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Re: [PLUG] RAID Backup Server
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I have been using the removeable drive for backup for awhile. I make a
copy of the entire operational drive to an identicaly partitioned
removable. When I started I used internal ATA removables (USB was not
supported) but then moved over to external USB. Today you could use USB
internal or external SATA or firewire. All of which are swapable without
rebooting. The internal ATA approach was not, so I had to turn the drive
on, reboot, backup, unmount and turn it off.
The issue of Start/Stop cycles is a little over played. It probably comes
from the past when heads were actually crashed into a landing zone. This
is not the case anymore and most drives have start/stop MTBF's well over
100,000 and many much more. Here is a reference from the web....
BTW .. I am curious, with the rolllout of SATA is SCSI on the way out? I
just put my last SCSI system to sleep here.
Doug
------------------------------------------------------------------------
START/STOP Cycles
This specification, like MTBF and service life, provides a useful clue
about the quality of the hard disk, but should not be sweated over. In the
great-and-never-ending debate over whether to leave hard disks running or
spin them down when idle, some look at the fact that start/stop cycles are
specified as evidence that stop/start cycles are "bad" and therefore that
drives should always be left running 24/7. As always, maintain
perspective: if you start your hard disk in the morning and stop it at
night every day for three years, that's only about 1,000 cycles. Even if
you do it ten times a day, every day, you're not going to get close to the
minimum specification for almost any quality drive, and for notebooks the
problem is less significant because the drives are generally designed to
withstand many more cycles.
IBM drives that use its head load/unload technology are often given a
specification for minimum load/unload cycles instead of start/stop cycles.
This is basically the same concept, except that the numbers are typically
much higher. Some IBM notebook drives are spec'ed for 300,000 load/unload
cycles! Even if you started and stopped the drive 100 times a day it would
take you over eight years to get to that number
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