I work from home one day a week. Most of my coworkers do as well. So I was interested when I read about Yahoo! doing! away! with! telecommuting! (with apologies to The Register. I couldn’t resist.)
All posts tagged raid array
In defense of telework
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 27, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/in-defense-of-telework/
Hard drives aren’t like tires
I talked with my pastor about something unrelated last Sunday, and he mentioned the church was recovering from a massive server failure. So we ended up talking mostly about that, which was fine. It’s good to be able to help the community from time to time. This past Sunday, I talked with the executive director, [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on November 5, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/11/hard-drives-arent-like-tires/
Attack of the monster 4 TB hard drives
The Register reports that Seagate is offering a massive 4 TB hard drive for $250. Seagate brags that the drive can store 2,000 high-definition movies, thus answering the question of what you need such a large drive for.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on September 8, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/09/attack-of-the-monster-4-tb-hard-drives/
Why you should align your SSD
Aligning an SSD is the process of ensuring that your filesystem’s logical blocks begin and end on the same memory boundaries as the SSD’s memory blocks. Doing this improves speed and longevity. Not doing it can roughly halve your drive’s life expectancy. It’s not as mysterious or weird as it may seem. I’ll try to [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 30, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/why-you-should-align-your-ssd/
How to align your SSD or RAID array for free
We’ve talked recently about the importance of aligning your partitions on your SSD or your RAID array. It helps performance, sometimes tremendously, and it also dramatically improves your SSD’s life expectancy. Newer versions of Windows automatically align their partitions, if you do a clean installation to an empty drive. Older versions of Windows create their [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 29, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/12/how-to-align-your-ssd-or-raid-array-for-free/
How to check and fix disk partition alignment to improve SSD life expectancy and performance
If you didn’t align your partitions when you upgraded to an SSD, there’s a pretty good chance you’re giving up performance and life expectancy. But first, a bit of good news. If you created the partition with Vista or Windows 7, your partitions should be aligned. If you upgraded from XP and didn’t re-partition the [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 8, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/12/how-to-check-and-fix-disk-partition-alignment-to-improve-ssd-life-expectancy-and-performance/
4 more questions about RAID
Longtime reader Jim ` asked me a few more worthwhile questions while I was procrastinating working on yesterday’s post about RAID. Let’s go to Q&A format.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on November 30, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/11/4-more-questions-about-raid/
Computer won’t boot? Check your USB ports
A friend called me in panic. A brand-new computer, freshly reinstalled with Windows 7, suddenly wouldn’t boot. I couldn’t figure it out. I looked up the manufacturer’s 800 number and suggested she call. Sure, I could fix the problem eventually, but the manufacturer would know the quirks of the motherboard they used better than I [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on October 30, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/10/computer-wont-boot-check-your-usb-ports/
SSD myths
SSDs, like most disruptive technologies, face some questions and resistance. People will grasp at any straw to avoid adopting them. Here are the myths I see repeated over and over again, and the truth, based on my experience actually using the things. 1. Mechanical HDDs are more reliable than SSDs. Not really. The reliability of [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on October 12, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/10/ssd-myths/
Buy, don\’t build, enterprise servers
Steve sent me some questionable advice he found online–basically, someone advocating that you build your high-end servers rather than buying them, but admitting that it’s difficult for someone to build a $20,000 server and still be able to afford to maintain the thing.
There’s a solution: Buy it.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 7, 2004
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2004/02/buy-dont-build-enterprise-servers/