Saturday, January 3rd 2009

Don't Yell at Your Hard Drives: Sun Engineer

by
btarunr
 Discuss (28 Comments)
No, seriously don't. An engineer at Sun Microsystems' Fishworks lab discovered that yelling at your hard-drive causes sharp (yet momentary) increases in the hard-drive's latency. The engineer demonstrated this by yelling a portion of a server holding a RAID JBOD array, while monitoring its IO/s and latencies of the drive he was yelling at it. Each time he yelled at it, there was a surge in the drive's latency. The engineer posted his demonstration on YouTube. Now you know that yelling at your hard-drive isn't going to help, or is it? This opens up some interesting topics to research on, of how the rather loud environment enterprise hard-drives are put through in high-density storage environments impact on them, and to what extant vibration dampening helps them. The video can be viewed here.

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28 Comments on Don't Yell at Your Hard Drives: Sun Engineer

#2
MRCL
Lol. Good thing I only yell at the monitor.
Posted on Reply
#4
DonInKansas
That's why the pwnerer only pwns his monitor while pwning noobs at RTS.

And stuff. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#6
rampage
noise can create vibrations and we all know vibration is bad for read/write/seek times on a HDD, i thought this was common sense ? but i have to admit i didn't realize it was that sensitive tho
Posted on Reply
#7
oli_ramsay
"yelling at your hard-drive causes sharp (yet momentary) increases in the hard-drive's latency"

or to put it another way; scientists get very bored :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#8
Lillebror
Just think about it! the vibrations from your high cfm fans can make your hdd's go slow!
Posted on Reply
#10
technicks
I can see the future waring stickers on drives already.

WARNING DON'T :eek:. Hehe.:laugh:
Posted on Reply
#11
3870x2
I tried to convince my unit to go for SSDs instead of the 2.5in hdds for our laptops, that there will be less failure for us, and a more streamlined workforce, the chiefs reply was "too expensive".
and they wonder why there is so much field failure with our laptops.
Posted on Reply
#12
Black Panther
Interesting...

I wonder what effect will it have on a HDD having a Z5500 subwoofer placed barely 3 ft away then... :twitch:
Posted on Reply
#13
TheGuruStud
3870x2I tried to convince my unit to go for SSDs instead of the 2.5in hdds for our laptops, that there will be less failure for us, and a more streamlined workforce, the chiefs reply was "too expensive".
and they wonder why there is so much field failure with our laptops.
You're not running raid 1? :eek:

I swear, most bosses are retarded.
Posted on Reply
#14
hrvoje
Maybe this explained failure of my 2 HDDs in about 2 weeks. I have one 300/600W Sbu near comp, and 4 other speakers in room 2 150/300W and 2 35/50W. I like to use them very loude. :ohwell:
Posted on Reply
#15
TheGuruStud
hrvojeMaybe this explained failure of my 2 HDDs in about 2 weeks. I have one 300/600W Sbu near comp, and 4 other speakers in room 2 150/300W and 2 35/50W. I like to use them very loude. :ohwell:
I'm sure that plus the magnetic field isn't helping :laugh:

:slap:
Posted on Reply
#16
hrvoje
TheGuruStudI'm sure that plus the magnetic field isn't helping :laugh:

:slap:
Well changing brand from Maxtor to Hitachi helped
Posted on Reply
#17
TheGuruStud
hrvojeWell changing brand from Maxtor to Hitachi helped
Even more :laugh:

Yeah, I wouldn't trust a maxtor for one day.

WDs all the way :rockout:
Posted on Reply
#18
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
Mr.Presidenthmm speechless.
good way to get better latency.
Black PantherInteresting...

I wonder what effect will it have on a HDD having a Z5500 subwoofer placed barely 3 ft away then... :twitch:
Do what i did. put the sub on the opposite side of the desk to the PC.
Posted on Reply
#19
Haytch
Ive always tried to minimize the sound and vibration around the hard drives. Sun Engineer's should get back to work and stop messing around.
Posted on Reply
#20
LAN_deRf_HA
Like a decade ago I had a computer that would speed up or unfreeze when I hit it. Wonder if doing that caused a program error or some sort of usage denial on whatever programs were causing the slow down.
Posted on Reply
#21
Aceman.au
Good thing I put my keyboard thru the screen istead...
Posted on Reply
#22
Lazzer408
Interesting stuff. I didn't want to take the risk that my drive's spindle motor could effect performance....so I unpluged the power to them. They do nothing faster then I've ever seen them do it before.
Posted on Reply
#23
farlex85
Verbal abuse doesn't make hard drives tow the line quicker? Well, I'm out of ideas, looks like they'll get the belt.....
Posted on Reply
#24
epaprika
Nowadays HDDs have RV sensors ... you can yell however loud you want.
Posted on Reply
#25
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
epaprikaNowadays HDDs have RV sensors ... you can yell however loud you want.
this thread is from 2009.


nice necromancy.
Posted on Reply
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