If one of the hard disk drives in your RAID array fails and you don't have a hot spare (hot standby) hard disk drive, you may be able to perform a hot swap, where you remove one hard drive and replace it with the exact same drive, without powering down your system. Ideally, users of the RAID array won't even know anything happened.
In order to perform a true “hot swap,” the RAID drives must have special connectors to maintain the connections between the drive and the bus. Most SCSI SCA buses have this special design. Additionally, the enclosure that houses your RAID array drives and RAID controller must have open drive bays so you can access the drives through the front of the case for replacement without unplugging the system.
The Next Best Thing: A Warm Swap Posted on: 5/20/2011
If one of the hard disk drives in your RAID array fails and you don't have a hot spare (hot standby) hard disk drive, you may be able to perform a hot swap, where you remove one hard drive and replace it with the exact same drive, without powering down your system. Ideally, users of the RAID array won't even know anything happened.
In order to perform a true “hot swap,” the RAID drives must have special connectors to maintain the connections between the drive and the bus. Most SCSI SCA buses have this special design. Additionally, the enclosure that houses your RAID array drives and RAID controller must have open drive bays so you can access the drives through the front of the case for replacement without unplugging the system.
The Next Best Thing: A Warm Swap Posted on: 5/18/2011
Are you putting the finishing touches on plans for a June wedding? Chances are, you lined up your photographer and videographer months ago. Oh, and you purchased those little disposable digital cameras for the guests to take their own photos, too.
The Wedding Day: Picture Perfect Moments
Your wedding is perfect. You collect the cameras at the end of the night and upload the photos to your PC. Then you pack up your laptop for the honeymoon. (You don't plan to work, but it may be helpful for picking restaurants or nightclubs or booking a sightseeing trip.)
Then it happens. Maybe your PC got jolted around a bit too much in the overhead compartment on the plane. When you get to the hotel room, it won't boot up. You feel a little sick. All those photos taken by your friends and family... and in all the excitement, you never made backups.
24 Hour Data Can Save Your Memories Posted on: 5/16/2011
It's true that certain configurations of RAID servers can be exceptionally reliable, due to their built-in redundancy, auto rebuild functions, and fault tolerance. One benefit of a RAID server in a RAID 5 configuration is that if a hard drive fails, the RAID controller can rebuild the data volume from a hot standby drive.
What's a Hot Standby?
If you're not familiar with RAID server terminology, a hot standby, sometimes called a hot spare, is a redundant hard drive built into your RAID configuration. Normally, it serves no function and sits in “standby mode.” (Hence the name.) But when another drive in your RAID array fails, the hot standby can step in to save the day. (It's kind of like 24 Hour Data in that regard!)
That is, unless your RAID array doesn't have a hot standby.
Performing a Hot Swap Posted on: 5/09/2011
Here in Dallas, Texas, the home of 24 Hour Data, we understand hot summers! Before the temperatures reach triple digits, it's time to make sure your PC, Mac or your server is protected from overheating. Here are three ways:
1. Upgrade your cooling fans - If the room where you house your Mac or PC is typically not very cool or has poor ventilation, you may want to upgrade the fans inside the system unit with more powerful, aftermarket fans. Most Macs and PCs have a CPU fan, a power supply fan, and one or two case fans. If you don't have case fans, it's a good idea to add them when you upgrade your other fans.
2. Proper ventilation - Don't keep your system unit too close to a wall, so that air vented out by the fans has no place to go. If you have a server, you may want to store it in a rackmount unit that offers proper ventilation and may even include fans of its own. Posted on: 5/03/2011
Not is USB 3.0 here in full force, but it's being adopted by hard disk drive manufacturers across the board. USB 3.0 connectors for data transfer, dubbed “SuperSpeed,” are not only 10 times faster than USB 2.0 protocols, they also offer other benefits to computer users who need to transmit data quickly and easily.
1. Not just faster -- 10 times faster. - Old USB 2.0 lines transmitted data at a rate of 4.8 Gbps. New USB 3.0 lines work at speeds up to 480Mbps, thanks to two additional, dedicated data lanes for receiving data and another two for transmitting data. This permits bi-directional data transfer and saves times, especially when syncing information or performing back-ups to an external hard drive.
USB 3.0 protocol actually has nine lines, as opposed to four in USB 2.0. A side effect of this technology is that the new cables look slightly different than USB 2.0, so you can spot them at a glance. Posted on: 4/26/2011
A number of manufacturers, including Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital, have introduced Consumer Electronics-optimized (CE-optimized) hard drives. These hard drives have a number of advantages over conventional consumer hard disk drives (HDD).
- Many feature Advanced Format technology for increased storage capacity and greater data stability at higher capacities.
- CE HDDs offer near-silent operation
- CE HDDs are designed to be more energy efficient, especially when idle
- Energy efficient operation means drives also emit less heat, performing at cooler temperatures even in enclosed environments (such as a home theater media cabinet or equipment rack) Posted on: 4/22/2011
One of the benefits to a RAID server with a RAID controller is greater fault tolerance than stand-alone hard drives or servers. When a RAID controller detects failure of one of its RAID drives, as long as all the drives on that controller are redundant and a spare drive is available, the controller will automatically rebuild the array with a functional drive. You may detect a slight delay in performance during the rebuild operation, but you will not face lost data on your RAID array.
To ensure that your RAID controller will rebuild your array, always include a spare SCSI drive for each controller in your RAID array (sometimes called a Hot Spare). The system will not rebuild the RAID array across controllers. Posted on: 4/20/2011
At the recent CeBIT Show, held this March 1 - 5 at the Hannover Exhibition Center in Germany, Samsung unveiled a 4TB hard drive with 1TB platters. of the SpinPoint EcoGreen F6 line of HDDs, the drive operates at 5200 RPM and uses an ATA-600 interface. It has 32 MB of cache.
This is the industry's largest hard disk drive. Consumers hope the advent of 4TB storage technology with 1TB platters will drive down the price of smaller drives in the 1 - 2.5 TB range.
Other consumers voice skepticism about the practicality of the technology in today's operating systems.
About GTP Partitioning in Windows Posted on: 4/18/2011
Green, or energy efficient, hard drives have been a trend in the industry for the past several years. Models from manufacturers including Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi, Maxtor and more boast cooler operating temperatures and quiet operation.
For the environmentally-conscious, however, the key selling point to green hard drives should be that they are more energy efficient, which would lead to cost savings on your electric bills and a reduction in your overall carbon footprint.
But are green hard drives really a benefit to the environment -- or to your wallet?
The people at the tech blog “Tested” http://www.tested.com/news/how-much-money-do-green-hard-drives-really-sa... say no, reiterating the findings of a study by Ars Technica.
Here are the facts by the numbers: Posted on: 4/13/2011
Tax Day (April 17, this year) approaches, the idea of transforming your business into a “paperless office” may seem especially tempting.
There are several advantages to scanning all your important documents, including receipts, bills invoices, business paperwork, human resource documents, etc., and storing it all on your computer server.
Moving forward, once all your paperwork is scanned, you can maintain a paperless office by simply generating most of the “paperwork” you need to run your business electronically.
A paperless office is:
