[WriteLog] Writelog file concerns

[Jerry Flanders]

The last motherboards I purchased (in Sept 2002) had RAID capability 
built-in. I haven't implemented it (my luck with HDs has been pretty good 
over the years), but it is there in some modern motherboards for those who 
feel it is helpful. Price for this MB was similar to the others the dealer 
had in stock, so the RAID feature had no real extra cost (other than the 
price of the additional HD required to make it all work).

RAID has several features, among which is redundant data storage on the 
second HD- a single failing HD will not necessarily shut you down. Details 
at: 
http://www.msi.com.tw/html/e_service/techexpress/tech_column/raid/raid_1.htm

Jerry W4UK

At 10:52 1/28/03 +0000, Julian Cleak wrote:
>Hi Bill
>
>In my limited experience of Computers the two most unreliable components in
>the base unit are the PSU and the HDD, different makes have different common
>faults.
>Fuji for example have a nasty habit of not being recognised by the system
>bios where as Seagate go into clunking mode, Maxtor drives seen to just spin
>up and stay running with no access to them. These are just some of the
>problems we get here in the uk. We have tried lots of different manufactures
>from lots of different suppliers but seems to make no difference. 1 yr seems
>to be the critical time of operation hear. I did a report to our buyers
>when tenders were due for renewal and our records showed that 78% of HDD
>failures happened within 2 months of being 1 yr old.
>I think that the only answer to the HDD problem is to make regular backups
>and, or fit a second HDD and keep duplicate files. I always tell our clients
>that we can replace the programme files but the data files can cost up to
>£1000 to retrieve, a CD-RW is about £30.
>
>              Best of Luck
>
>                      Julian
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Bill Turner" <w7ti at dslextreme.com>
>To: <kk9a at arrl.net>
>Cc: "'WriteLog'" <writelog at contesting.com>
>Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 6:18 PM
>Subject: Re: [WriteLog] Writelog file concerns
>
>
> > On Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:07:25 -0000, <kk9a at arrl.net> wrote:
> >
> > >What happens if my hard drive fails?
> >
> > _________________________________________________________
> >
> > This isn't quite the answer to your question, but I believe the best
> > solution is not to have a hard drive failure in the first place.
> >
> > HD's are so inexpensive anymore, I think the best medicine is to replace
> > them every couple of years or so before they get to the point of
> > failure.  Modern HD's are amazingly reliable - when they are new.  I
> > have had a couple of HD crashes in my ten years of computing, and they
> > were both on drives that had several years of use on them.  HD's seem to
> > be good for around 3-5 years of ordinary use, so change them every two
> > years or so and you should be ok.
> >
> > Incidentally, there are removable HD fixtures now that allow you to swap
> > a HD in about ten seconds.  I just bought several of them on eBay for
> > $6.99 each.  Put all your contesting software on a new HD and only use
> > it for contests.  Something to think about.
> >
> > 73, Bill W7TI
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > WriteLog at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/writelog
> >
>
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