[mythtv-users] How is this pricing possible?

[Will Dormann]

On 2/22/11 2:49 PM, John Drescher wrote:
> 
> Besides my own findings there were two recent studies on this. Google
> did one also one from Carnegie Mellon University (just down the street
> from me).


Heh... you must be pretty close to being my neighbor!

Anybody that cares about the health of their drives should check into
smartmontools.

http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

It's cross-platform and free.   I've got mine set up to short scan
daily, long scan weekly, and email me when it detects impending failure.
  It's pretty slick!  And it has saved me several times.

And obviously, have backups.   In the case of my mythtv box, I have a
script that dd's the mbr, dumps the /boot filesystem and xfsdumps the
root.  For creating a rescue disc, it makes a bootable ISO based on
sysresccd that contains the backup files, pads the ISO with extra
error-correcting data via dvdisaster, and then burns it onto a DVD-RW.
 It's enough to go from bare metal to full system restore.


-WD