[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives
Where I work we manage the combined output of 8 studios, the bulk of
which are busy 24/7. We keep nearly everything we record, and the
archives go back 10 years in some cases. The audio servers that do this
run RAID 5. We lose about 1 disk drive per server per 4 months. We
mirror servers as well, and have large scale tape backups nightly, kept
off site. It would be well to remember that the more devices you have
backing each other up, the more devices will fail (they all have MTBF's,
right?), and the simple acts of making them seek and read data to backup
somewhere else reduces their life span.
I have run across drives that have run for ten years straight
(particularly if left powered up), but shut them off and try to restart
them, weeeelll...
Experience has left me thoroughly disbelieving of manufacturer's MTBF on
anything with moving parts. It is quite a quandary... where is the right
compromise ?
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 6:53 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives
In a message dated 2/23/2005 11:47:38 AM Eastern Standard Time,
smolians@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Anyone have experience firing up a computer after a 15 year period of
Inactivity?
Steve Smolian
**********
Just as with tape, magnetic disc manufacturing has evolved considerably
in
the last fifteen years.
About five years ago a friend gave me a ten year old IBM PS2 computer
which
he had never used. I tried it and it would boot up but found many HD
read
errors. I reformatted the drive. About half the disc space was marked
unusable but
I was able to use the rest.
A couple of months I fired it up again. It would not boot from the HD. I
haven't tried another reformat yet, though I intend to since it is the
only
working machine I have which will read some IBM BASIC binary files that
I would like
to retrieve (after they are transferred from 5-1/2 floppies that it
won't
read).
However this is all "ancient" computer technology, in the same category
that
all we are using today will be 20 years from now.
Mike Csontos