The History of Disk Drives Re: reiserfs UncorrectableError (Crappy Maxtor)

["Stephen J. Smoogen" <smooge@gmail.com>]

I think hard drives go in cycles of good/pad drives... and the best
thing admins can do is stay informed enough to keep up with the latest
garbage.

There have been times were I have used Maxtors, WD, Seagate, IBM, and
a couple of know-names or brands I cant remember. From 20 years of
doing this.. I dont think I have had any brand have a track record of
good drives more than 2 years. After that they always seem to become
too popular and cant build enough disks to meet demand. The drives
then go into free-fall and people swear never to use them again and
the next big manufacturer comes out.

This is my normal pattern (after being burnt too long). 

Never rely on one disk drive for critical data. Use at least 3.. it
triples the failure rate but decreases the recovery time in a normal
failure case.

If you are doing this yourself, buy 4 spares for every production
drive and burn them all regularly to make sure you dont have a dud in
the spare cabinet.

Never use the latest set of drive technologies unless you REALLY have to.

Always calculate the maximum power consumption of your disk drives and
compare it with the maximum constant power your power supply can
accomplish.

If you have data that doesnt change and you have a machine in a dirty
room, use solid state as much as possible.

Find out the disk drive manufacturers that the big boys (EMC, Netapp,
etc) are using and AVOID them if possible. Netapp, EMC, IBM etc buy
disks in LARGE allotments, put them through a torture test and return
all the ones that dont survive (95 in 100 usually dont). The disk
manufacturer usually rebuilds them.. and rumour some resell them. In
any case, the best of the drives are being bought by the really big
guys, and smaller dealers only get whats left.

-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
Professional System Administrator