[ ... flakey hard drive subsystem ... ] > [ ... ] I'm not too sure if the supposed bug I found with > multiple Silicon Image controller cards actually exists or not Well, a significant number of host adapters that I have used had significant bugs or misdesigns. Not just low end ones. For example a chip similar to SiI, the IT8212 would have big problems with a Trust (a brand name that in my experience is an antonym) card based on it, but a different card with the same chipset seems fine; but transfers are rather slower, which may means that the IT8212 has some problems at high frequencies and Trust did not throttle the chip. As to high end ones, bugs and problems are rather common, because they are sold on features, not reliability (a common story). Anyhow, given the state of Chinese manufacturing, even different batches of exactly the same product even if well designed can have very different quality, depending on which poor quality component has been substituted. Explanation: even if company buys good quality components, the factory or stock room manager may pilfer them and replace them with poor quality ones and sell the good quality ones at a huge profit. Never mind this being done intentionally to cut costs. [ ... ] > The moral of the story here is: If you're going to be buying > lots of disks, do *not* skimp on cabling and controllers. Only in part; the moral of the story is that system integration is a very difficult and risky business and most people do not have the experience and resources to do it. Even people with a lot of experience and resources get surprises: https://indico.desy.de/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=65&sessionId=42&confId=257 http://indico.fnal.gov/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=44&sessionId=15&confId=805 [pages 11 and following] > Thanks all for the helpful suggestions and "me too!" entries - > my 6 disk raid5 is about a half hour away from completing > resync and I've had no nasties in dmesg. Win! :) Ah, one of those RAID5s. Consider reading http://WWW.BAARF.com/ as to corruption. "if you are going to buy lots of disks, do *not* skimp on" the RAID level. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
