From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 5 20:39:33 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E80B016A41F for ; Mon, 5 Sep 2005 20:39:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from michael@araneidae.co.uk) Received: from mail.araneidae.co.uk (araneidae.co.uk [62.3.233.233]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0B2943D46 for ; Mon, 5 Sep 2005 20:39:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from michael@araneidae.co.uk) Received: from saturn.araneidae.co.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.araneidae.co.uk (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j85KdUZ4018184 for ; Mon, 5 Sep 2005 20:39:30 GMT (envelope-from michael@araneidae.co.uk) Received: from localhost (michael@localhost) by saturn.araneidae.co.uk (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) with ESMTP id j85KdUSd018181 for ; Mon, 5 Sep 2005 20:39:30 GMT (envelope-from michael@araneidae.co.uk) X-Authentication-Warning: saturn.araneidae.co.uk: michael owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 20:39:30 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael Abbott To: FreeBSD Questions In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20050905202954.Q18151@saturn.araneidae.co.uk> References: <20050905151332.P16924@saturn.araneidae.co.uk> <20050905171912.GF67960@sentinelchicken.net> <20050905172827.U17621@saturn.araneidae.co.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: Hard disk woes X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2005 20:39:34 -0000 On Mon, 5 Sep 2005, David Kelly wrote: >>> I had a very similar problem a while back. After replacing the drive in >>> question, then replacing the motherboard, I discovered it was a power >>> issue. The power supply was freaking out at medium to high loads, which >>> was causing the device to continually reset. >> > On Sep 5, 2005, at 1:56 PM, Michael Abbott wrote: >> Well, I hope that's not it. I'm encouraged to think not: > Yeah But... Power supplies wear out. Particularly the capacitors. > > I have seen every single component replaced in denial that the problem could > be related to the power supply. Then the PS was finally replaced because it > was the only thing which had not. And the problem was the PS all along. Well, I do have another reason for thinking that it's nothing to do with the power supply: a bit of history I didn't mention (because it's long and not particularly interesting). When I first installed this machine (a bit over three years ago) I used the offending disk together with another disk of the same model. I first used the motherboard hardware RAID (using striping for speed, more fool me) on the motherboard and installed FreeBSD. It broke, really quite quickly (within a week or so). I blamed the RAID controller and tried again, this time using vinum. The system survived quite a bit longer (can't remember how long, a month or so maybe), but suddenly failed quite horribly: I lost all data. I retired the two disks and started again, and the resulting system has run sweetly for three years. Recently I brought the two disks out of retirement, and one of them seems most unhappy (as described). I'm strongly persuaded (convinced, even) that that one disk is dodgy. I think I'm going to have to bin it, unless somebody can come up with a way to reliably molycoddle it. I still think the question: "why does FreeBSD hang?" is interesting.