On Mon, Dec 08, 2025 at 08:54:54AM -0800, Rich Shepard wrote: > My desktop's /dev/sdb/ is a 5" 2T HDD. It's about 5-6 years old and I want > to replace it before it fails. My web search suggests that an internal, 2.5" > SSD would likely last longer than another 5" HDD. > > I am asking for recommendations on which brand to purchase.
As I upgrade distros (including ancient Centos to Debian), I move disk content to Samsung 870 EVO drives. Those are "three bits per memory cell" drives (three voltage levels), a compromise between cost and my concern with errors uncorrectable errors emerging. Samsung also peddles QVO "four bits per memory cell" drives (sixteen voltage levels per cell). That's either spectacular analog precision for trillions of transistors (with PLENTY of spare blocks), or permanently lost data if Samsung had a "dirty week at the fab" resulting in eventual cell rot. The Samsung PRO series is TWO bits per cell, more expensive but faster and probably more survivable. I still use 12TB Seagate Ironwolf spinny hard drives for rsync backups on two dedicated backup servers, but that's mostly emotional inertia. It is better to duplicate content across heterogeneous systems. I'm amused that I spend fewer dollars per year for MANY of these SSD drives than I spent for my first 80MB (Mega, not Tera) ST506 Shugart/Seagate hard drive, decades ago. My meat brain fails faster than those ancient platter drives did, so some my nattering above probably fails checksum. Keith L. -- Keith Lofstrom [email protected]
