External Hard-Disk as Internal Storage

by GravityDead

UPDATE: DON'T TRY SETTING A PARTITION OF EXTERNAL STORAGE AS INTERNAL STORAGE. Mi Box JUST MERGED BOTH THE PARTITIONS AND FORMATTED THE COMPLETE HARD DISK AS INTERNAL. I LOST A 1 TB FULL OF MOVIES AND TV SHOWS :(

Hey guys! I have a Mi box and till now I was using a 16 GB pen drive for expanding the internal storage of the box but now 16 GB is very low for me. I don't know why though. I have a gigabit broadband and the router can transmit data at around 60-70 mbps at 5Ghz range but it seems slow for terrarium and other similar services (netflix, youtube and prime video works flawlessly).

I was thinking of using my external hard disk as internal and external storage at the same time. yesterday I tried partitioning the drive (40 GB for internal) and fortunately Mi box recognized the two partitions successfully BUT I'm a bit curious whether or not it is a good move for me. I fear that running my hard drive 16 hours everyday (plus few power cuts) might damage the drive.

Kindly advise!

kenkiller

HDD in laptops and desktops run 24hrs a day at higher loads than yours and you're worried?

It's break down when it's life has run out. Worrying isn't going to make a difference.

JimboLodisC

No different than connecting the drive to a PC. Just leave it on all day.

Although a USB 3.0 flash drive will have faster access times and consume less power, so that's a better upgrade.

pawdog

MiBox can't actually do external as internal even though it let's you set it up. You won't even realize it until you notice your actual internal is still filling up. This won't be fixed until the Android 7 update is pushed.

fede01_8

I have all my media on a WD My Passport. Kodi stutters on some 1080p and 4k video files. But that's another story.

I, too worry about the portable HDD being on at all times since the Mi Box is never actually off. That's why I unplug it since the power button only sets it to sleep and still keeps the HDD on.

LiquidPoint

I guess I'm a little late, and it may not matter much...

Anyway, the average laptop/desktop harddisk isn't exactly built for operating 24/7, but it will still, on average, keep going for 3-5 years before failing. My main concern about doing so with an ATV device is that you can't schedule SMART checks or anything, as you would with a server/NAS, so you'll probably not get any warnings until it suddenly goes belly up.

It is possible to buy server or NAS harddisks that are designed and tested to last a long time while operating 24/7, they actually wear out quicker if they start and stop all the time, like in a laptop where the spin-down timeout is rather short to save power.

Anyway, if you're going to try your average external HDD as a 24/7 device, the first thing to keep an eye on is the temperature, some harddisks run quite hot over time, and if it's always too hot it'll wear out rather quickly, and most external cases don't have any active cooling.

epicincognito

I am about to buy the Mi Box, does this mean we can actually add external usb drives as internal storage and increase space?