Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (
More info?)
"Ian S" <iws51remove@cox.net> wrote in message
news:9sOPd.41116$EG1.30578@lakeread04...
> "Rod Speed" <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:378ck7F57tc5vU1@individual.net...
>>
>> "Ian S" <iws51remove@cox.net> wrote in message
>> news:QzBPd.40327$EG1.20043@lakeread04...
>> > "CeeBee" <ceebeechester@start.com.au> wrote in message
>> > news:Xns95FBE0D06C36Aceebeechesterstartco@213.75.12.136...
>> >> usenetMYSHOES@bizaveMYSHOES.com (Andrew) wrote in
>> >> comp.sys.laptops:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > Considering how often hard drives crash for no
>> >> > reason, it's incredibly stupid not to backup your hard drive.
>> >> > I've had at least three hard drives crash on me and have talked
>> >> > to numerous others who have experienced such. The odds are
>> >> > against you.
>> >>
>> >> To be honest, I doubt it. Hard drives are pretty reliable these
>> >> days, and certainly hundreds of procent more reliable than say ten
>> >> years ago. I find it amazing how few they crash theses days, but
>> >> it can be a matter of perspective.
>>
>> > Actually, I think we've passed through a peak in reliability of hard
> drives.
>> > Over the past few years, we've maintained the 3.5" physical form but
>> > increased the capacity by perhaps an order and a half magnitude. I don't
>> > think it's coincidence that the drive manufacturers no longer warrant
> their
>> > drives for three years as was standard a few years ago.
>>
>> Plenty still do and Seagate is warranting some of theirs for 5 years now.
> Of course you have to compare apples to apples.
We are with that particular question.
> WD used to warrant their Caviar drives for three years, now it's one.
Nope, the 8MB cache versions still have a 3 year warranty.
And its the equivalent Seagate Barracuda that has the 5 year warranty.
And Samsung never did drop their warranty period, its always
been 3 years and still is, with equivalent drives, of any cache size.
> You can buy an extended warranty for about $20
No need with the 8MB cache version which doesnt cost much
more than the 2MB cache version from most suppliers.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-118&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-107&depa=0
> which is a pretty significant fraction of the actual cost of
> the drive even accounting for the typical warranty markup.
Not with the 8MB cache version.
>>> Maybe I'm nervous because I just had a 160 GB drive
>>> replaced in under a year due to SMART errors.
>> Yep, the technical term for that is 'pathetically inadequate sample'
> Well, I never claimed it was an adequate sample.
I never said you did.
> But you might want to consider reliability results at storagereview.com.
Separate issue entirely. If you had mentioned that
in your previous post, I wouldnt have said that.
> A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the Caviar
> drives introduced in 2000 and 2001 had an average percentile
> score of about 55. Those Caviars introduced in 2002 and 2003
> have an average percentile score of 36. Percentile score X here
> means that the drive is more reliable than X% of all the drives in
> the survey. Consider the 1200JB and the more recent 2000JB
> families: percentile scores of 84 and 14 respectively. Now
> there are a lot of caveats in the interpretation of such data,
Yeah, its close to useless basically on that claim you made
about the length of the warranty. In spades when the JBs
have a 3 year warranty and only differ in the cache size.
> but I don't see much cause for optimism that reliability
> of hard drives like these continues to improve.
I'll take the record on that.
> I notice you didn't comment on the physical limitations that
> may be coming into play in electro-mechanical devices,
Because its a furphy. The reality is that we have also
seen drive designs enhanced to handle that, particularly
with modern auto mapping of new defects seen.
> the size of which has not increased while the
> capacity has sky-rocketed by a factor of perhaps
> twenty or more all within maybe five years or so.
And reliability has improved out of sight with the demise
of the very physically large dinosaur drives, and the move
from stepper motor head actuators to voicecoil systems.
We dont see much stiction anymore either, where the head
sticks to the platter so the drive wont spin up at boot time.
And drive prices are now so low that RAID is very viable too.
With a decently designed system you just yawn on drive failure.