CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I'm waiting for the cheap USB 3.0 controller and a USB 3.0 docking station with more than two bays.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

> I'm waiting for the cheap USB 3.0 controller and a USB 3.0 docking station with more than two bays. <

Could be a long wait, for that combination. The USB2's have been out for a long time, and there still are nothing more than single-bay docks.

km987654 · Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:00 pm Post subject:

How in heavens name do you back up your storage or don't you. If you don't how long will it take to put it all back >10TB of data if you have a complete failure???

Are you running raid? which raid level?? What controller??? or are they simple drives no raid.

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Gary wrote:
> Oh really? <

I thought you were gonna bust my chops over the 4 and 5-bay, RAID-type docks (hot-swap mini-towers, of which I have one). But nooo, you had to come up with the exact same type of dock, just with 2 bays AND USB3. I will now go off and hang my head in shame. Embarassed

But seriously, I not only haven't seen these, I hadn't even heard they were coming. Seems logical, I suppose, in retrospect. The best way these days though, to make a complete ass of yourself, is to claim that something is NOT coming.

I have something like 6 of these docks already (plus 2 more on the way), with some of them supporting eSATA as well as USB2, and several augmented with USB hubs and card-reader slots. I am a bit surprised I haven't come across the dual docks yet.

WanMan commented:
> I already have a two-bay USB2.0 docking station. <

Sorry, I missed that. I mean I really, really am sorry I missed that. Smile

And back to Greg...
> BTW...if you use Bing you also get 2% off the dock so they actually pay you to buy it! <

Yeah that was unexpected. I got the things for free, AND Bing gives me 80 cents each to boot. Odd.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

km987654 asked:
> How in heavens name do you back up your storage or don't you. If you don't how long will it take to put it all back >10TB of data if you have a complete failure??? <

There are things you back up (like documents you've created), and things you don't (like my 120TB Media Server). If a drive goes down completely, and with no warning, then you've lost everything on it. (But that's only 1 or 2 TB, not the 10 TB you mentioned.) I'm willing to bet that will never happen. I.e., that if a drive is tested periodically, there will be some clue that it is starting to go south, and the content can be migrated off first. A full 1 TB drive can be cloned in about 6 hours (attached via SATA, not USB).

Also, unlike 99.99% of the populace, I never put any drive online without performing a full surface write and read-back check first (takes ~11 hours on a 1 TB drive). People wind up complaining about how their drives failed on them after n-weeks or months, when in fact, they were defective the day they arrived. They just didn't find out about it until much later. The two 2 TB drives I just ordered will take ~23 hours each to pass incoming validation-testing.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

> Are you running raid? which raid level?? What controller??? or are they simple drives no raid. <

If I wanted to double, or triple the chances that something would go wrong, then I'd use RAID. And double or triple my costs. So no, no RAID. There are legitimate uses for it, but this isn't one of them. People think it's somehow a magic bullet, when it's not.

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10187 Location: kamloops BC

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

So...is it possible to format the 2TB drive from the USB dock?

The dock is recognized and it will recognize other disks but if I put in the new 2TB drive it isn't recognized.

It is either a driver thing or I need to hard install it to format and then put it back in the USB dock.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Greg,

I didn't use a dock, per se, but I have a USB to SAT/IDE interface, and the 2 TB drives worked just fine there (as always).

I use the Western Digital, Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on the bare drives for testing, then their Data Lifeguard Tools for formatting.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I haven't tested this yet myself. I could test it this weekend, though.

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Apr-0-2010/WeeklySale13/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL041310&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL041310-_-EMC-041310-Index-_-E0-_-PromoWord

WD Cavair Green 1.5tb drive for $89 with FS. I just bought this same drive for $99 three weeks ago. In case you can't see it, the promo code is EMCYRZP83. If you get one, then check out my other thread an hard drive break in.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

This may not be the best place to put this, but earlier this year (Feb) we were discussing SSDs here, so...

NewEgg is running a 48-hour sale on the G.Skill PhoenixPro, 80GB SSD drive, for only $130 (list $195). You'll need the Promo Code EMCYTZT168. That's only $1.62/GB, substantially less than nominal pricing.

A couple nice things about this one:

- free shipping
- low price with NO rebate required!
- latest SandForce controller, for 250 MB/s large block R and W's (if block-aligned)
- small (4k) random writes do 50,000 IOPS, for ~160 MB/s, with random reads ~60 MB/s (same as Intel X25-M)
- lower power consumption than many previous SSD generations

The above are actual performance stats, not rated. This drive is similar in performance to the OCZ Vertex 2 series (Also SandForce based). I recently (as in a week ago) paid $40 more (assuming I get my rebate money) for the OCZ Agility 2, with just 10G more capacity. The performance there is the same as the Vertex2, except on random Writes, where they artificially cap it at 10,000 IOPS, or ~52 MB/s. Unless it's running in a server, Anandtech concluded there would be no visible performance difference between the two.

I like the overall balanced performance levels of these new SF-based drives (i.e., they're not speed demons in some areas, while being piggish in others), as well as the lower power requirements. They also support TRIM, and maintain their speeds after many cycles of writes and erases. And the prices are much better than in the past.

Intel is supposed to be coming out with a next gen SSD of their own this fall, which may drive prices even lower, along with upping the performance levels.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

And now, <1 hr and 15 minutes after NewEgg posted it, they're "SOLD OUT". I guess I see why I never get any of the REALLY good deals there. The West Coast people must wait up until they put these up (today's was 12:15am PT), and pounce on them.

It came through here at 3:15am (my time), and I just happened to see it while they still had some. By the time I finished writing it up here, they were gone. Still, barely more than an hour seems pretty fast. No way to compete with that, even if I WASN'T normally asleep at those times.