[Tfug] And another one down

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Timothy,

On 9/8/2013 1:16 PM, Timothy D. Lenz wrote:
> I've heard others say the 500Gb drive was a bad drive.

Then take that into consideration when shopping for a replacement!  :>
Vote with your wallet!  (I'd also send them a complaint letter; you
might get something for your "trouble"/effort...)

> And todays message:
>
> This email was generated by the smartd daemon running on:
>
>     host name: x64VDR
>    DNS domain: tdl
>    NIS domain: (none)
>
> The following warning/error was logged by the smartd daemon:
>
> Device: /dev/sdc, 49 Offline uncorrectable sectors
>
> 49 sectors down. And with the last drive failure, the power supply was
> also replaced.

Note that lots of things affect the wear-and-tear on a drive in
a system.  Temperature, power flucutations, access patterns, etc.

E.g., I "discovered" that one of the reasons for laptop drives
failing in 24/7 use was the constant spinning up and down that
they were experiencing.  I.e., when used *as* a laptop, a drive's
activity mirrors the user's activities.  If the user "goes away"
for a long period of time (e.g., overnight!), the drive can
spin down and *stay* spun down.

OTOH, in continuous service, the usage patterns of "the system"
can conspire with the (naive) timers that determine when the
drive can/should spin down.  Periodic tasks can then aggravate
this by forcing a drive that "just" spun down to spin back up
again.  Like clockwork.  Every day.

[My latest "laptop drive" in that 24/7/365 situation has not
failed.  I suspect part of that is because I no longer let the
drive "spin down" -- it's not a laptop concerned with prolonging
battery life and the power saved (from the ACmains) isn't worth
the effort to replace a failed drive "often".]

Of course, only you can evaluate the environment in which your
drives are operating!  :>