Most bullet-proof drive solution?

[the_leander]

I would have thought something like a couple of high speed compact flash cards, one to use and the other as a backup (maybe with a script to periodically sync the two) would be your best bet.

[the_leander]

My issue is read/write errors, I've been plagued with them.

I can't get through compiling something without either a lockup or an error, but anything that hits the drives hard like copying files will cause it.

As it stands, I'd likely corrupt my backup by backing up.

So I'm basically picking people's brains on exactly what is reliable in as much detail as possible.

Are you sure you're setting the right data rates for the device? IIRC if you had them set too high all you got was errors on mechanical drives, I can't imagine it being any different for solid state.

For ultimate reliability mirrored raid would be your best bet. Along with hot backups on external drives, online sources such as box.net and then of course optical media is useful as a backup solution.

-edit-

Also, be careful about what brands of CF cards you get, they're not created equally.

[the_leander]

Ok, so what do you have now, and what are their symptoms?

Without knowing what's going on with your system atm, anything suggested could only exacerbate the issues you're suffering with, not to mention make it harder to pin down their causes.

On the basics, platters will last longer before developing errors, but are slower and difficult to find in "low" capacities, especially new. Solid state such as SDHC and CF are readily available but tend to give up much more quickly than traditional platters unless you're paying out serious bank. USB.... Just don't go there unless you have to as far as booting goes, it'll slow your system down due to all the interrupts created during transfers and really offers you nothing over what you'd get with either CF or SDHC.

[the_leander]

The constant has been OS3.9.  As I said, I thought this was the gold standard, newest to use with fixes for drive capacity.

I'll take stable over fast BTW.

I'd try using the original 3.1 scsi.device or seeing if there is a replacement on aminet for the one that shipped with 3.9, then go back and down tune your maxtransfer rates with it and see how that works before thinking about purchasing new kit.

Hope things work out for you!