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Re: External SSD's

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In article <W9ednRFUF8861fHPnZ2dnUVZ_uadnZ2d@giganews.com>, Alan Browne
<alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> wrote:

> On 2013.10.26, 13:40 , Jolly Roger wrote:
> > On 2013-10-26, Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >> Wow.
> >>
> >> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/HELIOS1AE960/
> >
> > I'd get one of these instead, personally:
> >
> > <http://www.drobo.com/products/professionals/drobo-mini/>
> 
> I'm sure you would.  I've been re-thinking the Drobo however - it is now 
> a single point of failure issue for me.  Unlike David E. I don't know 
> anyone operating one who I could go to if the Drobo fails to recover my 
> data.  For all their lovely simplicity they are not ideal.  Disks fail - 
> and I've had 3 go within 1 year - no problem.

I've still got the original 15-year-old 4GB hard drive in my PowerMac
going perfectly well and never had any problems, other than running out
of space (I added a bigger 120GB hard drive to solve that).

But then I have also replaced failed hard drives in a few old CRT iMacs
over the years - in the case of one, I replaced the drive twice before
the owner upgraded to a new computer.

There are many reason which could cause a failure: an issue of the
technology being pushed too far with higher capcity drives, temperature
control issues in tightly packed computers, manufacturing fault, etc.




> I'm sure the Drobo with SSD must be nice.  But.

SSDs have a "limited" lifespan, similar to batteries and LCD / LED
displays, with a fairly "low" number of write cycles. That number is
unlikely to be a problem for normal users and those who upgrade their
computers / drives every few years, but for "pro" users or lots of data
transfers (such as continuous backup), they are not really a good
solution.




> Short term storage (months/years) I can go to hard disks in cheap docks 
> and have redundant copies (I do this anyway now with 2 x 2 TB drives 
> each with the same content.  USB 2.0.  A USB 3.0 v. of the same setup 
> would be more than fast enough for my needs.
> 
> There are new BluRay disks (BDXL) that can hold up to 128 GB of data 
> (with the appropriate burner which costs about $100 or so).  So 
> permanent-ish archives I'll move there and shorter work I'll probably 
> move to a USB 3.0 dock with 2 or 4 slots and I'll simply make redundant 
> copies (2 here, 1 offsite).

Writable and rewritable  CD / DVD discs aren't particularly reliable
for long-term storage. Some brands don't even last a couple of years
before the dyes used become useless. Even properly pressed CD / DVD
discs aren't the panacea of long-term storage they are sometimes
claimed to be.




> (There are even "stone" bases DVD's that have an estimated 1000 year 
> retention - in all conditions.  About 950 more than I need.  "Only" 4.7 
> GB however).

"Estimated" being the operative word. Other storage media (including
paper for printouts) has had claimed estimates which have already
proven to be complete nonsense, even in ideal conditions.

There's an advert running on TV here in New Zealand for some appliance
manufacturer where they try to claim they have great product testing
standards and that they open and close the door "the equivalent of" X
years use ... the problem is those tests are not realistic (nobody
opens and closes the door continuously for a start) and in real use the
door could simply fail for any number of reasons which the so-called
testing can't prove.

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Thread

External SSD's Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2013-10-26 12:45 -0400
  Re: External SSD's Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2013-10-26 17:40 +0000
    Re: External SSD's Wes Groleau <Groleau+news@FreeShell.org> - 2013-10-26 14:34 -0400
      Re: External SSD's Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> - 2013-10-26 11:53 -0700
    Re: External SSD's Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2013-10-26 19:33 +0000
    Re: External SSD's Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2013-10-26 18:56 -0400
      Re: External SSD's Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2013-10-27 12:41 +1300
        Re: External SSD's Alan Browne <alan.browne@FreelunchVideotron.ca> - 2013-10-26 20:32 -0400
          Re: External SSD's Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2013-10-27 13:48 +1300

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