Subj : Re: What to do with a gia To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Sat Feb 19 2022 18:27:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > > woudl have trusted the HDD any longer. Not doubting my repair ability, > > more the HDD failed and it shouldn't have. > KM> Repair is only for data recovery; no failed drive is EVER > KM> considered "working" after repair. > > My definition is probably looser: the repaired drive (rust or otherwise) > is now working but I eye it with suspicion. I'd use it for something > like Sneakernet or temporary storage/use, definitely nothing critical > like for a Backup. Yeah, unless you know it was a filesystem/partition problem, would not be at the head of my trusted list. But for that kind of use, sure. However, if the OS touches it, and it's bad, it will make trouble. Drive that's failing but nothing visible (no bad sectors) can cause system freezes. > KM> Yeah. Physical security makes sense for corporate, but for us, we > KM> don't want to be bothered, when the worst hazard is falling > KM> trees. > > Plus hackers are more likely to target businesses where tons of data > like passwords, SSNs, etc., could be collected in one big swoop. More > than likely a hacker isn't going to bother you or I to grab my bank > account number. (They won't the password on my computer -- well, maybe That's not really the criterion. A million small bank accounts totals the same money, and garners no untoward attention from Interpol. > the History -- darn!) I probably have a greater chance of a hacker > attempting to snag my WiFi. (Why has that car been sitting on the > street for the last hour?) Anyone trying to enjoy my wifi would be very disappointed in the speed... > > KM> Yeah, and can put to use a lot more than the two drives handled > KM> by the average commercial NAS with a consumer-practical price. In > Right. All I really need is backup storage for when something goes > wrong. Even the old (antique!) NAS I have offers all sorts of options > I've never used: Media Server, iTunes Server, Broadcatching (no idea > what that is), Flickr/YouTube uploader.... Could probably get by with > an external HDD! Yeah, the Asustor has its own little CPU and OS, and it can do enough stuff that you could almost use it as a desktop. Would I ever use those functions? I doubt it. > > KM> I do have a very old actual for-really NAS here somewhere, but > KM> haven't been able to get it to work. How old? IDE, > KM> not SATA. Cisco, probably cost a fortune new. Came in some box of > KM> free stuff. Interesting, but not useful. > > So when are you going to price SATA-to-IDE adapters?! LOL... I've used those. The one that actually works and doesn't burn a hole in your PC is awkwardly sized and a naked board so you have to be careful what it touches; the one that's got a case around the board and isn't so big and gawky runs at FRY. Either way, not a good solution. > Here I could break up the total storage device into portions: music BU > to one HDD, data to another; the cameras monitoring what's going on > putside could be to multiple small hard drives: they don't need to be to > the same drive. I look at (essentially) /NAS/Unit 1/Camera 1, which > could go just as easily to /NAS/HDD1 as /NAS/HDD8. Yeah, I like to sort things out that way when I can. > KM> It can, in fact that's how some of the cheap adapters work, but > KM> you still have the same total bandwidth, so it gets real slow. > > I don 't like to wait when I don't have to so not a good option for me. > Actually was thinking more the output of the motherboard's port is set > to go to the input of specific device only but suppose could just as > easily do output to several device and whichever device is the correct > one can then decode the data. (Yeah, really sloppy Black Box concept!) Each one needs its own channel, as I understand it. So the adapter has to know how to direct traffic. But you still only have X-bandwidth, until you get into the more expensive adapters that are designed to give each HD its full bandwidth. > Spotted cows! ...I sort of have the theory lower-classed Pentiums, > etc., were ones that failed to meet the upper-level standards: it works, > just not at the top level. Waste not, want not! That's exactly right. Because chip production is so variable, some work better than others, and whatever the batch tests at is how they'll be labeled. Lesser chips may "overclock" because some will actually be up to it. And there will be occasional freak chips that can "overclock" to something ridiculous, like over 5GHz. And it makes gamers very happy when they can buy a cheaper CPU and "overclock" it to something silly like that. But there is really no such thing as overclocking; there is only running a chip up to its maximum ability. Back in the olden days, for a while the P75 was the market sweet spot. Intel was already producing P90 CPUs, but they were widely viewed as too expensive. But P90 was what was coming out of the production line, and they cost the same to make regardless, so they rebadged a bunch of those P90s and sold them as P75s. In fact I've only seen one P75 that was really only 75MHz and would not "overclock" to 90MHz, because of this. > I think the only brand I had problems with is Patriot but they > immediately replaced essentially without question (I had done the > extended MemTest+ diagnostic to verify to myself where the problem was > already so any question was already answered). Good on them, then. > The usage also makes a difference (great! more variables!). Semi- > following best for the Raspberry Pi's microSD card -- top of my head not > recalling but essentially Brand A is good but only Model 1 as Model 2 is > sluggish. Brand 2 is next best but if use as is better than And there are a bunch of different SD card specs. Explaining Computers channel had a good go-over of the various types a while back. I printed out his conclusions chart and put it in my wallet. :) Only buy Sandisk now regardless, but still there are different types, and not all work well for everything. > Brand 1. ...Essentially depends on Reads, Writes. Also seems if a lot > of writes then better off with a larger capacity card even though means > a lot of unused space: each (segment) has only so many writes > available, so if writing a lot then if to a small capacity card one uses > the same (segment) over and over again, so exhausts/dies effectively Yeah, true of all flash devices, including SSDs. > KM> I've used Lexar flash drives, but larger than 128GB like to > KM> default to USB 1.0, and walking data over one bit at a time is > KM> faster. > > "Oddly" Lexar drives were in one of the RPi studies and while great for > other functions did abysmally poorly in the RPi. I odn't recall the > size but seems the comparisons were using 16 and 32 GB cards. Yeah, see, Lexars sometimes have weird ideas. They're made by Micron, which normally means good quality memory, but not so sure about the rest of the unit. > KM> In SSDs or NVMes, Sandisk/WD or Samsung. Only reason I have an > KM> NVMe that's a PNY is cuz "cheapest one I could lay hands on til > KM> we see if they work with this ...vintage... hardware and OS." > > Yup: if something may or may not work doesn't make sense to go with Yeah... could chuck it into one of the other boxen but... well, it was both cheap and works, what's not to like?? > expensive. And of course usage: for example on this computer I want to > access the information (data) fast so a 7200 RPM drive might make sense > but for storage a 5600 RPM drive is probably mopre than enough, so I can > save some money between those two options. (Think I have the numbers > right.) The main diff is the 7200RPM drives usually come with a 5 year warranty, and are designed for harder use. It does make a significant difference as a boot drive, not so much as a data drive, but if you're impatient, you WILL notice the difference. > KM> With the 3rd party driver, XP64 likes 'em fine. But Win7 threw up > KM> in new and creative ways, and Win10 corrupts them (permanently > KM> sets a dirty bit so they perpetually want "disk checking"). > > I'm more and more liking my decision to move away from Windows! Yeah, they're not really enticing me with the more-recent shenanigans. Win11 has some nice features, but for every nice feature there's an equal and negating WTF. Win10's guts seem to be very good, but the desktop leaves pretty much everything to be desired, and then there's these bad behaviors... I once suggested to a MSFT rep that it would be really nice to have modular desktops, so we could use whichever style of Windows we prefer while having the benefits of updated underpinnings. 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