Les Mikesell wrote: > Lanny Marcus wrote: > >> Questions: Is it your belief that all PATA/SATA/SCSI drives made by one >> manufacturer have the same MTBF? (I find that hard to believe. However, >> that might be the case.....) Also, is it your belief that these drives, >> made by different manufacturers, all have the same MTBF? > > I believe that there's not enough difference to matter. There is always > enough of a chance of a failure that you have to be prepared for it and > pretty much all of the vendors have made bad batches. But, these days > they are good enough that if you don't abuse them with flakey power or > high temperatures, 80% or more will last until you want to replace the > equipment for some other reason (5 years or more). The ones that fail > will pick random times to do it, though. > and fluctuating temperatures. That is what the Google report and another one found that drastically reduced life expectancy. Running drives at 60 degrees centigrade may or may not induce death in a month (cannot remember whether they continued long after cooling was rectified) so long as the temperature is stable. Fluctuating temperatures even at 30-35 range can kill a disk faster than a stable high temperature. Ain't it nice that smartctl alerts you of a change in temperature?