1) Everyone hates popups.
I don't hate pop-ups. I simply ignore them. Nonetheless, it is time for
my pop-up experiment to come to an end. Pop-up removed.
2) Beware of "Open Box", it's cheaper for a reason. Some
items, if they work 100% when received are a deal, others
are not.
Good advice. I avoid refurbished electronic gear of any kind. I also
avoid computer hardware like motherboards, motherboard main memory and
graphic cards that can be overclocked. You never know what someone has
done to a previously owned item. I've always considered hard drives to be
relatively safe to buy 'Open Box' assuming of course that we are talking
items that have been returned for a reason other than failure. They can't
be overclocked and most hard drive failures occur in the first 30 days of
their life. In fact, hard drives are the only item besides maybe a
computer case that I would even consider buying 'Open Box' for a computer.
3) You lose credibility for running Vista on any serious
system use. It's still a beta, DRM laden, toy OS.
20 million copies of Vista sold in the first two months of 2007 does not a
toy OS make.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+sells+20+million+Vista+licenses/2100-1016_3-
6170426.html?tag=nefd.top
I am not your average PC user. I seek out beta software. I was a beta
tester for the Microsoft Vista CPP (Consumer Preview Program) beginning
with the Beta 2 version. Later Microsoft kindly sent the RC1 version, so I
am quite familiar with Vista's shortcomings. It's expensive, it's buggy
(mostly due to vendor device drivers) but it still makes sense to buy it
with a new PC where the vendor is responsible for making sure it works with
Vista capable hardware and device drivers.
My take on Vista:
http://www.mindspring.com/~anorton1/Vista_Confusion.html#Editorial
4) You lose credibilty for putting the OS on a striped
volume, as the OS does not need higher througput, it needs
lower latency if anything. A Raid0 array of same drives
won't give you that.
It boots up faster - a little more than half of the time of a single
comparable drive. An OS and its apps are the only data that I *would* put
on a striped volume for the simple reason that I don't care if it's lost.
Just curious, but what kind of data would you recommend that someone put on
a RAID 0 volume?
Also, from my Foxconn review:
"The Vista Beta 2 performance rating of the 2 x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250 GB
ATA Hard Drives model 6L250S0 is 3.8 and with a 400/33 GB Stripe/Mirror
RAID implementation, the Vista RC1 Performance Rating rises to an almost
unbelievable and totally awesome 5.9 rating!"
5.9 is currently the highest performance rating in Vista.
5) I don't feel you "learned the hard way to export my
EMails occasionally" because the prudent measure is a full
backup of the array volume, not just one select set of
files. This is reasonable with a single drive but even more
important when a RAID0 increase chances of loss. While I
realize you wanted more performance, if you ignore the risks
you are gambling with any drive, let alone a refurbed set
used for RAID0.
I fully understand the risks. My backup plan may not be *prudent*, but it
works for me. Others may or may not agree with my take on it, but the loss
of the OS is not a catastrophic failure.
The hard disk failure has also been an opportunity for me to find out how a
RAID failure occurs and how to recover from it. I would never ever
recommend that anyone use a refurbished hard drive, period, let alone in a
RAID array.
6) "RAID arrays can be very particular about the type of
hard drives you mix and match" is false. You could random
buy any drive of same or higher actual capacity (if they
round off "250GB", some might be slightly too small if still
selling as "250GB" but any equal or larger would suffice.
I did some homework before I decided that I should buy the same make/model
hard drive. I looked for a statement like you claim on various websites
and could not find one that said it was OK to mix and match. What I did
find:
It depends on the RAID controller
Often overlooked issues like different block sizes on two different drives
can lead to RAID issues
Even if two different drives will work, the lowest drive capacity
determines the total RAID space available
Eg: a 250 GB drive and a 300 GB drive will yield 2 x 250 GB or 500 GB
total
Generally speaking it is *not* a good idea to mix different makes/models of
hard drives in a RAID array
I didn't feel like experimenting. The *prudent* thing for me to do was to
avoid any compatibility issues and buy what I had. For most people who
don't know whether or not they can mix and match drives, why take the risk
if you can buy what you already have?
ASUS says on page 5-16 that for their P5WD2 motherboard with the same ICH7R
Southbridge as mine that identical drives are required for RAID 0 or RAID 0
+1:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5WD2/e2035_P5WD2.pdf
(warning 2.6 MB pdf file)
Page 323 and 368 of this hard disk super guide says that all RAID levels
work best with the same make and model and the same make and model should
be used to maximize performance and maximize storage efficiency (warning 6
MB)
http://www.tjhardware.ir/download/hardware/Hard-Disk Basics.pdf
So the answer seems to be, maybe you can and maybe you can't mix and match
drives. If you can, there is the liklihood of decreased performance and
storage efficiency.
If you can find a reputable website that supports your claim for Intel
Matrix RAID, I would greatly appreciate seeing it.
7) "Open box" is just a category, a catch-all for anything
that is not brand new, untouched merchandise. It is
unfortunate you didn't realize the difference, and "maybe"
some blame can be placed on Newegg if they didn't
prominently display notification of this, but in the end it
is buyer beware when not buying normal, new stock items.
Sadly you are correct. I went to the Newegg website and looked for their
policy/definition of 'Open Box' I had to search their FAQ's page. I
searched and found *one* item that mentioned that 'Open Box' may be
refurbished by the manufacturer. I would hardly call that prominent.
Perhaps I missed their prominent definiton stating exactly what an 'Open
Box' item is.
Nor do I believe that I am alone in thinking that 'Open Box' means an item
that was purchased by a customer who returned it because it was
incompatible or just didn't want it for some reason. The reliability of a
returned working item is vastly different from a returned non-working item
that may or may not be remanufactured to the original manufacturers specs
as I mentioned on my webpage. A remanufactured piece of electronic
equipment should be clearly marked as such, maybe even in bold letters:
WARNING! This item has been refurbished!
As it stands, 'Open Box' advertised items delivered as "Refurbished' can
only lead to ill will with their customers. Why would any online vendor
want that?
Knowing this now, I just purchased my last 'Open Box' item from Newegg.
8) For future reference, they don't open boxes for no
reason. ALL of the "open box" items have been already
diverted from regular new/retail stock for some kind of
reason. I'm not necessarily faulting your
misinterpretation, but for future reference, they have no
reason to open a new product (thus devaluing it), these
items are subject to an uncertainty factor, a gamble in what
you receive. FWIW, I have bought refurb'd (the newegg
category used to be called refurbished instead of open box)
that continue to work fine over 2 years later (a hard drive)
but I've also bought refurb'd that had faults and had to be
returned promptly. IMO, the key is you have to beware that
there may be a problem and vigorously test an item, and with
HDDs, never get a refurb for any important data storage.
OK - I get it. But answer me this. Why did Newegg change the name from
'Refurbished' to 'Open Box'? And why didn't Newegg customer service point
out to me in my communications with them that per official Newegg policies
'Open Box' included 'Refurbished'? Their question to me was why I waited
seven months to inform them that I had gotten the wrong item. They could
have simply sent me a webpage link with this official policy (*the fine
print*) and ended it there, but they didn't.
9) If the data is important, dont use a motherboard
integral raid controller for anything except RAID1.
Otherwise, if the board fails (which is, IMO, significantly
more likely than having a seperate card fail) you are stuck
having to buy a board with same RAID chipset to use that
array. If you have a seperate backup of it, proven working,
it is much less important, but personally I prefer a PCI
card even accepting the penalty of running one from PCI bus,
just so it is removable, and I also buy a 2nd card, same
chipset, for any array that holds important data.
The Intel Matrix RAID solution has some distinct advantages for most
everyday PC users:
It is widely available, making a replacement motherboard easy to find
It is reliable
It is cheap
Though I would recommend that if someone wants to go the Intel Matrix RAID
route, invest in a reliable motherboard. I didn't skimp on my motherboard
and expect it to be working long after my *next* set of Maxtor hard drives
fail.
10) A large part of your problem was the basic
misunderstanding that you needed to get an indentical drive.
You didn't, could have instead bought any 250GB drive, and
if it happened to be slightly smaller, copied the data onto
it first, then defined it as a member of a new array, then
after confirming data intact, take the other original drive
and delete the array it was in (different array) and assign
it as a member of the other newer array the new drive with
the data, is in. It might not even be necessary to do this,
if the new drive is at least as large in true (stated on
label) capacity.
11) SATA2 supports NQC. But it doesn't matter. You only
needed two drives supported by the controller to get the
array working. That includes SATA(1) drives that don't
support NCQ.
I don't want to mix a non-NCQ (Native Command Queuing) drive with a NCQ
drive. That would slow overall performance of the RAID 0 volume. The
SATA1 DiamondMax *does* support NCQ. I made sure of that before my initial
purchase. I would also mention that the I/O Controller Hub (Southbridge)
needs to support NCQ, which my ICH7R does.
12) While your webpage was informative as some detailed
information about your situation and the cusotomer support
you received, it isn't necessarily the kind of information
that is as useful as a guide or review as a warning "don't
do this".
I'll leave that for others to decide. Your opinion is noted - see below.
Especially with moderate sized drives, today it's as well to
buy whatever is on sale or has a rebate unless you're
shooting for highest performance with a certain model.
Certainly a Maxtor 250GB Diamondmax 10 isn't one of those
models.
I want to buy Maxtor for two reasons. My original Maxtor drive lasted 7
1/2 years under all kinds of temperatures and it was used on average at
least 8 hours a day. Remaining loyal to the Maxtor brand is my small way
to thank them for the drive that they sent me. This was well before I had
any reviews on my website, so I know they didn't send it to me because I
was an 'influential member of the mass media'. ;-) They sent it only
because I sent them an amusing 'Product Reliability Report' in the form of
an obituary for my poor friend Max.
I didn't mean to be harsh above, I do have sympathy for
your situation, but it seems that by a few questionable
choices combined with bad luck, your result is worse than
most will achieve.
No problem there.
Thank you for taking the time to read my website and for your thoughtful
reply. I think you have missed the whole point of my article. This was
not intended to be a RAID how-to. I only want to inform people that if
they want to buy a Maxtor DiamondMax hard drive, they need to be extra
careful what they buy. Do you have any comments about that part of the
article?
The only reason that RAID was discussed at all in the article was to
document how I got to the nut of the Maxtaken identity issue. If you want
to read my take on RAID, take a look at this that I wrote when reviewing my
Foxconn motherboard:
http://www.mindspring.com/~anorton1/Foxconn_975X7AB-8EKRS2H.html#RAID
Alan Norton
Reviews: ABIT AN8 SLI, ECS P965T-A & Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H Mb's
Choosing the Right Version Of Vista - Vista Confusion Article
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http://www.mindspring.com/~anorton1/