On 24/05/2020 21:15, bob prohaska wrote:
> First of all, thanks to everybody who shared their thoughts and
> experiences!
>
> It looks to me as if most anything I get will work decently, at least.
>
> Drives packaged for USB connection are apt to be intended for backup
> use, which makes it more likely they'll use shingled magnetic recording.
> There doesn't appear to be an easy way to check for and exclude SMR
> drives.
>
> It's tempting to think that a freestanding SATA drive in a USB
> enclosure gives me a slightly better window on what sort of drive
> is being offered. Not perfect, but better. That's a big haystack
> to search, but worth at least some effort. I'd really prefer a
> drive intended to boot a workstation or laptop, not one intended
> for backup use.

It'll probably be fine, but there is a chance, probably more so if you
use very cheap or obscure USB-SATA adapters, that you will get bad
performance: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=245931

That would be why I'd pick a well-known pre-packaged solution. SMR is
bad and I wouldn't want it either but on the other hand I don't think
you'll notice a performance difference with a Pi on USB. And if it's for
a Pi4, I would definitely go SSD because you *will* notice a big
difference on USB3.

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