KCLUG

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3254 discussions

Are there tools to probe flash controllers for usage history?
by Oren Beck 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

Many of us seem to be building up piles of flash devices. And the concept of "bit rot" or wear out by any other name is accepted, Which raises 3 questions about handling the issue. 1. Are there utilities that can report the history or other metric data on future life span? 2. Is it possible to somehow log write to device events as a file entry? Since many devices have a Write indicator, some way of probing that indicator to increment a counter, then some estimation of drive wear would be captured as a human readable numerical. So the device could be reassigned from rewritable to archive if that is viable, or replaced as pre-emptive risk reduction. 3. Is there evidence to support a flash device used for say-70% of it's estimated "Write Cycles" being still permanently stable as Read Only for archiving? -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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How best to get an old BIOS to see the full size of a big drive
by Greg Brooks 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

Hi all. quick "from the idiot's gallery" question here. Got an extra machine with two 250 GB drives in it. Drive 1 has the OS (Ubuntu server) and not much else. Drive 2 has a single partition (/media) that holds subdirectories with a bazillion files I want occasional access to via Samba. Drive 1 seems to be showing up as the right size, but drive 2 looks to be missing a solid 120GB. My question: Any way to resize/repartition/re-something drive 2 without losing all the data that's on there? Df -h output below: #df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/plattsburg-root 228G 1.3G 215G 1% / varrun 252M 2.0M 250M 1% /var/run varlock 252M 0 252M 0% /var/lock udev 252M 64K 252M 1% /dev devshm 252M 0 252M 0% /dev/shm /dev/sda1 236M 24M 200M 11% /boot /dev/sdb1 126G 46G 75G 39% /media Many thanks, Greg

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Flash Hard Drives
by Earle Beason 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

There are several companies that make solid state hard drives, I was able to play around the samples, they seem to respond quicker then the disc hard drives. I had a concern on the sustainability of memory over the lifespan of the device, most flash chips I am aware of have a read/write life span of 100,000 cycles. I am just wondering how long will it actually last before their is a failure I notice that that if I had something programed on to the flash hard drive to perform a specific function at a certain time every day, then deleted the program. It some how remained in the memory and continued to execute the specific function. Anybody have a clue on what might cause it? Bear in mind, the program is no longer visible the "LS" command

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Re: CF to boot Linux
by Arthur Pemberton 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

On Jan 11, 2008 12:25 PM, feba thatl <febaen(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I was going down that road once myself, then I started checking the > > transfer rates between IDE/SATA magnetic drives and Flash cards via > > IDE/SATA -- the harddrives seem all around faster. > > I'm pretty sure that transfer speeds are usually much higher than the > actual speed that data can be retrieved from the disk. So you're saying you find it faster to copy files from your harddrive<-->flash to harddrive<-->harddrive? -- Fedora 7 : sipping some of that moonshine ( www.pembo13.com )

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Raid card, for backup/entertainment system
by lerninlinux＠comcast.net 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

Besides the norrmal surfing/email, etc type stuff, I mostly use the computer to listen to my music (rather then swapping cd's). So I have been looking at the Low Power gOS motherboard (like in the Walmart gOS pc), as a low power music/backup system. Since it is low power, and my plan is to leave it on, I have been wanting to make it my NAS/Backup box, but I need to find either a SATA (preferable), or PATA, pci raid card. Any suggestions? Thanks Randal

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NUI KC Meeting - Wed. 1/16 @ 11:30am-1:00 - Olathe Medical
by Alex Monteiro 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

KC LUG members are welcome to join us for another Novell Users Intl. meeting - we hope you can make it! ============================================ NUI Kansas City Meeting - Kick off 2008. When: Wednesday, January 16th. 11:30am to 1:00pm (Pizza will be served) Where: Olathe Medical Center - The Doctors Building room 302. - 20333 West 151st Street, Olathe, KS. 66061 (Exit 215 on I-35) Why: Kick off new NUI Kansas City meeting in 2008 RSVP: Email alexm(a)kiscc.com Come join us for our first meeting of 2008. A lot of changes have happened at Novell and the dust is still settling. Also, a brand-new NUI organization is now in place with more support for our local group. Agenda: - Changes at Novell and how it effects you - New NUI organization outline - NUI officers - Brainshare 2008 plans - Future speakers/vendors for NUI meetings ============================================ -- Alex Monteiro Business Development Manager KIS Computer Center - Kansas City o. 816-373-9900 (vmail ext. 7554) f. 816-373-9912 m. 650-279-1909 www.kiscc.com - alexm(a)kiscc.com

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Hybrid RAID in USB Drives- Mixing media as needed.
by Oren Beck 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

Ok- take a step out of the usual models. Here's something already seen but not exploited properly. Seven port USB hubs are now average $20 from some sources. Flash Drives are Ballpark $10/GB or less size and type variables taken into accoun So using a few cheap drives as sacrificials and expensive ones for semiperm storage we can tailor a composite Flash RAID to our needs. So far we've seen this at various places as a hack. What about a pocket drive case taped to a hub and radiating a few selected drives as needed? Boot from SDA into a Puppy or Damn Small Distro set as TORAM. Don't even mount the Spinning HD of your RAID unless a session needs it! The limits of using this base hybrid are rather awe inspiring. That 200 GB pocket Drive for example. Imagine a 7 port hub with 6 200 GB drives neatly arctic silvered down IN a laptop cooler plate.. A tiny bit pricey compared to other ways, But 1.TB IN a laptop cooler case seems way dare I say -COOL -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Re: Kclug Digest, Vol 42, Issue 11
by gary hildebrand 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

I would say since those thumbdrives are solid state, theoretically they should last forever, barring fire, flood, act of God, or static discharge . . I'd like to do that myself, get an 8 GB thumb and install SuSE on it and run it on the St. Joe library machines, completely bypassing their native o/s. I don't think they'd like it unless I could prove to them it wouldn't muck up something in Windoze (version of the week). Gary Hildebrand St. Joe, MO > > > From: "Brian Kelsay" <ripcrd(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: Installing Linux to a 4gb usb microdrive > > There's info out there on how to prevent excessive writes. Google for > Linux > on a CF. > > http://pendrivelinux.com/ > In Linux disable the swap and use the no atime option in your fstab. > Turn off logging or log to a remote server. > Brian > >

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A new Zen of Drive type usage. Request for considerations and comments
by Oren Beck 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

Recent threads and comments by many of us here and some other places raised an issue. Are we overlooking another echo of .NIX wisdom that holds as Zen -"Everything's a File" Let me lay the thesis out.: Take at face value the extant Zen of Everything as a File. Add to that the reality that Files can and do exist on independent physical or logical media. >From the addition of those elements we derive a new more subtle wisdom. File usage dictates media type. Or some more elegant phrasing of the concept! But the edge of this wedge is the meme that file usage can and SHOULD dictate media type. Ok folks- run with this and see whhat we can make from it. -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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200 GB @ $1 per GB pocket size real HD- Review does NOT mention Linux
by Oren Beck 11 Jan '08

11 Jan '08

There are 2 reasons for this link being posted to KCLUG 1. The device is just the most elegant answer to several open projects on topics here. 2. We need to consider a concerted effort to flog the reviewer and the venue he's in about Linux. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Storage/Is-That-200GB-of-Data-in-Your-Pocket/?sp=0… -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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