Re: Blockbusting news, results are in

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>]

On Sun, Oct 19, 2003 at 05:09:36PM +0900, Norman Diamond wrote:

> How to force reallocations even when data are lost, so that the block number
> can still be accessed even though the data will be random or zeroes until it
> gets written again.  How to force reallocations even when data are lost, to
> prevent a different problem (i.e. if the block is not reallocated and then a
> subsequent write appears to succeed, I don't really think that spot on the
> platter has really reliably recovered even if you think so, I think the new
> data might still get lost again in a few milliseconds or minutes).
> 
> > If every other part of your computer is warrantied for 1 year, why should
> > disk drives alone in the cheapest OEM systems carry 3 year warranties?
> 
> Why does RAM carry 6 year warranties?  (Maybe some don't but this is
> common.)

The distribution of RAM failure over time is different.  Most failure of RAM
tend to be in the first few days or even hours.  After that the rate drops
to a very low value for the next few years.  In other words a long warranty
time won't cause alot of cost for the manufacturer nor benefit customers
much.  But it looks good in advertisment ...

  Ralf