I think they should lable hard drives with their halflife.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 6/26/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Geoffrion, Ron P [IT]</b> <<a href="mailto:Ron.Geoffrion@sprint.com">Ron.Geoffrion@sprint.com
</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><span><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial" size="2">MTBF is a measure of certainty.</font></span></div>
<div> </div>
<p><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial" size="2">Thanks,</font></span> </p>
<p><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial" size="2">Ron Geoffrion</font></span>
<br><span lang="en-us"><font face="Arial" size="2">913.488.7664</font></span> </p>
<div> </div><br>
<div dir="ltr" align="left" lang="en-us">
<hr>
<font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:kclug-bounces@kclug.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kclug-bounces@kclug.org</a>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:kclug-bounces@kclug.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kclug-bounces@kclug.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Billy Crook<br><b>Sent:</b>
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 11:45 AM<br><b>To:</b> Jonathan Hutchins<br><b>Cc:</b>
<a href="mailto:kclug@kclug.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kclug@kclug.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: Stress Testing Hard
Drives<br></font><br></div><div><span class="e" id="q_11368efc23ef04f5_1">
<div></div>There's nothing quite as reassuring as uncertainty.<br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 6/26/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Jonathan
Hutchins</b> <<a href="mailto:hutchins@tarcanfel.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">hutchins@tarcanfel.org
</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">I
think the only thing that stress testing a drive would do would be to move
<br>it closer to it's failure point. Either that will be early, in
which case it<br>might possibly happen while testing, not quite as early, in
which case it<br>will happen just after installation instead of a week after
installation, or <br>it will be later in the drive's life - in which case it
will just happen a<br>bit sooner than it would have.<br><br>About the only use
I can see for this would bet to stress test a few examples<br>of a certain
model of a drive to failure, and see what the MTBF is. <br><br>There are also
environmental factors to consider. Testing the drive in an<br>open,
bench-configured computer really doesn't give you any information about<br>how
it will perform in a closed case sandwiched between two other hot drives.
<br>This is one reason that some manufacturer's well intentioned MTBF
estimates<br>are inaccurate.<br><br>Frankly, throwing it off a high building
seems just as informative.<br><br>If you can write a pattern to the drive and
it passes fsck, and you can repeat <br>this two or three times, that is going
to be about as good a test as you can<br>usefully perform. A drive
that will function that well is an unpredictable<br>distance from
failure.<br>_______________________________________________ <br>Kclug mailing
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http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug</a><br></blockquote></div><br></span></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br>