On Tuesday 24 January 2006 13:27, Matthias Andree wrote:
>Gene Heskett <gene.heskett AT verizon DOT net> writes:
>> Thats fine if they are removables, Geert, like in a usb or firewire
>> enclosure, but that also doubles the cost per gigabyte.  This one is
>> a bare commodity 200GB WD, PATA drive.  I thought of only mounting
>> it while amanda was running, but then there is the ever present fsck
>> every so many mounts and I don't want to babysit it.
>
>The ever present fsck every N mounts is an ext2/ext3 feature and you
> can set this and the check interval to "off" or at least so long you
> don't need to bother. Check the tune2fs manual pages. You might also
> use XFS instead, although I don't have experience how recoverable it
> is...

Ext3 seems to be 100% so far with one exception.  That knocking sound in 
the background?  Thats me, knocking on wood when I say that. :)

>The real point is if some voltage surge comes through your power
> supply unit, it might fry your computer with all of its hardware at
> the same time, and the separate drive that was in the cupboard might
> survive.

In that case, it will have to destroy a 1500J wall suppressor that ties 
everything together surgewise, followed by a 1500KVA Belkin ups before 
it can get to the drives.  My rooms wireing is all thru that wall 
suppressor, including the telephone and cable tv lines.  The idea was 
that if mother nature bounces me around just for exercise, and she has 
many times now, the whole room will bounce in unison, with little or no 
surge voltages actually present between the various units.

I've been setup this way for several years now.  I was losing a dialup 
modem a couple of times a year before I did this, along with a couple 
of scanners & one printer & 2 vcr's, and since, no damages.  None, 
nada, zip.

If in the unlikely event I get something in here blown, then I'd expect 
the damages to the surrounding area, like the rest of this house, will 
be of far greater importance.  One strike that I witnessed a year ago, 
hit the ground wire on top of the pole where my transformer is mounted, 
about 1 meter from the transformer.  I fully expected to have some 
damages, but a vcr in the other end of the house seemed to have been 
the only victim as it didn't have a tuner when we turned it on a couple 
of weeks later.  Walking in here 10 seconds later, I was greated by 
everything humming right along with a "who me?" expression to the tone 
of the hum.  Nothing even sneezed.

I highly recommend such a setup to anyone.  I figure that $60 suppressor 
has paid for itself half a dozen times by now.  And everybody needs a 
ups don't they?

The vcr was about toast anyway, an s-vhs model that needed some brogan 
maintainance everytime we went to use it before it would work.  So 
losing the tuner wasn't a huge loss.

>> might even consider unmounting it and issueing a powerdown.  But
>> since most electronic failures are powerup failures, I doubt that
>> would make it any more dependable in the long view.
>
>Not that, but it would be less exposed to problems that creep (or
> jump) into your cmoputer via wires.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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