Never use identical drives in a mirror. The same model is Ok but the exact same age is not. I always try to "engineer" a controlled failure by using one old and one new drive.

But none of this can defeat human error.

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marcbpaul 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It was something I never thought about until I lost my first drive. And agreed on human error, I killed the second drive by running the second scrub.

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jqpabc123 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I start with 2 new, "reliable" drives.

After a couple of years, I replace one drive with a new one. Keep the removed drive to use for offline data backup.

Run until failure or 5 years, which ever comes first. Then replace the oldest or failed drive with a new one. Wash, rinse and repeat.

	▲	marcbpaul 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
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