SATA Crap

Working on Joe Jackson, and went to transfer over some FLAC updates.

Nice new HDD, (10 year old 1T Samsung I recently put in from sitting
on a shelf and waiting for usage as a spare), and the USB copy
transfers slow down to nothing.

Locked up the hardware/controller for a unrecoverable timing/thrash
error, so I went to terminate the program doing the copying. While I'm
waiting the recovery and program to end, the electricity experienced a
brown-out surge, resetting the computer. Proof that Satan exists.

Trashed the HDD's SMART table with either UDMA or Error Counts.

Replaced the slip-on SATA cable with a permanent clamp type cable, and
that was that -- no more transfer errors.

Jesus. Must be nice, these days, HD manufacturers getting returned
drives for a RMA on SMART reports.

Or Mary and Joseph and the crap for SATA cables now around.

I never had a SATA cable error, for a decade, until lately. No wonder
the poor *******s are calling for, want to declare SATA obsolescent.

Either there's less squeezing around not having a backup, or that's
just what goes for what's put in boxes and sold for computer parts
these days.

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 02:31:20 -0400, Flasherly wrote:

Replaced the slip-on SATA cable with a permanent clamp type cable, and
that was that -- no more transfer errors.

My PATA drives have lasted a long time, but I need to replace one now.
You can still get PATA drives on Ebay, but it's time to move on I guess,
so I decided to try an SATA drive and controller.

What does a clamp type cable look like?

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 14:05:55 +0000, T. Ment
wrote:

My PATA drives have lasted a long time, but I need to replace one now.
You can still get PATA drives on Ebay, but it's time to move on I guess,
so I decided to try an SATA drive and controller.

What does a clamp type cable look like?

It doesn't look like much. There's metal and when it's put on the MB
or a HDD SATA connection, the metal secures it to the connection
points, to where it doesn't slip off (a non-clamp SATA slips off). You
have to squeeze the metal to release the connection.

It should at least say "locking" in the cable's description, and you
should be able to see something like a metal clasp the picture, which
makes it different from a easy slip-on or friction only mating cable.

That the metal locking secures you from CRC data errors or other
connection problems sounds like total crap. I wish I didn't have to
say that, but I'm replacing the slip-ons with locking cables, and it's
fixed errors, for me, of that sort twice already.

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 02:31:20 -0400, Flasherly
wrote:

Locked up the hardware/controller for a unrecoverable timing/thrash
error, so I went to terminate the program doing the copying. While I'm
waiting the recovery and program to end, the electricity experienced a
brown-out surge, resetting the computer.

A UPS might have helped with that.

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 11:00:52 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

Locked up the hardware/controller for a unrecoverable timing/thrash
error, so I went to terminate the program doing the copying. While I'm
waiting the recovery and program to end, the electricity experienced a
brown-out surge, resetting the computer.

A UPS might have helped with that.

I had a UPS once. It failed and smoked. It may have started a fire and
burned the house down, if I was not there to unplug it.

I never bought another UPS after that. I can live with computer crashes.
Not my house burned down.

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 16:13:49 +0000, T. Ment
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 11:00:52 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

Locked up the hardware/controller for a unrecoverable timing/thrash
error, so I went to terminate the program doing the copying. While I'm
waiting the recovery and program to end, the electricity experienced a
brown-out surge, resetting the computer.

A UPS might have helped with that.

I had a UPS once. It failed and smoked. It may have started a fire and
burned the house down, if I was not there to unplug it.

I never bought another UPS after that. I can live with computer crashes.
Not my house burned down.

That makes no sense, but whatever. It's fine with me.

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 11:44:58 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

I never bought another UPS after that. I can live with computer crashes.
Not my house burned down.

That makes no sense, but whatever. It's fine with me.

Women and sense are hard to mix.

T. Ment wrote:
On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 11:44:58 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

I never bought another UPS after that. I can live with computer crashes.
Not my house burned down.

That makes no sense, but whatever. It's fine with me.

Women and sense are hard to mix.

A rule of thumb, is not to buy UPS supplies from
the "bottom tier" in the market. We tried that at work,
bought around 100 UPS boxes for office space. And had
about 10% failures. None caused fire. Some UPS would
not switch to battery. Some UPS would not "switch away"
from battery when power came back. That's what you get
for $50 UPS boxes.

There are at least five different kinds of UPS out
there. You select a UPS, according to what characteristics
your power company presents.

A basic UPS only has to handle "short or long" power outages.
For example, my power company never has brownouts (as part
of power management), so my UPS doesn't need to handle such
a situation. On a "short" outage, it runs on battery. On
a "long" outage, it sense a signal to your PC in advance,
announcing the battery is drained, and to "get off the
line now". Modern supplies might offer a USB interface
for the shutdown signal.

https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1272971#

Line Interactive is the kind that "regulates" the output
and handles brownouts. Line Interactive is for people
with dirty power, like in some rural situations with
"long line" power.

Double conversion is the kind that is "bulletproof".
It has zero switching time. Transients are suppressed
by the filter action of the battery (AC-DC-AC). However,
the inverter on the output is constantly running,
and these units usually have a small fan for cooling.
That means the unit cannot be "100% efficient".

The cheesiest UPS is an SPS (standby power supply).
Switching time is 8-16mS, and the unit doesn't "waste"
energy when line power is available. It keeps the
battery trickle charged. It doesn't regulate the output
voltage (good for my place here). That's why I own
a not-bottom-tier SPS type UPS here. I got ten years
out of the unit, before the battery needed to be changed.
The unit tests the battery once a day, for output
impedance, and then it lets out a single beep
to tell me the battery needs to be replaced.

Modern UPS (unlike mine) have an LCD display or LED
indicators, and present more information. But the
basic power handling circuits, are as grubby as
they ever were. Integrated circuits and LCD displays
does not make a Sparkle Pony out of the thing, just
adds more visual feedback.

HTH,
Paul

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 13:31:50 -0400, Paul wrote:

A rule of thumb, is not to buy UPS supplies from
the "bottom tier" in the market. We tried that at work,
bought around 100 UPS boxes for office space. And had
about 10% failures. None caused fire.

Lucky you. Anything with 120v can cause fire.

I have data backups to restore if needed. My power flickers or drops 2
or 3 times per year. The cost of a UPS, to cover such small risk, isn't
worth it.

On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 14:05:55 +0000, T. Ment wrote:

| On Wed, 26 Jun 2019 02:31:20 -0400, Flasherly wrote:
|
| Replaced the slip-on SATA cable with a permanent clamp type cable, and
| that was that -- no more transfer errors.
|
| My PATA drives have lasted a long time, but I need to replace one now.
| You can still get PATA drives on Ebay, but it's time to move on I guess,
| so I decided to try an SATA drive and controller.
|
| What does a clamp type cable look like?

Like this:

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3mmmtpu

Larc