> heh... thank goodness for _software_ raid, hm?
>
Yes, rather handy I thought.  :-)

> aren't Quantum drives put out by Maxtor? and isn't the Quantum
> line killed? if
> my memory is serving me right on this, what you are seeing is the
> difference
> between a middle of the road hard disk manufacturer whose
> speciality is not
> really high end drives (maxtor) versus a top flight disk manu who
> caters to
> the enterprise (IBM).
>
Actually, 1999 is before Maxtor bought Quantum (see
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-255087.html), and Quantum had (as far as I'd
ever heard) an excellent reputation.  That's why it was a Quantum drive in
the first place.  I have a 1.7 GB Quantum that's 7 years old and still
going.  I shuddered when Maxtor bought them.  Besides, middle-end, high-end,
whatever, I expect a hard drive with a 5 year warranty to last at least
something _close_ to the length of its warranty period.  1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, and I've used up 3 drives.  I'm getting a little over a year per
drive.  Is the fact that they're SCSI got anything to do with that?
Probably not.  It's just an interface, after all.  But a previous poster
asked to be humoured with evidence that IDE is as good as SCSI, and that's
been my experience with them, that's my evidence.  :-)

> which is, of course, why everyone who sets up serious data
> systems uses SCSI
> if they are going with a commodity solution? right. maybe you
> should start
> calling data centre around the world and letting them know. ;-)
>
If you ask me all this RAID stuff is there because the people setting it up
are covering their asses because they know the SCSI drive is gonna die.  ;-)

> seriously though, SCSI is generally better than IDE. the gap has narrowed
> CONSIDERABLY over the years, however. primarilly because of the
> HUGE market
> for IDE drives, ergo the increased R&D budgets. you can primarily thank a
> certain company in Redmond and another associated with the colour
> blue for
> that. had the same efforts been put into SCSI, not only would the
> prices be
> what they are for IDE, we'd probably have larger, faster and more
> reliable
> drives today. SCSI technology has not topped out, is more
> scalable and had a
> head start on IDE.
>
If having a head start was the only qualification for choosing a technology,
we'd be using Windows right now because they got a "head start" over Linux.
I don't choose a technology because it came out first, I choose it because
it works and I trust it.  :-)

Ian

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