I'll add one more point on backup since I do backup pretty much the way
Moose describes... which means three copies and one is stored away from
the other two where it's not subject to fire and very unlikely to theft.
But the fact that the third copy is stored away from the other two
(actually it's in rotation) means that one copy might be a month or more
behind the others. That's partially because I have to go a ways to
retrieve it but that's also by design. As Moose mentions the
probability of electrical or mechanical failure on a driv that hardly
ever runs is really pretty small. Much more likely is an infection by a
virus or (even more likely) me doing something totally stupid and
clobbering the drive all by myself with software or... who knows what.
It may also take a while before I realize that the drive has been
clobbered. That's why it might be good to have a backup drive that's a
month behind. It give you a month to figure out that your backup drive
has gone bad before you clobber the other one the same way.
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
> On 7/3/2010 10:20 AM, Jim Nichols wrote:
>> I need to add an additional hard drive to my Dell Dimension 4700. I am
>> seeking advice on the reliability of available SATA drives in the range of
>> 250 to 640GB. I have used WD and Seagate Barracuda drives in the past, but
>> find disturbing comments on the web on the reliability of their present
>> products.
>
> I fretted about this the last few times I bought drives, reading way too many
> user reviews about problems they had. I
> finally came to a conclusion that may be summarized as follows:
>
> 1. There are millions and millions of these drives sold and in use, possibly
> billions.
> 2. The number of people making on-line complaints is in the hundreds, in my
> experience.
> 3. Even if they are the tip of an iceberg of problems, they amount to a tiny,
> tiny % of units sold.
> 4. The chances of an individual encountering them are very small.
> 5. There is no way, other than prayer, or the operation of the Tao or Karma
> to affect one's personal likelihood of
> getting a bad one.
> 6. Ergo, buy the cheapest name brand drive that meets your needs.
>
>> I'm not out for blazing speed or a giant size drive. But, reliability is
>> uppermost in my mind. Cool operation and low noise would follow.
>
> Second conclusion:
>
> 1. Drives fail. The % is very low, but it happens and there is no way to plan
> or buy in such a way as to be sure one
> won't be yours. For a hobbyist, I've bought a fair number of drives, over 10,
> in the last few years. I got one bad one,
> which was bad essentially out of the box. The chances of that happening were
> low, but it did.
>
> 2. The only sensible solution is not trying to try buy the drive least likely
> to fail, but to use back-up drives. It's
> also cheap, as drives are amazingly inexpensive. It's also a good way to
> protect against loss through theft, fire or
> natural disaster.
>
> Third conclusion:
>
> 1. A back-up drive in the same computer only protects against drive failure.
> It is still vulnerable to viruses, theft,
> fire and natural disaster.
>
> 2. The only sensible way to do back-up drives is externally, so the back-ups
> may be stored away from the computer and
> the chance of their being on when the virus strikes is minimal.
>
> 3. The securest solution is to by drives in threes, one in computer, second
> and third kept in a different part of the
> house and a remote location in rotation.
>
> 4. Good enough, for me, is buying in pairs and keeping the second in another
> part of the house in a small, cheap,
> fire-resistant safe.
>
> Corollary: As the back-up drives are only on when actually making back-ups,
> the chance of failure through age/wear/use
> is infinitesimal.
>
> Fourth conclusion, from experience:
>
> 1. Whatever size you choose is going to be too small sooner than anticipated.
> 2. The price difference between largish and the largest common size is small.
> 3. Ergo, buy larger than you think you need.
>
> If one accepts this train of logic, the question of how to implement comes
> up. The easiest may be drives in individual
> external enclosures. For someone like me, who has multiple BU drives, a drive
> docking station is cheaper and still very
> easy.
>
> Perhaps it's really true that you don't care about speed. Many people who say
> that, and then wait for the drive, find
> they do care. My advice is to make sure any external devices you buy have
> eSATA capability. That way, a cheap connector
> from mother board to back panel can make them just as fast as the internal
> drives.
>
> A. Conclusive Moose
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