The Terabyte Hard Drive is Here (1 Terabyte=1,000 GB; What's the Limit? Terabytes, Petabytes, Exaby

[ggdbr01]

Well, the Terabyte Hard Drive is no longer imaginary (1 Terabyte =
1,000 Gigabytes):

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10188

I'm sure others will follow from other manufacturers, if they haven't
already.

"The most powerful Hi-Speed USB 2.0 hard drive in a portable 5.25
[inch] 1U form factor, the LaCie Big Disk is designed for low-cost
storage expansion and is ideal for backing up several workstations with
enormous capacities up to 1TB. With USB universal connectivity and no
software to configure, this plug & play drive delivers high performance
with maximum convenience."

Reasonably priced, but will it prove reliable? Time will tell. (I
really have to wonder if the "smart fan" system will provide adequate
heat dissipation.)

I wonder when we will hit the quantum limit of data storage?

[Kilobytes]
[Megabytes]
[Gigabytes]
Terabytes? (1.0E+12 bytes)
Petabytes? (1.0E+15 bytes)
Exabytes? (1.0E+18 bytes)
Zettabytes? (1.0E+21 bytes)
Yottabytes? (1.0E+24 bytes)

[milliseconds]
[microseconds]
nanoseconds? (1.0E-09 seconds)
picoseconds? (1.0E-12 seconds)
femtoseconds? (1.0E-15 seconds)
attoseconds? (1.0E-18 seconds)
zeptoseconds? (1.0E-21 seconds)
yoctoseconds? (1.0E-24 seconds)

http://www.bipm.fr/en/si/prefixes.html

Of peripheral interest:

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures ("Le Bureau
international des poids et mesures" (BIPM) ):

http://www.bipm.fr/

English version:

http://www.bipm.fr/en/home/

It's nice to know that the kilogram, the metre, and the second have
such a nice home:

http://www.bipm.fr/en/bipm/site/aerial_view.html

Though the "Petit Pavillon" doesn't look particularly "petit" to me!

http://www.bipm.fr/en/bipm/site/petit_pavillon.html

 

[J. Clarke]

Well, the Terabyte Hard Drive is no longer imaginary (1 Terabyte =
1,000 Gigabytes):

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10188

Lacie lies. The Lacie "big disk" is not a 1 terabyte disk. It is a box
with 2 500 gig disks in it.

Lacie does not now and has not ever manufactured disks, they buy disks from
somebody else, stick them in a box with a Lacie label on it, mislead the
marks about the contents (you have to read the fine print under the fine
print to find out that there are two disks in that box, so technically they
aren't lying) and make money off of suckers.

I'm sure others will follow from other manufacturers, if they haven't
already.

Nope. Some manufacturer will eventually produce the _first_ terabyte disk,
but not for a while.

I wonder when we will hit the quantum limit of data storage?

When they do of course.

<bunch of stuff that seems to have little relevance snipped>

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Well, the Terabyte Hard Drive is no longer imaginary (1 Terabyte =
1,000 Gigabytes):

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10188

I'm sure others will follow from other manufacturers, if they haven't
already.

What on earth is new about this?

All they've done is stick 2 x 500GB drives in an enclosure that is bound
to have inadequate cooling - despite their claim to the contrary.

Grief, I've been using an external 2TB firewire drive for a couple of
months.

Only difference is mine will outlast the LaCie.


Odie

 

[Impmon]

I wonder when we will hit the quantum limit of data storage?

Not for a long time. If they run into problem expanding capacity per
disc, they'll stuff more disc in a case. I had an old hard drive that
contained 10x 5" platters. If they were to apply the current
technology of around 400GB per 3" disc, and make it into a 5.25" FH
drive, they could probably have a single 5TB+ drive now.

Remember back when 5MB was considered really large and that only
corporates would ever need anything over 20MB? Back when a 20MB drive
were $2,000 and came without drive controller and you had to install
the separate drive controller with 34 pin cable (not same as floppy
drive) and 20 pin cable?

Tomorrow: for under $50 you could get a crystal block that stores
quantum (4 states) data in 3D enviroment that can hold several
hundreds yottabytes. One that will never run out of space unless you
delibrately copied every single data in the entire world to the
crystal.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Well, the Terabyte Hard Drive is no longer imaginary (1 Terabyte =
1,000 Gigabytes):

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10188

You should not believe everything you read on the Internet.

Arno

 

[Lady Margaret Thatcher]

All they've done is stick 2 x 500GB drives in an enclosure that is bound
to have inadequate cooling - despite their claim to the contrary.

Grief, I've been using an external 2TB firewire drive for a couple of
months.

Only difference is mine will outlast the LaCie.

No doubt!! Homebuilt?

Say I wanted to build a file server for my home LAN. A sort of "set
it and forget it" type affair. What OS? Linux? Windows? 2003
Storage Server?

Thatcher

 

[Rod Speed]

No doubt!! Homebuilt?

Say I wanted to build a file server for my home LAN.
A sort of "set it and forget it" type affair. What OS?
Linux? Windows? 2003 Storage Server?

XP or 2003 SS are both fine.

Not worth bothering with anything else if you dont run it anyway.

 

[Impmon]

Say I wanted to build a file server for my home LAN. A sort of "set
it and forget it" type affair. What OS? Linux? Windows? 2003
Storage Server?

I'd go with Linux. Once you figure out how to use Linux, you can
simply set it and forget. Not bloated like Windows (and free to
boot!) plus Linux is generally not prone to software problems and
viruses.

 

[Mike Redrobe]

You should not believe everything you read on the Internet.

It's 2x 500gb drives configured as usb raid 0, better than the
previous "1TB lacie bigger disk", which was 4x 250gb drives
as usb raid 0 (frightening).

 

[Mike Redrobe]

I'd go with Linux. Once you figure out how to use Linux, you can
simply set it and forget.

Commodity devices run linux, for the same reason:
users don't need to know /what/ it runs since it /just works/.

Most users and companies like to have an OS that they are
already comfortable with, and is similar to their desktop OS -
this is where microsoft wins.

 

[Arno Wagner]

It's 2x 500gb drives configured as usb raid 0, better than the
previous "1TB lacie bigger disk", which was 4x 250gb drives
as usb raid 0 (frightening).

Nice, now its MTBF is only the square-root of the MTBF of the
individual disks instead of the 4th root.

Still scary, IMO.

Do 3 * 500GB with RAID5 and add good cooling, _then_ you have a solid
product. As it is, it just exploits the lack of knowledge on the
customer side.

Arno

 

[J. Clarke]

No doubt!! Homebuilt?

Say I wanted to build a file server for my home LAN. A sort of "set
it and forget it" type affair. What OS? Linux? Windows? 2003
Storage Server?

Linux, BSD, or Solaris.

 

[Rod Speed]

I'd go with Linux. Once you figure out how
to use Linux, you can simply set it and forget.

You can with XP and 2003 SS too.

Not bloated like Windows

A bit of bloat is irrelevant compared with farting around with linux.

(and free to boot!)

So is Win.

plus Linux is generally not prone to software problems and viruses.

Bullshit. And its completely trivial to avoid both with a file server.

 

[Rod Speed]

Impmon wrote

Commodity devices run linux, for the same reason: users don't need to know
/what/ it runs since it /just works/.

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt.

One dinosaur that I was cleaning up ran Win fine, wouldnt run
any of the linux off CD except one or two of the True Image builds.

Most users and companies like to have an OS that they are already comfortable
with, and is similar to their desktop OS - this is where microsoft wins.

It does indeed. In spades with something you only touch
rarely like a file server. The last thing you need is a whole
new OS where you cant even do the most basic maintenance
because you arent familiar with the basics with it.

I just wanted to quickly delete some deep directory trees
when the dinosaur dos app that comes on the Ultimate
Boot CD was taking ages to do it. I gave up doing something
as basic as that with a linux booted from CD, it was going
to take longer to fart around and work out how to do it than
it took just letting the dinosaur dos app take its mindless time
when the linux apps with a decent user interface wouldnt even run.

 

[Peter]

It's 2x 500gb drives configured as usb raid 0, better than the

Nice, now its MTBF is only the square-root of the MTBF of the
individual disks instead of the 4th root.

Where did you get the idea that MTBF of two drives in RAID0 is equal to
square root of the MTBF of the individual disk?

 

[Lady Margaret Thatcher]

Linux, BSD, or Solaris.

Solaris 86. Yeah. I worked for Sun for a number of years. That was
about four major OS releases ago, but I still remember basic Solaris
administration.

 

[J. Clarke]

Solaris 86. Yeah. I worked for Sun for a number of years. That was
about four major OS releases ago, but I still remember basic Solaris
administration.

And the current release is free for personal use (although if you don't have
fast broadband you might want to spring for the media--it's about a 2.6 gig
download).

 

[Arno Wagner]

Where did you get the idea that MTBF of two drives in RAID0 is equal to
square root of the MTBF of the individual disk?

Let mtbf_1 be MTBF of drive i. Then the failure probability of
drive i is pf_i = 1/mtbf_i. The failure probability
of two identical drives is 1 - ((1 - pf_1)^2), i.e. the MTBF of
a RAID0 is 1/(1 - (( 1 - 1/mtbf)^2)).

You are correct my claim was wrong. Should not do math in
my head late in the evening.

Example number: 1 drive 500.000 h MTBF
RAID0 2 drives 250.000 h MTBF
RAID0 4 drives 125.000 h MTBF
...

Makes sense. With these high numbers the event that more than
one disk fails is neglible and you can approximate by dividing
the individual MTBF by the number of disks.

Arno

 

[HenryNettles]

You can with XP and 2003 SS too.


A bit of bloat is irrelevant compared with farting around with linux.


So is Win.

Huhhh??? Windows is free??? Have you run this opinion by Bill Gates?? Or
the lawyers where you work? I think they would strongly disagree with you.

I can build a file server with used parts and a new 250 gig hard drive for
about what it will cost to buy one legal license for XP Pro. Windows 2003
Server will cost quite a bit more than that.

 

[HenryNettles]

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt.

One dinosaur that I was cleaning up ran Win fine, wouldnt run
any of the linux off CD except one or two of the True Image builds.


It does indeed. In spades with something you only touch
rarely like a file server. The last thing you need is a whole
new OS where you cant even do the most basic maintenance
because you arent familiar with the basics with it.

I just wanted to quickly delete some deep directory trees
when the dinosaur dos app that comes on the Ultimate
Boot CD was taking ages to do it. I gave up doing something
as basic as that with a linux booted from CD, it was going
to take longer to fart around and work out how to do it than
it took just letting the dinosaur dos app take its mindless time
when the linux apps with a decent user interface wouldnt even run.

">> rm -rf"

is a pretty straight forward command. Granted, it is not intuitively
obvious if you have no familiarity with any form or flavor of unix. But
there are more and more people who DO have at least a modicum of experience
with unix. If you are completely unfamiliar with unix, and have absolutely
no desire to gain any such knowledge, then it might, repeat MIGHT be worth
the cost to use Windows instead of Linux. But contrary to what you stated
in another post, Windows is NOT free.