Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:34:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
To: Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>
cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Hi is this critical??
In-Reply-To: <20020917120937.B28438@flint.arm.linux.org.uk>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1020917142400.11859B-100000@gatekeeper.tmr.com>
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On Tue, 17 Sep 2002, Russell King wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 17, 2002 at 11:41:44AM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> > On Tue, 2002-09-17 at 09:20, Andre Hedrick wrote:
> > > MORONS that think the drive vendors are not clued into the issue.
> > > I have to read and vote on NASTY proposals, whose intent is to check for
> > > G-Force damage.  If you think that record is not findable, even if you
> > 
> > Sounds good news for honest users. What it does want though is the
> > ability of users to check that data when the disk arrives, because we
> > have delivery people, and they think that if looks like a box its
> > probably a football.
> 
> No.  Sounds _bad_ news for honest users.  Lets be realistic here.
> Parcel company uses package as a football, then delivers it.
> 
> How many parcel companies will wait while you unpack the hard drive,
> dismantle your machine, connect the drive, power it up and check to
> see if the drive has suffered too much shock?

First, there are cheap "tell-tale" indicators which can be attached to the
contents of the container where you can see them as soon as you open the
package. That the vendors ship without them tells you they have found that
it's cheaper to eat a few DOA units than spend even a few cents on proof.

Second, having attached such a device to an old hard drive and repacked
it, I dropped it from eye level (about two meters) on a hardwoord floor.
The 5G triggered, the 20G didn't. Many drives will take 20G power off, so
you really need to beat on the package to do harm. Tossing it into a truck
or dropping it a foot onto a conveyor belt is unlikely to cause damage.
Yes, anything is possible.

Finally, I have returned a number of drives, and at least WD has just
asked for the serial number so they could check the build date. I'm told
Seagate is also good on that, asking only about power surges, etc. Someone
else always seems to deal with that, so that's lack of complaint, not
experience.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

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