I use a simple 2.5" external usb drive connecter to my router as a shared drive on my home network. I also use it to run my router’s torrent download tool and get new content.
The external drive is not new and I worry that with the constant load it might fail one day. It’s also slow sometimes when watching content directly from it with kodi.
What would you suggest I replace it with? Would a 3.5" external usb drive be safer?
All drives will ultimately fail, could be 10years, could be 10mins. If you don’t want to lose your data, back it up. Have a storage drive and a backup drive. Don’t both connected them to the router. Use an alternative method to connect , like to a computer and have run a backup protocol on a regular basis. As for 2.5 over 3.5, the 3.5 are usually faster but it probably doesn’t matter reliability wise.