Re: OT: Advice on Western Digital warranty

[Bruno Prior <bruno@xxxxxxx>]

Des Gibbons wrote:
> Some saga there Bruno.
>
> Using IDE raid is a subject I'm sure you don't want me to go on about,
so...

Been using software-RAID with IDE disks for 7 or 8 years. I've never had
problems with the drivers - they've given me rock solid machines that
haven't needed rebooting for years. The only problems have been hardware,
which is when I've been glad I've had RAID on the machines. My impression
is
that disks have been getting progressively more flakey as time goes on.

This would probably be better with SCSI, but how much would 480Gb of SCSI
storage cost me?

> I assume the disks work fine as single drives?

My understanding of what is happening is that they put themselves to sleep
after a certain amount of time (not sure why that time seems to vary - I'm
guessing it's an inactivity period, and the nature of RAID means that the
accesses to the various disks are random). It appears that in that state
they don't even respond to IDE commands (or at least not quickly enough),
so
the RAID drivers assume they have failed. The WD web-site suggests that
this
is a problem that only occurs when using them in a RAID configuration, but
it seems more likely to me that this is a problem that is only _noticed_
when using them in a RAID configuration. I guess, if used on their own, the
problem would still be there, but (a) accesses would be more frequent, (b)
the OS might try harder than the RAID drivers to bring the disk up again
(RAID is usually designed to be pessimistic about drives' availability),
and
(c) most single disk machines are not left running and therefore might
never
reach the point that this problem kicks in. I'm not sure that's the same
thing as saying they work fine.

> If so, your best option might be to sell the drives individually, and
> replace with another set of drives from a different
range/manufacturer.

You may well be right, but how much could I expect to get for second-hand
120Gb disks? My guess is it's not going to be a lot, and I might be better
off keeping them to do backups (I never have figured out a satisfactory way
of backing up 360Gb of storage).

> It will cost you money, but not a huge amount.

£400? Not a huge amount, but significant. How much do you think I could
shave off the replacement cost if I did manage to sell these disks?

> You are stuck between a rock and a hard place I am afraid. Have you
spoken
> to WD support about the issues you are having? They might be able to
come up
> with a solution you are happy with?

A while back. WD don't want to know and say it is CCL's problem. Another
reason not to use WD. Of course, if I wait until October, it becomes WD's
problem, which is another reason possibly to hang on to the drives. I will
enjoy annoying them.

I was afraid I didn't have a lot of options. Thanks for confirming that.

Cheers,

Bruno