Re: Are linux-fs's drive-fault-tolerant by concept?

[John Bradford <john@grabjohn.com>]

> > Name an IDE or SCSI disk on sale today that doesn't retry on write
> > failiure.  Forget I said 'Generally do'.
> 
> IBM DMVS18V (SCSI)
> Maxtor ATA133 160 GB DiamondMax Plus.
> 
> Maybe they _should_, but I can tell you they in fact sometimes don't
> (IBM very, very seldom, Maxtor just about all the time)

How do you know those disks don't retry on write failiure?  How do you
know they aren't retrying and failing?

> How do _you_ know that? What makes _you_ argue for what _I_ think is
> useful and _my_ sense of security? You are on thin ice ...

Linux is an open source operating system, you are welcome to add the
feature if you want it.

> > We have moved on since the 1980s, and I believe that it is now up to
> > the drive firmware, or the block device driver to do this, it has no
> > place in a filesystem.
> 
> Interestingly I owned one of those 30 MB MFM Seagate howling drives
> back in the 80s. I had no errors on it until I threw it away for its
> unbelievable noise rate. Today I throw away one (very low-noise)
> disk about every week for shooting yet another fs somewhere near
> midnight.
> Indeed we moved on, only the direction looks sometimes questionable ...

Ask the disk manufacturers for advice.

John.