From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 18 10:25:14 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B686C16A4CE for ; Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:25:14 +0000 (GMT) Received: from peedub.jennejohn.org (J892f.j.pppool.de [85.74.137.47]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EA2D743D5E for ; Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:25:13 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from garyj@jennejohn.org) Received: from jennejohn.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by peedub.jennejohn.org (8.13.1/8.11.6) with ESMTP id iBIAPBOU003187 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:25:12 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from garyj@jennejohn.org) Message-Id: <200412181025.iBIAPBOU003187@peedub.jennejohn.org> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.0 06/18/2004 with nmh-1.0.4 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 18 Dec 2004 20:17:39 +1100." <20041218091739.GC97121@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:25:11 +0100 From: Gary Jennejohn Subject: Re: Multiple hard disk failures - coincidence ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Gary Jennejohn List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:25:14 -0000 Peter Jeremy writes: > On Sat, 2004-Dec-18 02:03:09 -0500, Gary Corcoran wrote: > >I've just had *THREE* Maxtor 250GB hard disk failures on my > >FreeBSD 4.10 server within a matter of days. One I could > >attribute to actual failure. Two made me suspicious. Three > >has me wondering if this is some software problem... (or > >a conspiracy (just kidding) ;-) ) > > Seems unlikely that faulty server software could cause a disk failure. > One possibility is that your power supply is a but stressed and the > supply rails are out of tolerance. The other possibility is that the > drives are overheating. Higher density drives will be more sensitive > to both heat and dirty power. > I'd argue for overheating. A guy I know recently had mysterious crashes on a brand-new box with a large drive, in fact, I think it was a 250Gb MAXTOR. The machine would run for a few minutes and then just spontaneously reboot. I told him it sounded like an overheating drive. After swapping out practically every bit of hardware he finally got smart and put the HD into a tray with a cooling fan. After that, all problems disappeared. And he only had *two* of these monsters in his machine! --- Gary Jennejohn / garyj[at]jennejohn.org gj[at]freebsd.org garyj[at]denx.de