I spent hours diagnosing my network over inconsistent speeds. I was stumped, then I finally checked the syslog and found the machine was running out of RAM. Got a bit too liberal with dockers on a 8GB machine. Ordered a 32GB kit immediately while cursing under my breath lol.

4-3-1 for important data

2-2-0 for data that would be inconvenient to lose

“YOLO” for everything else

I second that 5 years seems a bit low. I have a backup NAS that has 10 4TB HDDs, half of them are 8 years old. I will be replacing these soon just for the peace of mind. They still seem to be working just fine. In fact, in the last 10 years, I’ve had two HDDs fail, they were a 4 TB Seagate NAS and a 3TB WD Red. The first was DOA and did not pass preclear tests, the second one died within the first three years.

P.S. I remember that I bought a couple of 2TB WD Greens for a ridiculously low price (I think it was $60?) before the floods hit the factories ages ago. They all worked flawlessly 24/7 for almost 10 years, I ended up retiring them for peace of mind. Definitely did not expect them to last so long, being the cheapest choice at the time.