don@dgbt.doc.ca (Donald McLachlan) (01/18/91)
Netters: I hope you can help me. We have some installations in the Canadian Arctic that keep destroying their hard drives. We have decided the problem is the speed at which the temperature in the huts vary. We can't rebuild the huts. Our intended solution is to change over to solidstate (RAM) disks. 1 - I don't mean putting some system memory aside and putting a file system on it. 2 - I mean a physical device that looks like a 5-1/4 inch winchester that has no mechanical parts in it. It is nothing but ram. 3 - I know of two companies selling these for SCSI - Western Automation. Vermont Research. As far as I can tell they are both selling the exact same product. a Company used to sell an ST506/412 ramdisk called BATRAM, they don't any longer. What I would like is : 16 MegBytes or greater ST506/412 MFM drive battery backed up Information on any such product would be a live (money) saver as our only alternative is to purchase the SCSI drives and a SCSI controller for multibus I (approx 2K per controller).
berger@iboga (Mike Berger) (01/19/91)
don@dgbt.doc.ca (Donald McLachlan) writes: > We have some installations in the Canadian Arctic that keep > destroying their hard drives. > We have decided the problem is the speed at which the temperature > in the huts vary. We can't rebuild the huts. Our intended solution > is to change over to solidstate (RAM) disks. *---- Have you considered cheaper alternatives? In the two-way radio field, we increase temperature stability by putting the crystals in ovens. A small heat source located near the disk drives might do it for you. You might even get away with something as simple as a power resistor or light bulb. -- Mike Berger Department of Statistics, University of Illinois AT&TNET 217-244-6067 Internet berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
AVP100@psuvm.psu.edu (02/01/91)
If you leave the system running in an enclosed or very small space, the system should build up enough heat on its own from the peripherals and power supply.