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Hard disk and reliability

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questiondatabasecomhardwaretesting
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  • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

    Empirically, and without any real research, I think it does make sense. Think about it, most things fail when you turn them on. When was the last time a light bulb blew while you were reading? As opposed to the last time you turned it on and it went "Plink" and flashed before dying?

    Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

    K Offline
    K Offline
    KaRl
    wrote on last edited by
    #5

    Yes, I've got the same feeling, mechanical stress seems higher with power cycling, however since I learned that colder hard disks are less reliable than hotter ones, I'm a little bit less confident in my intuition :)

    When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

    Fold with us! ¤ flickr

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    • K KaRl

      Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

      When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

      Fold with us! ¤ flickr

      L Offline
      L Offline
      leppie
      wrote on last edited by
      #6

      KaЯl wrote:

      What is your experience on this in the real life

      My PC at home runs 24/7. Since circa 1993, I have only had 2 drives die on me.

      IronScheme
      ((λ (x) `(,x ',x)) '(λ (x) `(,x ',x)))

      W 1 Reply Last reply
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      • L leppie

        KaЯl wrote:

        What is your experience on this in the real life

        My PC at home runs 24/7. Since circa 1993, I have only had 2 drives die on me.

        IronScheme
        ((λ (x) `(,x ',x)) '(λ (x) `(,x ',x)))

        W Offline
        W Offline
        Wayne Gaylard
        wrote on last edited by
        #7

        You've been running the same PC since 1993 ? Don't you think it's time for an upgrade ? :-D

        When I was a coder, we worked on algorithms. Today, we memorize APIs for countless libraries — those libraries have the algorithms - Eric Allman

        OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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        • W Wayne Gaylard

          You've been running the same PC since 1993 ? Don't you think it's time for an upgrade ? :-D

          When I was a coder, we worked on algorithms. Today, we memorize APIs for countless libraries — those libraries have the algorithms - Eric Allman

          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriff
          wrote on last edited by
          #8

          No - he has developed a technique of hot-swapping processors!

          Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
          "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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          • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

            No - he has developed a technique of hot-swapping processors!

            Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

            W Offline
            W Offline
            Wayne Gaylard
            wrote on last edited by
            #9

            Now there's an article worth reading :laugh:

            When I was a coder, we worked on algorithms. Today, we memorize APIs for countless libraries — those libraries have the algorithms - Eric Allman

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            • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

              No - he has developed a technique of hot-swapping processors!

              Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

              N Offline
              N Offline
              Nagy Vilmos
              wrote on last edited by
              #10

              So he has learnt the secret art of the del Icatessen.


              Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

              OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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              • K KaRl

                Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

                When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                H Offline
                H Offline
                hairy_hats
                wrote on last edited by
                #11

                I've just replaced my boot drive with an SSD and my data drive with a hybrid, and the machine goes like the proverbial off a shovel. :-D

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                • N Nagy Vilmos

                  So he has learnt the secret art of the del Icatessen.


                  Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                  OriginalGriffO Offline
                  OriginalGriffO Offline
                  OriginalGriff
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #12

                  Have you been reading Truckers, Diggers and Wings again?

                  Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                  "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                  "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

                  N 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • K KaRl

                    Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

                    When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                    Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                    J Offline
                    J Offline
                    Jorgen Andersson
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #13

                    Personal experience as a former system administrator confirms this. But I would even say that it's not the power cycling that it the problem, but lack of usage. In Sweden many companies basically shut down during July as most employees have their vacation then. But the servers remain on. Despite this I've noticed that we we had most server HDD failures during the first week after vacation ends, and all other failures after Christmas. For your second question: yes. Moving the computer while HDD is reading or writing is a mistake.

                    Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions

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                    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                      Have you been reading Truckers, Diggers and Wings again?

                      Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                      N Offline
                      N Offline
                      Nagy Vilmos
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #14

                      I confess. I am currently reading The Bromeliad.


                      Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                      OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • N Nagy Vilmos

                        I confess. I am currently reading The Bromeliad.


                        Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                        OriginalGriffO Offline
                        OriginalGriffO Offline
                        OriginalGriff
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #15

                        "It wasn't a thing, it was a bit of shaped sky" Oh yes - I remember that feeling when I first saw Concorde during wing reliability testing on a school trip!

                        Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                        "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                        "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

                        N 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • K KaRl

                          Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

                          When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                          Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                          L Offline
                          L Offline
                          Lost User
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #16

                          That's not surprising. Very much like your car's engine, a hard drive operates at a certain temperature and the parts have worn in to work with the least possible amount of friction. Changes in temperature cause the material to deform and when the drive starts, it's cold and the parts do not have that perfect fit. The differences are very small, but until it has reached its operating temperature the parts will be worn out far more than during normal operation.

                          And from the clouds a mighty voice spoke:
                          "Smile and be happy, for it could come worse!"

                          And I smiled and was happy
                          And it came worse.

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                          • K KaRl

                            Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

                            When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                            Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Minion no 5
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #17

                            Temperature cycling is a large part of stress testing equipment, particularly electro mechanical. Part of this is differential thermal epxansion of different materials which creates stress between them.

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                            • K KaRl

                              Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

                              When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                              Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                              C Offline
                              C Offline
                              CPallini
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #18

                              In my experience hard disks are very reliable devices: the only one stopped working was a 2.5" external one that fell down from a shelf at about 1.5 m (another one survived such a shock) above the ground.

                              If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                              This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
                              [My articles]

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                              • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                "It wasn't a thing, it was a bit of shaped sky" Oh yes - I remember that feeling when I first saw Concorde during wing reliability testing on a school trip!

                                Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                                N Offline
                                N Offline
                                Nagy Vilmos
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #19

                                OriginalGriff wrote:

                                during wing reliability testing on a school trip!

                                You got to test Concorde's wing when you were at school? I got play-dough.


                                Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                                OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • N Nagy Vilmos

                                  OriginalGriff wrote:

                                  during wing reliability testing on a school trip!

                                  You got to test Concorde's wing when you were at school? I got play-dough.


                                  Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                                  OriginalGriffO Offline
                                  OriginalGriffO Offline
                                  OriginalGriff
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #20

                                  Well, if you had passed your 11-plus... :laugh:

                                  Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                                  "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                                  "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

                                  N 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • K KaRl

                                    Found on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimizing_Hard_Disk_Drive_Failure_and_Data_Loss/Stress_Control[^] "Based on professional experience of system administrators, it is believed that there is a direct relationship between the number of power cycles of a computer and the probability of failure of its drives. In other words, a computer with a high uptime may have a lower probability of drive failure than one that has its power cycled routinely." Question is, is this a cliché, or is this a verified assertion? What is your experience on this in the real life, outside the testing labs? And more generally, did you make any correlation between a human behavior and computer reliability? (punching the hardware excepted :) )

                                    When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                                    Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                                    P Offline
                                    P Offline
                                    peterchen
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #21

                                    Long time no see - hi KaЯl! :D How's life?

                                    FILETIME to time_t
                                    | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

                                    K 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • P peterchen

                                      Long time no see - hi KaЯl! :D How's life?

                                      FILETIME to time_t
                                      | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

                                      K Offline
                                      K Offline
                                      KaRl
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #22

                                      Hi Peter! It's good to see old faces here :) Still addict, aren't you? ;)

                                      When they kick at your front door How you gonna come? With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun?

                                      Fold with us! ¤ flickr

                                      P 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                        Well, if you had passed your 11-plus... :laugh:

                                        Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                                        N Offline
                                        N Offline
                                        Nagy Vilmos
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #23

                                        I'm too young for the 11-plus; I missed it by a year or so.


                                        Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                                        H 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • N Nagy Vilmos

                                          I'm too young for the 11-plus; I missed it by a year or so.


                                          Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

                                          H Offline
                                          H Offline
                                          hairy_hats
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #24

                                          Nagy Vilmos wrote:

                                          I'm too young for the 11-plus

                                          You get through a lot of gin for a ten-year-old.

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