Re: Linux does not care for data integrity (was: Disk write cache)

Arjan van de Ven
2005-05-16T14:02:59Z

On Mon, 2005-05-16 at 13:29 +0200, Matthias Andree wrote:
> On Mon, 16 May 2005, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
>
> > I think you missed the part where disabling the writecache decreases the
> > mtbf of your disk by like a factor 100 or so. At which point your
> > dataloss opportunity INCREASES by doing this.
>
> Nah, if that were a factor of 100, then it should have been in the OEM
> manuals, no?

Why would they? Windows doesn't do it. They only need to advertise MTBF
in the default settings (and I guess in Windows).

They do talk about this if you ask them.

> So?

one sample doesn't prove the statistics are wrong.

>
> > Sure you can waive rethorics around, but the fact is that linux is
> > improving; there now is write barrier support for ext3 (and I assume
> > reiserfs) for at least IDE and iirc selected scsi too.
>
> See the problem: "I assume", "IIRC selected...". There is no
> list of corroborated facts which systems work and which don't. I have
> made several attempts in compiling one, posting public calls for data
> here, no response.

well what stops you from building that list yourself by doing the actual
work yourself?