Angus Auld wrote:
all this stuff about DeskStars makes me real glad I'm a Maxtor only man. All my machines have Maxtor drives in them and they all run 24/7. Especially my gateway/firewall. The only time any of the machines are powered down is for a lightning storm or when I got on vacation. my gateway/firewall machine and the fileserver/mailserver have been running 24/7 for the past two years. half the time I forget they're even there unless there's a problem with on the mailserver.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lyvim Xaphir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 08 Jan 2003 07:16:44 -0500
To: NewbieMandrake-List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [newbie] IBM Deskstars in Mandrake 9.0 server
Wow Lyvim, do I ever agree wholeheartedly! I have never been comfortable with the idea of leaving something on when it isn't in use. Not a light bulb, not anything really.On Tue, 2003-01-07 at 10:52, Tom Brinkman wrote:******************On Monday January 6 2003 08:00 pm, Andrew Miller wrote:I built a server recently for web server, email server, file serverThere's two schools on this, I side with those that believe spinning the drives down is a bad idea. Sort'a like a lightbulb, they last longer if you're not always turnin 'em off and on ;)
and other uses and am running Mandrake 9.0 on it. I used a pair
of 100 GB IBM Deskstars (120GXP's I believe). IBM is having
problems with these drives failing and now recommends only using
them 330 hours a month, something less than 50% of the time (see
http://www.sheller.com/ibmpress.htm). My question is whether my
use of these drives in a server application is something I should
avoid? Also, is there a setting for power savings that would sleep
the drive when it is not getting any hits (most of the time). Looks l could add a decent SCSI drive that is meant for always-on
use. Your feedback is welcome.
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Lyvim Xaphir wrote: I'm in the school that turns stuff off. I'm very uncomfortable with the
idea of comparing a hard drive with a short circuit. I'm more amiable
to thinking of a hard drive as having "miles", like a car; which is a
much closer anology. It's closer because of bearing surfaces; the
number of rotations that the bearings have is finite, just as the
number of rotations that your car crankshaft has is finite. You don't
want to leave your car running all the time just to keep it operational.
Most of the time a drive fails not from it's controller electronics, but
rather from sealed bearing failure. I know a fellow in the data
recovery business, and he is constantly getting old drives spinning long
enough to extract the data. He does not spend a comparatively long time
replacing drive electronics.
Yes the temperature differentials have an impact, but only in those
cases that don't have good enough ventilation. Also the impact of
temperature differentials is directly proportional to the scope or
variation bandwidth of those temperature differentials. In a light bulb
scenario you are talking about probably the most extreme variance
possible in an appliance, since it goes from room temperature to several
hundred degrees in a fraction of a second within power-on. In a direct
current solid state device, such as a hard drive, this is far from the
case, and even less so with adequate airflow.
I've been involved with hardware since the late 80's, and I still have
hard drives operational from that time. They are not powered on 24/7.
Just my wooden nickel...
--LX
*******************************************************
I don't know a lot about electronics, but I have been interested in things mechanical all my life. A hard drive has major mechanical components, and those type of components wear with use. Auto engines suffer from a wear factor upon startup that is more severe than normal, mainly due to lack of lubrication until the oil pump is able to supply the required oil under pressure to the bearing surfaces. HD's don't have that type of startup considerations.
I shut my comp down when I'm not using it. It makes me feel better to do that, it just seems the environmentally "friendlier" thing to do.
Of course, that's just IMHO. I know there are those who make a valid case of "on 24/7" too. To each his/her own.
All the best!
--Angus
--
Mark
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