On 2023-04-10 20:31, Jolly Roger wrote:
> On 2023-04-11, Jolly Roger <
jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>> On 2023-04-10, super70s <supe...@super70s.invalid> wrote:
>>> On Apr 10, 2023, Jolly Roger wrote
>>> (in article <
k9iqn8...@mid.individual.net>):
>>>
>>>> To each his own, but SSDs are generally more expensive per terabyte.
>>>> And backup processes run in the background where speed isn't a
>>>> general concern. So that extra cost isn't really getting you nearly
>>>> as much bang for the buck as using an SSD as a boot drive would.
>>>
>>> As far as external hard drives go SSDs are worth it just to not have
>>> to listen to the noise generated by spinners. At least with the old
>>> external Maxtor spinners I used to use, maybe some other brands are
>>> fairly quiet.
>>
>> Backup drives you can get cheaply today don't make noise like that
>> anymore. You can pick up a 2TB portable external backup drive from
>> Amazon for ~$60 today, whereas a reputable brand 2TB SSD will run you
>> over $100. Or a 4TB external hard drive will run ~$100, while a 4TB
>> SSD will run $220-250.
>
> There is one benefit of using an SSD that is pretty valid though: no
> moving parts. If you introduce physical shock (bumping it the wrong way
> or dropping it, for instance) to a hard drive, you could crash the
> drive. That can't happen with an SSD.
2.5" drives usually have "fall detection" which retracts the head to a
safely parked position that can withstand quite a shock. (And when
unpowered, that is where the head is parked)
Many years ago (90's) I dropped a 3.5" drive onto the floor while doing
an install and assumed the drive would be toast. It went on for many
years of reliable main drive use on that Windows machine.
In my old digs I wrote s/w for flight data recorders (for engineering
purposes for various airborne sensors (radar, GPS, etc.)) and some of
them used HDD's from the late 80s to early 90's. Never had a dropped
bit (that was detected, anyway - used pretty basic checksums /
reasonableness checking).
I agree that SSDs should be more immune to shock than HDDs but HDDs are
still remarkably robust.
Example HDD - Seagate Barracuda - (2007).
Operational shock 68g / 2ms.
Non-op shock: 300g / 11 ms.
2ms is a narrow shock band. (For reference military and commercial
avionics are usually qualified in a 11ms shock period - and to far less
shock than above) - OTOH, the vibration requirement is probably too hard
on an unprotected HDD to survive 1000's of hours. Esp. if machine gun
fire is included in the platform spec. (equipoment could be mounted on
vibration mounts - but that does have its limits).
https://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/desktop/Barracuda%207200.10/100402371f.pdf