Discussion Smart choice for external USB drive

[jeffshead]

BACKGROUND:
I sometimes need to backup and restore drives to/from a USB external drive. Sometimes it's a simple file backup/restore and sometimes I need to create and restore an image. I recently had to rebuild a 2TB array where I performed a file backup/restore (VM's) and it took FOREVER (approx 6 hours) with a USB 3.0 WD My Passport Ultra 2TB drive. I was averaging 80 to 100MB/s.

Individual file sizes can exceed 400GB. I have very little experience with testing NVMe drives. I've read for large files it's better to go with NVMe drives that have DRAM.

I currently have two of these enclosures that I'd like to use but I would be willing to purchase a different enclosure if there's a major benefit in doing so.

I'm wanting a 4TB drive but I may be able to get by with a 2TB. Mostly USB-A but I would like to be able to connect to USB-C as well. I realize USB 3.0 is the bottleneck.

Questions:
It would seem the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVMe would be overkill in a USB enclosure (maybe I'm wrong) and heat may also be a problem. Should I be looking at NVMe in an enclosure or a ready-made USB SSD? What's the current "sweet spot" option for an external drive connected to USB 3.0 (sometimes 3.2) for reliable, fast, sustained writes without going true enterprise grade NVMe, which I can't afford?

 

[BFG-9000]

90MB/s isn't bad and comparable to a speedy cloud service, but SSD over USB 3.2 can be 5-6x as fast. NVMe, SATA and now even pen drive doesn't matter due to the USB bottleneck.

Thing is, flash isn't really for offline, long-term unpowered storage. While the data on a new consumer grade SSD written to once may well last 10 years (nobody knows as there's no standard for that), the only spec we have is JEDEC says that even after the entire rated TBW has been used, the drive should retain data for at least one year unpowered at elevated temperatures. That's the time before leakage is such that ECC and parity are no longer able to fully restore the data.

Enterprise grade SSDs are even worse and are only required to retain data for 13 weeks--they are really not designed to sit around unpowered.

So if you are willing to occasionally power it up in exchange for the better performance, consumer grade SSD in an enclosure is the way to go. May even encourage you to make more frequent backups.

 

[USAFRet]

Have you considered a real NAS, instead of USB flash drives?

Even from spinning HDDs, over a standard gigabit LAN, restoring a 600GB Macrium backup Image to a 1TB SSD only took about 90 mins.

 

[Bob.B]

BACKGROUND:
I sometimes need to backup and restore drives to/from a USB external drive. Sometimes it's a simple file backup/restore and sometimes I need to create and restore an image. I recently had to rebuild a 2TB array where I performed a file backup/restore (VM's) and it took FOREVER (approx 6 hours) with a USB 3.0 WD My Passport Ultra 2TB drive. I was averaging 80 to 100MB/s.

Individual file sizes can exceed 400GB. I have very little experience with testing NVMe drives. I've read for large files it's better to go with NVMe drives that have DRAM.

I currently have two of these enclosures that I'd like to use but I would be willing to purchase a different enclosure if there's a major benefit in doing so.

I'm wanting a 4TB drive but I may be able to get by with a 2TB. Mostly USB-A but I would like to be able to connect to USB-C as well. I realize USB 3.0 is the bottleneck.

Questions:
It would seem the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVMe would be overkill in a USB enclosure (maybe I'm wrong) and heat may also be a problem. Should I be looking at NVMe in an enclosure or a ready-made USB SSD? What's the current "sweet spot" option for an external drive connected to USB 3.0 (sometimes 3.2) for reliable, fast, sustained writes without going true enterprise grade NVMe, which I can't afford?

The to/from of the passport can only go as fast as the slowest part of the chain.

Does the passport benchmark ok?

 

[jeffshead]

...flash isn't really for offline, long-term unpowered storage...

Great info! I didn't know that about offline SSD storage.

Does the passport benchmark ok?

I ran Crystal DiscMark on it and it gave consistent 130 MB/s read and writes.

Have you considered a real NAS, instead of USB flash drives?

Thanks for the suggestion, but No. I need USB and portability. My use-case for this USB drive is for break/fix and not part of a backup strategy.

----------------

To be clear, the USB drive will not be used for long-term storage nor daily backups. It will only be used when I need to repair a computer:

1. Backup computer
2. Repair computer
3. Restore data or image from USB drive
4. Quick reformat of USB drive.

I realize USB is the bottleneck. I just don't know what I should purchase that will give me maximum speed (+/- 2TB of data, at a time) but not be overkill due to the limitations of USB. I also need to concider longevity of the device.

I've been considering the following:

• 990 Pro 4TB with my Ugreen CM559 (904408) enclosure
  • I'm assuming heat would be an issue
• WD SN850X with my Ugreen CM559 (904408) enclosure
  • Double-sided, not sure if it will fit in the enclosure
• Lexar 4TB NM790 with my Ugreen CM559 (904408) enclosure
• Samsung T7
• Crucial X9 Pro w/USB-A adapter

Not sure which would be the best value and most reliable. Not crazy about having to use a USB-A adapter but if it's reliable 🤔

Would all of them perform about the same with USB 3.0 and USB 3.2? I'd also consider different NVMe drives and a different enclosure (if mine is garbage), IF NVMe is the way to go.

 

[Bob.B]

I ran Crystal DiscMark on it and it gave consistent 130 MB/s read and writes.

Are sure the passport is connected to an usb 3 port?

 

[jeffshead]

> Are sure the passport is connected to an usb 3 port?

Yes. Connected to a Dell Optiplex 7070 Micro on the front USB-A port.

This is the drive: WD Easystore 2TB

 

[Bob.B]

> Are sure the passport is connected to an usb 3 port?

Yes. Connected to a Dell Optiplex 7070 Micro on the front USB-A port.

This is the drive: WD Easystore 2TB

Connect to a rear usb 3 port test with cdm.

 

[jeffshead]

> Connect to a rear usb 3 port test with cdm.

I believe the WD drive is mechanical so I don't think it should be any faster, should it?

Below are tests done on the Optiplex 7070, using the front ports, with the UGREEN enclosure with a SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-000L7 256.0 GB NVMe:

USB-C cable:

USB-A cable:

 

[Bob.B]

I believe the WD drive is mechanical so I don't think it should be any faster, should it?

Looks like it is a spinner.
Run a pass of crystaldiskinfo see what it shows.

 

[jeffshead]

> Run a pass of crystaldiskinfo see what it shows.

I'm leaning towards getting the WD SN850X 4TB since it's $30 less than the 990 Pro. Not sure what that extra $30 would get me if I went with the Samsung. It seems prices are trending up. Should I hold off or purchase now? I held off on getting a HC570 for many months thinking the price would come down but it went up!

 

[Bob.B]

> Run a pass of crystaldiskinfo see what it shows.

I'm leaning towards getting the WD SN850X 4TB since it's $30 less than the 990 Pro. Not sure what that extra $30 would get me if I went with the Samsung. It seems prices are trending up. Should I hold off or purchase now? I held off on getting a HC570 for many months thinking the price would come down but it went up!

That shows it's a spinner which is not great for rapid input/output.

Any ssd will be much better but you will be limited by the usb speed to 1000MB/s.

No idea which direction prices are going.

 

[NedSmelly]

Passport is a 2.5” low power glass SMR spinner. 130MB/s is actually really good performance for this type of drive.

The USB-C 3.2 gen 2 is the bottleneck in your Ugreen enclosure (10 Gbps). So there is no benefit to going with a pricier PCIe 4 NVMe. A PCIe 3 SSD will also run cooler.

Something like a Crucial P3 is all you need for your stated application.

Edit. @jeffshead I just looked closer at your benchmarks. 860MB/s for the USB-C port sounds consistent with USB-C 3.2 gen 2 bandwidth + controller overhead (10Gbps). Same goes for 450MB/s for USB-A (5Gbps). I have in my desktop a Crucial P2 which is an older PCIe 3 QLC dramless NVMe unit, and its available bandwidth would easily saturate the controller on your Ugreen enclosure.

If you want more speed than 10Gbps you'll need Thunderbolt, USB4, or USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. Does your Optiplex 7070 offer those interfaces? Dell says no. With those it's diminishing returns in terms of bytes per dollar as well, if you're looking for USB4 enclosures etc.