Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2022 09:33:26 +0200 From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf-mardorf@riseup.net> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: disk non-destructive bad-block write/fix? Message-ID: <4e864eaefcb7dbed7bdf59d40920a0ab9b964bf5.camel@riseup.net> In-Reply-To: <1f639118-4bb2-acfd-ab8e-e3aab9a79c9e@holgerdanske.com> References: <d687eb29-a3fb-7d91-a2c6-c1e4e1dc7e31@dreamchaser.org> <1f639118-4bb2-acfd-ab8e-e3aab9a79c9e@holgerdanske.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, 2022-09-20 at 12:00 -0700, David Christensen wrote: > For off-line back up disks, I find mobile racks to be more reliable than= =20 > USB/ Firewire/ eSATA: Hi, I tested a lot of casings and started using casings that have both, USB3 <=3D 5 Gbit/s and eSATA <=3D 3Gbit/s plugs and that are powered by their ow= n power supply. I don't know if everything is powered by the casings' power supply, parts might still be bus powered. The firmware of the casings has got no enforced power saving feature, hence the drives are always spinning, the heads never park, the drives are always ready for action. USB was reliable when using those casings for years and it still is almost reliable. However, "was reliable" + "still is almost reliable" =3D unreliable. In my experiences eSATA <=3D 3Gbit/s is reliable, but way too slow. I never used a mobile rack, but this is something I consider to use in the future, too. Unfortunately I'm using the external drives by rotation not only to backup data from a tower/desktop PC that can hold a rack mount. I'm also using drives with iPadOS, that can only access an external drive via USB. It's not possible to completely abandon USB drives. Once data is saved by USB and verified it's safe. If restoring data from an USB drive fails, it's still possible to remove the HDD from the casing and to connected it by SATA. The casings I'm using provide eSATA, hence I even don't need to open the casing. Fazit: USB drives are a PITA. Most even don't fit the category "was reliable" + "still is almost reliable", they are often completely useless, only working for Windows users, that every now and then move a few GiB and for users that never verify their archives. Many users notice that their archives are corrupted, when they try to restore data from an archive, because they never listed the contend after creating an archive with exit status 0. The exit status 0 from creating an archive with tar doesn't grant that an archive isn't corrupted, it only says that no error was noticed, not that no error happened. Regards, Ralf
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4e864eaefcb7dbed7bdf59d40920a0ab9b964bf5.camel>