On Thu, Sep 30, 2021 at 10:13:48PM +0200, Marco Möller wrote: [...] > What I suggest you to consider: > (1) Although never having had trouble myself, for being prepared for > a USB hardware failure, which others are warning of [...] Not my main file system just the backups, but this is a very important point. I've seen wild variations in quality. The way I do backups is to set up an (LUKS encrypted) ext4 and to rsync the important things (a sprinkling of rsync filters help keeping unnecessary cruft out of the way). That said, I've used one (cute, very small) 64GB stick for years without a problem. Forgot the brand. Once I realised that space was going to be exhausted, I bought a replacement (128GB; lsusb says "ID 13fe:6300 Kingston Technology Company Inc."). It behaved somewhat erratically. I acquired the routine of making an fsck before each backup, and most of the time it would develop file system errors just by sitting on the shelf for some time (days). Next stick. On the shell it says "(Intenso)". Lsusb reports "ID 090c:2000 Silicon Motion, Inc. - Taiwan (formerly Feiya Technology Corp.)". Its first incarnation started throwing errors two days after buying it (I don't know whether it was "lsusb equivalent" to the current one, mind you). I went to the shop, complained and got a replacement. Since then, an fsck is part of my backup routine (actually two: one before mounting, one after unmounting). After a month, not one failed. Whether it starts some day having more and more failures or it breaks down catastrophically... we'll see. I take two lessons out of it: (1) quality of those things scatters widely. Do take Marco's advise seriously and have always a Plan B. In my case, it's Just A Backup (TM), so I make it so my main disk doesnt fail until I find a replacement stick ;-@ (2) I have the hunch that the name on the shell bears little relation to the guts inside. The latter are whatever the vendor putting its name on the outside can scavenge cheaply off the market at some point in time. So trading brand names might be possibly misleading ;-) Cheers - t
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