Nagered hard drive;'(..
in [Computer]
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From: Jon Green on 25 Jun 2010 11:45 On 25/06/2010 16:04, Huge wrote: > Nor indeed, my precious collection of techno-junk. I expect somone, somewhere > will want it. As I said, the PDP11 and other assorted computing relics > already went to Bletchley Park. Sadly, my beloved 11/70 went to the scrapper after it got damp in temporary storage and wouldn't come out to play ever after. Corroded boards and drives apart, there's just way too much wire-wrap to diagnose! Along with a fair load of other techno-junk, I've still got the first computer I owned, a Sharp MZ-80K. (Not the first one I programmed; that was a mainframe, and doubtless Kingston Poly (as was) scrapped it many moons ago.) It still worked when I last tested it. Jon -- SPAM BLOCK IN USE! To reply in email, replace 'deadspam' with 'green-lines'. Blog: http://bit.ly/45cLHw Pix: http://bit.ly/d8V2NJ Website: http://www.green-lines.com/
From: Jon Green on 25 Jun 2010 11:47 On 25/06/2010 15:10, Roland Perry wrote: > In message <88jn89FnfdU2(a)mid.individual.net>, at 12:54:33 on Fri, 25 Jun > 2010, Huge <Huge(a)nowhere.much.invalid> remarked: >> It's a head-per-track disk. But I suppose >> you could argue it's functionally the same as a drum. > > No-one is denying that. But it looks like a platter (with a lot of fixed > heads), not a drum. > > If you aren't careful, I'll start talking about delay-line memory ;-) Mercury, I should hope ... the One True DLM! Jon -- SPAM BLOCK IN USE! To reply in email, replace 'deadspam' with 'green-lines'. Blog: http://bit.ly/45cLHw Pix: http://bit.ly/d8V2NJ Website: http://www.green-lines.com/
From: Clive George on 25 Jun 2010 11:48 On 25/06/2010 16:02, Roland Perry wrote: > In message <G$7Z40CA7LJMFwQ6(a)none.invalid>, at 15:35:44 on Fri, 25 Jun > 2010, Mike Tomlinson <mike(a)jasper.org.uk> remarked: >>> A little later, and you're reduced to skip-diving to get the legacy >>> parts for it, whilst storage of similar size and performance is >>> sellign for tuppence ha'penny down the road at PC World. >> >> The answer to that is to lay in spare parts at the same time as the >> order for the RAID unit. Yes, it increases the initial cost, but at >> least you know you have the spares available in five years' time. > > The best RAID controllers build that in - they have one or two spare > drives configured in, that don't initially store any data, but can be > swapped in when needed. Hot spares. And they're supplied under a contract where replacements get delivered to you in a few hours. The maintenance contract pays for their stockpiling of old drives. And if the small stuff really does disappear, it copes with putting a larger drive in instead. (wastes the space, but works).
From: Jon Green on 25 Jun 2010 11:55 On 25/06/2010 14:56, Mike Tomlinson wrote: > In article<BbednRHroYQSK7zRnZ2dnUVZ7rWdnZ2d(a)brightview.co.uk>, Jon > Green<jonsg(a)deadspam.com> writes > >> A low level reformat can sometimes help, but IME it usually only delays >> the inevitable. > > There's no such thing with modern drives. All you can do is zero it > (write zeros to every sector). You can do a bit better than that. Manufacturers' tools that are doing the zero-fill (SeaTools, etc.) also verify and remap where necessary, using the pool of unallocated sectors. It's about as close to a "true" LLF as you're going to get, these days. Jon -- SPAM BLOCK IN USE! To reply in email, replace 'deadspam' with 'green-lines'. Blog: http://bit.ly/45cLHw Pix: http://bit.ly/d8V2NJ Website: http://www.green-lines.com/
From: Jon Green on 25 Jun 2010 12:03
On 25/06/2010 16:02, Roland Perry wrote: > In message <G$7Z40CA7LJMFwQ6(a)none.invalid>, at 15:35:44 on Fri, 25 Jun > 2010, Mike Tomlinson <mike(a)jasper.org.uk> remarked: >> The answer to that is to lay in spare parts at the same time as the >> order for the RAID unit. Yes, it increases the initial cost, but at >> least you know you have the spares available in five years' time. > > The best RAID controllers build that in - they have one or two spare > drives configured in, that don't initially store any data, but can be > swapped in when needed. I suspect that Mike meant more than just the drives. If you're dealing with mission-critical data, it's imperative to keep a hot spare RAID box too, in secure storage away from the building, so that you can bring up the data set ASAP after a RAID main board failure. There's absolutely no guarantee that the drive set will work together in a different model or make -- in fact, it's pretty-much certain they won't. Yes, I'm assuming that any sensible sysadmin's doing verified regular backups and off-site storing them, but bringing up a whole new RAID from scratch, using backups, with a new disk set takes ages. If you can just pull the drives, jam 'em into the hot spare and be up again in ten minutes (to include config transfer) instead, you'll be the star of the show. Jon -- SPAM BLOCK IN USE! To reply in email, replace 'deadspam' with 'green-lines'. Blog: http://bit.ly/45cLHw Pix: http://bit.ly/d8V2NJ Website: http://www.green-lines.com/ |