[Info-vax] ODS-5 data/file recovery

[Paul Sture]

In article <kfqr0c$pa2$1 at dont-email.me>,
 David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:

> Back in "the day", tapes were the only decent method of storing a copy 
> of your data.  I don't believe that tapes are a reasonable method to 
> store data today.
> 
> My philosophy is basically to have a minimum of 2 copies of any data. 
> Today's disks are rather reliable, and to lose 1 is rare, to lose both 
> at the same time is, well, it sucks to be you.

<snip>

> I don't know of anything better than today's magnetic disks for reliable 
> storage of data.  Yes, they can fail.  They can develop bad blocks.  Two 
> failing at the same time just doesn't happen.  Of course, you need to 
> check on them periodically to see if one has failed.

You can get unlucky with disks from the same manufacturing batch.

About a decade ago we had a load of 4 GB disks start dying on us.  These 
were several years old and had been relegated to non-production use.

It may not have helped that the server room was running warmer than 
usual, but these disks were dying at the rate of several a week.

More recently I have come across recommendations that you use disks from 
different batches if not manufacturers for mirror or RAID setups in 
systems.

-- 
Paul Sture