Thread: what drive capacity would suit you?

  1. #91
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    Absolutely, yes. But for the sake of the argument, just say the media would be replaceable (no hotplugging - more like RAM is replaceable).
    Well, then, I guess I can only say we agree to disagree. I don't think there is a large enough market for people who are THAT lazy.

    Even then,
    People can even sell enclosure + 2 drives bundles.
    What does an integrated RAID offer over that?

    I don't really see the value in this, though. If a media fails, you can still access your data and copy it to an entirely new drive. Given at least one year of guarantee (not sure how realistic it is to make a successfull warranty claim after 2 years) it's probably more efficient to get a completely new and probably a lot faster and larger drive. Especially since the advancements in ssd technology are rather fastpaced at the moment.
    Harddrive capacities double about every 1.5 year. Just because you can get a 2TB drive now doesn't mean your 1TB drive (or 500GB drive from 3 years ago) is worthless.

    I'm not sure I'm following the debate.
    RAID 1 implements just the needed functionality. If a drive fails, the other takes control and the array is disabled with nothing more than a notice to the user letting them know of the failure. Since RAID 1 can be implemented with zero-configuration, how come this is problematic to non savvy users?
    Nyda is saying that people are too lazy to even buy 2 identical drives and stick them into a zero-configuration enclosure. I respectfully disagree.
    Last edited by cyberfish; 08-23-2009 at 06:48 PM.

  2. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish View Post
    Harddrive capacities double about every 1.5 year. Just because you can get a 2TB drive now doesn't mean your 1TB drive (or 500GB drive from 3 years ago) is worthless.
    It sort of is since it's hard to put more than 2 harddrives in those pc casings. You'd already use those two slots with your raid2 setup.

    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish View Post
    Nyda is saying that people are too lazy to even buy 2 identical drives and stick them into a zero-configuration enclosure. I respectfully disagree.
    That's a rather harsh way of putting it. Setting up a raid is easy if you know how or where to learn how. A given for everyone in this board I suppose, not so much for much of the rest of the planet though.

    Anyway, we can agree to disagree, no problem.
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  3. #93
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nyda View Post
    It sort of is since it's hard to put more than 2 harddrives in those pc casings. You'd already use those two slots with your raid2 setup.
    Only noobs use cases, leet playaz use racks, racks and more racks. If you don't have at least 3 computers optimizing your load-balancing algorithms you are still wet behind the ears.

  4. #94
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    That's a rather harsh way of putting it. Setting up a raid is easy if you know how or where to learn how. A given for everyone in this board I suppose, not so much for much of the rest of the planet though.

    Anyway, we can agree to disagree, no problem.
    Well, in my opinion, even those from the "rest of the planet" can follow instructions like "buy 2 identical harddrives with your desired capacity and put them in the slots".

  5. #95
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    Sigh.. raid racks.. other factors.. not worth it imo.
    Warning: Have doubt in anything I post.

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  6. #96
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    I suppose one place where having RAID in a single hard drive might make sense is in a laptop where there's usually only room for a single drive. You'd still need to make sure to do external backups though, since the shared components could die and then you're screwed.
    "I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008

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  7. #97
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    They are having trouble fitting more than one platter in a laptop drive already. That's why 500GB is the biggest we can get now, and they are insanely expensive.

    Also, for laptops, the risk of having the whole computer stolen is a lot more real.

    I would just do backup to another machine/external drive while the laptop is at home.

  8. #98
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Hmm, looks like I was right vis. there is a market for super simple multiple redundancy, single unit (eg "all-in-one") style storage -- and this isn't even SSD.

    Data Robotics, Inc.

    If you notice the photo on the right, it's a single black box with up to 8 or 16 harddrives in it, and features something called "BeyondRAID" technology.
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  9. #99
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    Ermm... that's nice I suppose. But I'm not sure this is what we were talking about in here. This is an external, expensive device that simply encases a bunch of hard drives (better known as storage array, or enclosure) with a proprietary RAID management software. Like so many others. What's always nice about these devices are exactly the management software and RAID controller they ship with. Features tend to ease disk management and expand on RAID capabilities. But there's nothing revolutionary in here. And definitely this is well beyond the pockets and the brains of your average user.

    EDIT: note also the case simply gathers hard drives. There's no such thing as a concept of an integrated array. This is (was, because it exists for many years) just a natural step from handcrafted disk arrays.
    Last edited by Mario F.; 08-24-2009 at 05:31 PM.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  10. #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by MK27 View Post
    Hmm, looks like I was right vis. there is a market for super simple multiple redundancy, single unit (eg "all-in-one") style storage -- and this isn't even SSD.

    Data Robotics, Inc.

    If you notice the photo on the right, it's a single black box with up to 8 or 16 harddrives in it, and features something called "BeyondRAID" technology.
    Looks pretty cool. ~$450 for the 4-drive version & ~$1500 for the 8-drive version.
    Too much for me though.
    "I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008

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  11. #101
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F. View Post
    And definitely this is well beyond the pockets and the brains of your average user.
    I dunno. I just heard mention of it on the radio, it was the guy who comes on for a few few minutes during news hour and "talks tech" to the masses. It was actually about something else, just he referred to having this "drobo" unit that he uses at home to keep his stuff backed up. I got the impression there were moving parts or something, like a jukebox*, but probably I hallucinated that because of the robo-name.

    * you could label the buttons with different OS's
    Last edited by MK27; 08-24-2009 at 05:46 PM.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  12. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by MK27 View Post
    Hmm, looks like I was right vis. there is a market for super simple multiple redundancy, single unit (eg "all-in-one") style storage -- and this isn't even SSD.

    Data Robotics, Inc.

    If you notice the photo on the right, it's a single black box with up to 8 or 16 harddrives in it, and features something called "BeyondRAID" technology.
    I know what I want for Christmas! The only problem is, when you drop that off the table, kiss 8 or 16 drives goodbye . Note the picture of the woman with it resting on the very edge of the desk.

  13. #103
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    It looks very nice mind you. But let me tell you a bit about what I'd hope for the future of storage devices. And its got nothing to do with arrays. In fact disk arrays are precisely a clear witness of how crude our computers still are.

    So, some thoughts thrown at random:

    - Object-based storage
    . I'd like to see a trend evolving from this concept on a new type of storage as below.
    - SSD is already in my opinion an evolution from mechanical devices. But I'd like to see in my lifetime something really radical like molecular storage devices, or better yet, and here comes the crazyness,
    - An evolution from the traditional binary system into ternary or better computers, with protein-based hard drives to provide support for object-based storage. One protein - one object with thousands of today bytes capacity, one hard drive - a googolplex of objects.
    Last edited by Mario F.; 08-24-2009 at 08:58 PM. Reason: added the link to ternary computers
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  14. #104
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F. View Post
    - An evolution from the traditional binary system into ternary or better computers, with protein-based hard drives to provide support for object-based storage. One protein - one object with thousands of today bytes capacity, one hard drive - a googolplex of objects.
    Then you can give the term Computer Virus a whole new meaning. Just inject some penicillin into the hard drive...
    "I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008

    "the internet is a scary place to be thats why i dont use it much." - billet, 03/17/2010

  15. #105
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    See? You even get to keep old banners.

    In any case, it's not too far-fetched. Keep posted.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

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