Turns out that the new hard disk only lasted for 18 days --
it suddenly broke without any warnings. To make things even more
catastrophic, my /home backup dump is corrupted as well.
So instead of hacking on Pugs, I've been stuck for a whole day
salvaging bits, buying another replacement disk, et cetera.
This has totally convinced me of the need of a software RAID for
my laptop, so that's what I'm setting up now. Since the laptop
can only carry two internal disks, RAID1 looks simplest to set
up with FreeBSD's GEOM/gmirror, but I'm still looking for other
solutions...
Ouch
jk2addict on 2005-09-02T20:01:05
If it were me, I wouldn't use GEOM. I setup a new web server last week using dual drives and a bootable GEOM mirror using these instructions:
http://people.freebsd.org/user/rse/mirror/After about 4 reboots and 30 minutes later, they crapped all over themselves and I had to start over. I settled for a nightly dump to disk two and weekly CD backups of that.
Re:Ouch
dankogai on 2005-09-03T05:27:01
Hmm.... I have been using gmirror for a quite while and I like it. I have experienced disk crashes several times already but for all cases the recoveries went well. That even includes that case where BOTH disks got corrupted -- in which case I set up yet another gmirror disk consisting of only one disk, copied everything that can be copied, booted from the new gmirror disk, and finally added a disk to the mirror. If I were to choose software RAID on FreeBSD, I'll use gmirror. I used to use vinum but gmirror is much more straightforward.
Dan the Man with Too Many RAIDs to Babysit
Sorry to hear that.
dankogai on 2005-09-03T05:34:39
I'm a sysadmin by trade (well, one of too many trades these days
:) so I know how it feels like when your disk is dead.
However I am not sure if RAID on laptops is a good idea in terms of power consumption. What I do is protect the server with RAID and backup your laptop there. Simple rsync would suffice for most cases.
And if possible make your laptop as "thin" as possible -- for instance, I use IMAP for mails so I do not have to backup mails on my powerbook. I even do most of development via ssh so my powerbook is virtually a thin client.
Dan the Man with Too Many Dead HDDs to the Date
Better solution...
FonkiE on 2005-09-03T08:33:11
Sorry to hear that. Modern laptop harddisks are a problem. I can't recommend putting 2 into one laptop. This will drain to much power and also be too hot. (Well you can spin down the second disk, etc
...)
What I can recommend is an "offsite" solution with a USB or Firewire 2.5" HDD Enclosure, preferably USB which drains the power from the laptop.
rsync once a day, and/or after a hacking session and you will be fine
... hopefully
;-)
The great plus is that you can use the rsynced hd in every computer without opening it...
USB
Juerd on 2005-09-04T18:03:46
My laptop doesn't carry a second drive. It could if I could find the right ultrabay adapter for it, but I couldn't. So I decided to attach a small USB drive to the exterior. This works perfectly. It takes over an hour of battery life, but the feeling my data's a little safer is worth it.
My next laptop will be an ultraportable, though, and to that I don't want to glue anything. It also doesn't have an optical drive that I could replace. It has a single cardbus slot, but I use that for EDGE. I'm currently thinking of buying a cardbus drive anyway, and living without RAID when I need an internet connection.
Suggestions are welcome
:)
