[wplug] OT - word of warning on Maxtor 250GB drives

[Jonathan S. Billings]

I just wanted to note -- for those of you setting up a RAID5 array with
cheap disks, please make sure to get extra disks for your array.  Also,
an online, hot spare makes RAID5 even better.  I just started working
for an organization, where the previous sysadmin had set up several
arrays with 400G disks, no hot or cold spares.  Now, I come in, and one
of the first things that happen is one of the drives fail.  It's now
*my* fault that this array, which was supposed to be "redundant" is
offline until I can buy a drive.  Never mind the array with the no
spares and the disks are all 5 years out of date and no one makes them
anymore.  I'm just declaring that array as a goner.

If it's just for your home system and you don't mind some offline time,
then feel free to skimp, but just because there's an R in RAID, that
doesn't magically make your disks invulnerable.

-- 
Jonathan Billings <billings at negate.org>