I'm going OT! My $.2, I have a fbsd box running vinum in raid 5 and had 2 of 7 drives fail w/o issue. Albeit the system slowed to a crawl but it stayed alive long enough for 2 hot spares to be put in place and all was well.. The machine is still online at ~190 days of uptime, this took place around day 30. It depends on how many drives, how much cache, and how well the RAID software is written regardless of whether it's hardware or software based. (I'd like to see if a windows software raid5 could loose 2 of 7 in an array and stay upright.) You are obviously never going to loose 2 of 3 drives in a 3 drive raid5 and walk away with your data.. -Tom smac at visi.com wrote: >It depends on whose raid controller you are using. > >If it's a newer HP/Compaq controller you can have 2 drives fail >replace the failed drives one at a time "HOT" and not miss >a read or write. > >Sam. > >Quoting "jimstreit at northlans.com" <jimstreit at northlans.com>: > > > >>With RAID 5 if 1 drive fails your OK, but if 2 fail, your dead and looking >>for >>your backup, backup, backup. >> >>Quoting smac at visi.com: >> >> >> >>>The word "refurbished" is a misnomer; generally a refurbished drive is a >>>"used" >>>drive. In general the drive was returned with a machine coming off a lease. >>>I'm still using both ATA and SCSI drives that were used/refurbished without >>> >>> >>a >> >> >>>problem. Be aware that they may fail and understand that it's your risk. >>> >>>Backup, Backup, Backup, is the only thing I can say about used drives. >>> >>>I run 5 Seagate Barracuda SCSI drives in my Proliant in a RAID 5 >>>configuration, >>>this limits data loss if 1 or 2 drives fail. >>> >>>Sam. >>> >>> >>>Quoting Sreekumar Kodakara <skodak at cs.umn.edu>: >>> >>> >>> >>>>Hi, >>>> >>>>I am on the look out for Ultra320 SCSI disk drives. This is to increase >>>>the storage capacity of one of our Itanium-2 servers, which we use for >>>> >>>> >>our >> >> >>>>research. I checked out at bizrate.com and found drives (73.4 GB, maxtor >>>>and seagate) starting at $130 for refurbished ones and $230 for new ones. >>>>Sisnce we have some constraints on purchases > $200, we are thinking of >>>>getting regurbished ones. Are refurbished drives reliable? Any good/bad >>>>experiences? Any good place to get such drives? >>>> >>>>Thanks >>>> >>>>Sreekumar >>>> >>>>_______________________________________________ >>>>TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>>>Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org >>>>Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery >>>>tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>>>https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>>> >>>> >>>_______________________________________________ >>>TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>>Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org >>>Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery >>>tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>>https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>> >>> >>> >> >> >>---------------------------------------------------------------- >>This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org >>Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery >>tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> >> > >_______________________________________________ >TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org >Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery >tclug-list at mn-linux.org >https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list