Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 07:34:33 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: dan@langille.org Cc: 1mazda1@phoenixdsl.com (1mazda1), chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: CD writers - recommendations Message-ID: <200009270734.AAA20534@usr05.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <200009270707.TAA30714@ducky.nz.freebsd.org> from "Dan Langille" at Sep 27, 2000 07:07:30 PM
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> I've also been told that IDE cd writers under FreeBSD are a problem. > What problem, I don't know. Anyone have any clues? I have experienced failures of IDE CDROM writers when a system is under load, since IDE does not support bus detach, and you have to feed the thing to keep it going. Without the ability to detach a disk operation and concurrently start the next write operation, you can fail. In a floppy driver or even a normal disk driver, you would simply reissue the failed operation; on a CDROM writer, by its nature, this can fail. I have learned the hard way on several disks (I thought the first was a fluke) to not load a system in any way, if it is doing an IDE CDROM burn. On the flip side of this, they are cheaper, and if you are willing to dedicate a machine for it, and copy over the CDROM images before burning them, instead of using NFS to access them, IDE can work with about a 1 in 14 loss rate (compared to a 1 in 72 loss rate for the Plextor SCSI I've used). NB: The numbers on the Plextor are skewed down, since I have not burnt 144 disks on the thing with a loss of 2, so I don't know anything other than the statistical failure; on the other hand, the 1 in 14 number for the IDE I used (don't know the brand, sorry: it was supposed top of the line) is a valid statistic over about 50 disks. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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