[Coco] Possible CoCo Bulletin Board forum

[Steven Hirsch]

On Thu, 25 Dec 2008, Gene Heskett wrote:

>>> Anyway, the virtual tapes, on a 500GB hard drive, are many times more
>>> dependable, I've not lost a byte since.  And I don't worry about backups,
>>> I have a user named amanda who runs herself evey morning at a little after
>>> 1 and does all that without any interference from me.
>>
>> I would be very concerned about putting all my eggs in one basket like
>> that.  My working theory on hard drives is that there are two types:
>>
>> Those that have failed already and those that are about to.
>
> I tend to agree, but it has also been my experience that if one peruses the
> logs, you will see an error or 30 before they drop over.  I use that for a
> hint to get my butt to town and get another drive and copy it to the new
> drive, before the failure is total.  I have done that twice since 2001 when I
> switched.

This is drifting a bit off-topic (perhaps an understatement), so one last 
remark.  Google published a comprehensive study of drive reliability based 
on their own in-house experience with the subject.  ISTR that they found 
little correlation between advance warnings from SMART and impending 
failure.  I guess it comes down to one's comfort factor in the long run, 
though.


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