Monday, January 07, 2008

Hard drive wanderings

Explanations of hard drives and their use that reach down to the level of electronic ciruitry and rotational platter dynamics:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/cacheCircuitry-c.html

Cache size: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/perf/spec/other_Cache.htm

SATA vs. PATA: http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2206p164id115629.htm

Basically the best hard drive overview I have ever read. It includes details about everything from heads, areal densities, platters, read-write mechanism, and more: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/index.htm

My Dell PowerEdge 1600SC server: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/1600sc_specs.pdf

A guy taking apart his Quantum Fireball:
http://www.takeitapart.net/archives/quantum-fireball-ex-hard-drive/

A cogent post on why it's better to leave your computer on most of the time. I will have to put my power meter on my NAS (has 3 x 500 GB drives in it) to see how much it really does use.
http://www.pcguide.com/care/care/gen/power_PM.htm

But another opinion (from the same guide) that seems to suggest that even powering up & down 10x per day for years is not close to the duty cycle of most drives:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/spec.htm

Canvas prints at Shutterfly:
http://www.shutterfly.com/shop/product_c10065-p2004/Prints_Posters_Canvas_Prints

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