My experience with storage solutions is very limited, so forgive me for
this newbie question. We have a TruCluster with 2 nodes connected with
hsg80. I was wondering upon shutdown of the servers is the cache
flushed to the disks? If not, is the only way to get it flushed is to

I have a notebook with a QSI DVD +-RW SDW 082S dvd burner - which has worked
perfect for a year and a half now. But now something strange has happened:
Sometimes when i insert a DVD or CD - the computer reports the disc being
empty - even though it clearly is not...

Sorry, but I have to vent...
Just had two Maxtor drives fail this week...an old 20GB (no surprise)
and a newer 200GB.  I had an expensive 300GB Maxtor fail about a year
ago.  No data loss - I keep everything backed up, but still an aggravation.

I have a folder containing approx 1.5GB of files and subfolders which I need
to send to a colleague.
The quickest way would be to burn it to a DVD but I'd like to password
protect and/or encrypt the contents should it get lost in the mail.

I would welcome anyone's opinion who has experience of using data
recovery programs.for hard drives. Such as:
1) GetDataBack from Runtime Software.
2) R-Studio from R-Tools Technology

I think my external 1394s overheat and/or are not well made. Too many
failures over the years.
Now that USB2.0 is up to 1394 transfer speed, are there preferences
among users for one, as opposed to the other?

I can not get my home network to recognize a Vantec NexStar LX
network drive that I purchased yesterday.  The drive woks fine when
connected directly to a computer via USB.  My network is wired CAT-5
and consists of a LinkSys BEFSR41 router with 2 Windows desktops, one

My friend has a LaCie Rugged All Terrain Hard Drive with Triple
Interface (USB and two Firewires), and he wants to buy a power
transformer so as to use it without a computer, something to do with
an ipod.

Windows Tips: Check Your Disks for Errors, With a Single Click
Automate hard-drive maintenance; XP Pro vs. XP Home; the versatile
Power Menu utility.
Scott Dunn

The 2.5" solid state disk using Samsung NANDs has just come out!  The
PQI Turbo Industrial OEM, the fastest SSD I've seen  under $2000.
According to the the site, http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html
, it has the following specs:

have 4 external (1394) enclosures with Maxtor drives in them (120GB).
My experience with external boxes has not been very good. Eventually
they all seem to fail. The drives seem to be OK, once I remove them
and put them inside a desktop box. Maybe I am buying cheap enclosures.

I have been a long time fan of the Compaq RA4100 RAID enclosure.    They
cost next to nothing, and they do a full RAID 1+0 on up to 14 SCSI 15K
hotswap drives.    To make things even nicer, they work with off the shelf
SCSI 80 pin drives that are almost any manufacturer and model.   ...

I just saw that Hitachi still sells 80 GB "Deskstar" hard drives.
Is it the same line of products that was nicknamed "Deathstar"?
[The question is not so important, since the WD is at the same price,
but I'm just curious. Actually, it's to replace a true IBM® Deathstar™

I am using HD Tune.  Upon bootup, or resume from hybernation, SMART is
telling me I am around 50F (10C).     Considering my room is about 72F,
I find this very unlikely.
Can  someone tell me what is going on?  Right now it says it is at 95F

I have a Seagate 300Gb external USB/Firewire harddrive that I use to
store multimedia files on. It's become a nuicance because it goes to
sleep / spins down after a short period of inactivity and then when
accessed again, takes 15 or so seconds to 'wake up'.