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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 314. More on Papergate. 12-core Mac Pros are ready. iDevice Rumor Roundup. Apple licenses Liquid Metal technology. iOS 4.0.2 closes security hole. iMac gets brightness update. Apple exec arrested for taking kickbacks. Applescript UI Scripting. Maximize RAM and performance. Review: Bento for iPad. iPhone Camera Roll numbering. Managing iWeb from multiple Macs.
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RE: Cheap drive
You know better and I know better, but I think of the drive’s warranty as a only a high-pass filter. It only weeds out the cheap drives.
I gotten into the habit of adding a next step that I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned. Prior to putting any HD into service I first give it a Spinrite run. I set it on its “comprehensive” mode (“Level 4”). Drives are so large nowdays that it takes about a day per Terabyte (a 24-hour day). It needs to be connected to a PC via a serial or parallel connector.
FTW, repairing/maintaining Mac disks is the best usage of a PC that I’ve ever thought of.
As any security-expert-in-training knows, Spinrite verifies every last sector on the drive, regardless of how it is formatted or even whether it is formatted. If it can’t easily verify a sector, it slows way down and drops into this mode called “Dynastat.” I understand that Dynastat takes 2,000 shots at just verifying that one lousy sector. Apparently more attempts are used, if indicated. I had one case that took 3 days to repair a 250 gig drive.
When it is done, it spares out the bad sector and brings a spare into service. Of course, all this is done w/o needing a computer OS. It works with the drive’s on board firmware. So it is as effective in a drive indended for Mac as PC; I’ve even restored life to old TiVo drive in this way. It doesn’t care.
Of course, it does its work “underneath” the intended OS. In recovery mode, I’ve had great luck first running Spinrite and second DiskWarrior. A Mac external that could not be repaired by Diskwarrior could then successfully rebuild the directory after Spinrite cleaned up a few bad sectors.
I let Spinrite go for it when the drive is fresh out of the box, prior to installing it in or to the Mac. That’s the only thing I know of that will increase proabability of a long lifespan for a given drive (assuming it has passed the high-pass test). Of course, a candidate drive is rejected immediately if Spinwrite ever even drops into Dynastat. Its back to Fry’s for me.
More ram versus multichannel ram-
MORERAM
Adam, love the hyperlinking in the AAC notes on the show(Bento) on the iPhone. Works cool!