Fred Nickols wrote:
> [snip]
> I hear of such problems, Robert, but I have never experienced one.
> I've
> had many, many PCs over the years, starting in 1984 and never - not
> once -
> has a hard disk crashed. (I accidentally formatted a floppy or two in
> the
> early years but I chalk that up as a learning experience.) I've been
> using
> external Iomega Zip drives for several years, too, and nary a
> problem. Nor
> has anyone at either of the two companies where I've spent most of the
> last
> 13 years had any such problem. Speaking as a former technician who
> was
> once intimately involved in the operation, maintenance and repair of
> complex shipboard weapon systems (including computers), that little
> ol' PC
> is without a doubt the most reliable piece of equipment I've ever
> encountered. So, I'm sorry to hear that you've been plagued by such
> problems, but I'm not, so I'll stick with what's working for me.
> --
For those whose MS-DOS/Windows based computers have never had problems,
please contact Redmond immediately - you know something they don't.
In the early days of hard drives on desk top computers (about 14 years
ago), a friend who was in the know reported that the mean time between
failure for a hard drive was 12 months. That means 2/3 of them fail in
less than 12 months, BTW. Our manager threatend to fire any engineer
who did not keep complete back-ups of work. At least one person had
lost 3 months of work, but no-one would say who for obvious reasons.
I was told, about 7 years ago, that the ratio of overall problems on
Windows machines (one particular brand) to overall problems on Apple
machines (Macs) was about 10 to 1. When I pressed on that convenient
ratio, the speaker allowed that he wasn't sure when the last Mac problem
had been brought in. This from a college campus outlet/ maintanence
facility.
I'm told that today machines running Lynux often go for a week without a
problem. Which for a machine run by a deep computer person, must be an
accomplishment. My Mac does a week non-stop occasionally, but I'm not
pushing it in terms of software.
I also believed ZIP drives to be pretty rugged, until a good one
suddenly developed a physical error in it - I can hear the
click-click-click as it tries to read off a certain section of the
disk. I've been told that in a multi person environment of weak
computer people, dubious disks occur with some frequency. Maybe they
use them for Frisbees, too.
That anecdotal information aside, perhaps Fred could analyze some sound
data, and determine the in place, user experience reliability for us.
But what we've seen so far ain't sound.
Jay
--
Jay Warner
Principal Scientist
Warner Consulting, Inc.
4444 North Green Bay Road
Racine, WI 53404-1216
USA
Ph: (414) 634-9100
FAX: (414) 681-1133
email:
quality@a2q.com
web:
http://www.a2q.com
The A2Q Method (tm). What do you want to improve today?