Hello,
I’d like to upgrade my private file server but I don’t know which type of harddisk I should buy - WD Green or WD Red (the other ones like WD ES are too expensive for private use).
The file server (old PC) will get a linux software RAID-5 with the filesystem BTRFS.
The server is NOT powered on 24/7. It will be switched on and off on demand for some hours.
WD Red harddisks are optimized for RAID and 24/7. But do they have problems with harddisks not running 24/7 because of higher counts of powering on and off (something you normally only do with WD Green on desktop PCs)?
WD Red harddisks do have the feature “time-limited error recovery” (TLER) to stop error correction of the disk and forward it to the RAID controller because otherwise the RAID drops the harddisk if it is waiting too long for it (and its error correction).
I’m not going to have a hardware RAID controller but a software RAID. Software RAID is more flexible and waits for the harddisk in case of error corrections instead of dropping the disk from the RAID directly.
Do I have problems with the enabled feature TLER if there is no hardware RAID controller for the error correction? Does software RAID take care of the error correction like hardware RAID, too?
Would you still recommend WD Red for my file server (no 24/7 and no hardware RAID controller) or is WD Green still sufficient for me?
Thank you very much & best regards,
Alexander
