hoping to get a 1-2TB SSD instead. High speed isn't crucial, but I'd like something with low power consumption since it's running 24/7 (and electricity is quite expensive here in the UK). Do external SSDs need their own power supply these days, or can a Pi 3 supply enough power via the USB cable? (I'll do whatever is most power efficient)


    Do I need to buy an external USB drive, or can I buy an internal 2.5" SATA drive and use a SATA to USB cradle/cable instead? Or doesn't it really matter?


    Or might I consider buying an NVME drive (and a USB cradle/cable)? I don't suppose I'll get to see its full speed potential in this setting, but that's not important, and I might redeploy it in future inside the new desktop PC that I'm quite likely to buy in the next 12 months.


    (I'm assuming a USB stick drive wouldn't cut the mustard because it would be waaaaay slower)


    Would be grateful for any recommendations/guidance.


    Thank you.

  • KM0201

    Approved the thread.
    Quote from bigalxyz

    Pi 3

    ---

    I'm assuming a USB stick drive wouldn't cut the mustard because it would be waaaaay slower

    Your issue won't be the USB stick speed, it's the USB port.

    AFAIK, RPi 3 only has USB 2.0 ports:


    And the power output is quite low for a HDD.

    Real surprised as how you had the drive running OK all this time, unless it had it's own power supply.

    Quote from Soma

    Your issue won't be the USB stick speed, it's the USB port.

    AFAIK, RPi 3 only has USB 2.0 ports:


    And the power output is quite low for a HDD.

    Real surprised as how you had the drive running OK all this time, unless it had it's own power supply.

    Ah yes, external HDD has its own power supply so that was fine

    Quote from Soma

    it's own power supply.

    In my case it was in one of those early (~9 years old) USB 3.0 -> NGFF+2.5" docks with a power supply but, the extra power supply was the reason I stop using it. The power supply was 2.5 amps, but it could of used 2x USB 3.0 ports to function, but didn't. I've seen a lot of hubs/docks that simply don't take advantage of multiple ports for power and the ones that do usually act as charging ports.


    Off topic: A favorite cheap'o hub of mine that uses a power supply ONLY for charging is the "Sabrent 4-port Usb 3.0 Hub With Power Switches". I can hook up a few attiny's, esp32's, etc. and easily toggle the power. With 1 esp32 and 1 esp8266 and 2 attiny's, I don't need the power supply. (If you buy the hub with the power supply, the power supply is 5v 2.5 amps).


    Quote from olduser

    (~9 years old) USB 3.0 -> NGFF+2.5" docks with power supply

    but it could of used 2x USB 3.0 ports to function


    Sabrent 4-port Usb 3.0 Hub With Power Switches".

    You used it on the Pi3? The bottleneck would always be the USB 2.0 port.

    I would be curious how you would be able to function with just pulling power from USB 2.0 ports when it is built to draw power from a USB 3.0


    For the trinkets you mentioned, might work well but a SSD or, even worse, an HDD, :/ :/ :/

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