Data access and maintenance cruising
- Thread starter dLj
- Start date
That's why after I do a little planning, I do some real world checking. See earlier comments about using cloud backup. One thing that's hard to know is the long term salt water environment resistance.
I was just talking to one of the IT guys here where I work...
Windows 10 has a cool feature where you can have two hard drives, make one a mirror. He wasn't sure if the Panasonic Tough laptops have enough space for the two drives. I'll have to look into that.
Each time you boot up, it asks which hard drive to boot from. You always choose one, the other is then maintained as a mirror. Then, if the primary hard drive crashes, you have the mirror drive. Should have plenty of time to get a replacement drive for the primary drive. Now, put an external backup system to that and I think I've got it licked! This is a pretty snazzy simple solution from my perspective. Then you just have to be vigilant to keep that external drive up-to-date. But even if I forget to back up, if the one drive crashes, I'd be able to back up that mirror drive. Makes this quite bullet proof with decent redundancy and protections....
dj
p.s. they do. I just checked. nice...
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Our main computers have SSD's. The computers are old and started out with small HD's (normal size at the time), but as we needed more internal storage, they got replaced with SSD's. Each computer also has a SSD backup external drive, as well as a redundant HD backup drive. Michele's photos are on a 4TB SSD drive, with two 2TB HD's providing backup. The movie drives are mirrored 2TB HD's, in the sense that when movies are added/deleted, it is done to both drives - after which they are separated in use (one connected directly to the TV, and the other connected to the router for wireless access).
Nothing is really mirrored in the RAID sense of writing to separate drives at once. The backups are incremental and done regularly.
The SSD backup and photo drives are for speed reasons rather than reliability in the marine environment - although we appreciate their robustness. For example, my almost 8yr old computer took 2 minutes to boot with its HD, but 10 seconds to boot with its SSD. Michele simply couldn't work at all with TB's of photos on a HD, but it is instantaneous on a SSD.
Mark
Interesting approach. I would make two suggestions:
1)Take the “spare” replacement drive with you in the event of a failure. Trying to find a compatible drive “on the road” might not be as easy as you think.
2) Before you switch over to this system as your primary. Simulate a failure and make sure you have hands on experience with the process of dealing with the “repair”.
I’m also a little concerned that you have a single point of management of the data. If a component of the laptop fails (screen, keyboard etc) you can’t get at any of the data.
Very good idea. I can buy three compatible hard drives, the two that live in the computer and a backup that can be stored in a sealed container. That shouldn't be too pricey...
Hmmm, So the question is how to do this. Do I simply pull the computer out of the system and try to rebuild using a different, and various other computers? Like grab a mac, and a desktop and some random cheap lap top? How would you simulate failure?
Having two of the Toughbooks (if indeed that's the computer system I decide to go with, at this point looks likely) might be pretty pricey... The Toughbooks come with a 3 year warranty. So if I buy it just as I'm starting out, I'll at least get three years from them where they'd replace it. I will have to talk with them about how they handle warranty repair. If I have to send mine in and let them either fix or replace it, that might be a real no-go. I can see myself sitting in some small remote port waiting months for this to come complete circle... Definitely something to look into. Listening to Mark ( @colemj ), I'm not sure this is a major concern?
Thoughts?
dj
The simulated failure was for one of the mirrored hard drives. So get the mirrored Win10 system up and running, then unplug one of the drives (simulated failure) The laptop is still functional but now you install your “spare” drive and get it back to a mirrored state. Just saying that it would be good to know what the steps are and have confidence that you can do it in the field if you have to.
The single point of access could possibly be addressed by having something like a tablet and some type with connectivity to the backup drives.
@colemj has multiple computers aboard you would have all your eggs in one basket so to speak.
Please bear in mind I have a pretty strong “redundancy” bias about most things
The single point of access could possibly be addressed by having something like a tablet and some type with connectivity to the backup drives.
@colemj has multiple computers aboard you would have all your eggs in one basket so to speak.
Please bear in mind I have a pretty strong “redundancy” bias about most things
I can assure you having 2 tough books is not only pricey but complete waste of money, unless you want a brand new Toughbook in 3 years when your warranty runs out. The conditions I have experience with these surviving in should not even be remotely close to life on a sailboat. Also I'd check with Panasonic, this duel hard drive in a laptop seems overboard too and I'm not sure they are going to cover you if you start cracking open the Toughbook.
I have never seen a Toughbook so went to their site. Looks like their newest model the 55 is designed so that you can swap “modules” in and out. Kinda pricey, maybe get two non mil spec dual drive mirrored setups for similar $
Ah the old analysis paralysis syndrome
Ah the old analysis paralysis syndrome
From what I've seen, I'd certainly agree - these laptops are really robust.
As far as the duel hard drive, I would not be cracking open the Toughbook. Duel drives are a standard option available to the Toughbook. The way they are run can be done through Windows 10. So I'm very comfortable with that configuration. Totally within warranty...
dj
I will look at other options, but the performance of the Toughbook with it being a critical component; it's looking like the front runner at this point. I may be on the cheap side, but I'm really looking for simple and very robust. Of course, cheap, simple and robust would be nice but... I'm not that big of a dreamer...I have never seen a Toughbook so went to their site. Looks like their newest model the 55 is designed so that you can swap “modules” in and out. Kinda pricey, maybe get two non mil spec dual drive mirrored setups for similar $
Ah the old analysis paralysis syndrome
dj
Like anything else you have to go with what fits your mental model. I think you said this is a bit in the future and at the speed of evolution in the computing environment maybe something else will come along that’s an even better fit.
Maybe even fast internet anywhere, Sorry couldn’t resist!
Oneweb, SpaceX, 5G etc.
Maybe even fast internet anywhere
, Sorry couldn’t resist!Oneweb, SpaceX, 5G etc.
Nice - never heard of them, but they look quite good!You might want to check these out as an alternative.
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dj
I have an 8ish year old mid-range Lenovo that was getting slow. When I looked at Task Manager to see what was holding it up, the Disk access was always at 100%. I just ditched the HDD and put in a SSD. It is sooooo much faster. It used to take between 5 and 8 minutes to turn on fully, now it is up and running in 20 seconds. Something to think about between spinning disks and solid state drives. The old HDD may have been on the way out, it was getting a bit noisy, so that may have had something to do with it.
SSD definitely has much faster access times but there might also be a defragmentation value that has helped as well. The real value is you took an aging system that you were likely tired of and stretched it useful life.