what makes a SCSI drive so much more reliable than anything else?

[Dougal]

Most people don't see SCSI disks around anymore in the mainstream.

I have seen more tape drives then SCSI disks.

So if someone says they've never seen one fail its like any device its all relative to how many you have seen and how lucky you have been.

I have never seen a MAxtor IDE drive fail in my systems but a friend of mine seems to have an 80% failure rate.

[ikonia]

this has been an interesting thread with some interesting points.

SCSI disks are better suited by design to 24/7 opertation and heat shielding, however I've been to a few large storage producers of late and a lot of them are testing Sata replacments, and as DirectHex mentioned I can a slow migration, its still very early days.

Most people don't see SCSI disks around anymore in the mainstream.

not sure I agree with that.

In home use I guess only real power users will use and get the benifit from SCSI, however in industry EVERY production and test system will be pretty much running SCSI.

Along all the other points made in this thread, one thing to consider is the hardware these disk sit in. For years SCSI disk has been THE disk to have in business, so therefore SCSI storage arrays / computers are geared up to take scsi disks well, eg: the quality of a SCSI disk array hyas the correct spacing, good air flow, inteligent roms for spinning up / down disks, and the computers have been designed for SCSI disk in business, not home units so can have air craft style jet fans on 24/7 . SATA and IDE at this moment in time are more for home use so sticking a 5 bay SATA caddy in my home server (as I'm doing at the moment) has warrented a case change for better air flow as I couldn't keep them cool and can't have 747 jets as fans.

consider the way the hardware is designed and the difference in home/business use and you may find more answers.

Also think about 15k Fiber channel disks......

[Butcher]

SCSI drives do fail , but it woudl appear to be less frequent.

but thats why you have hotswap RAID , to allow you to replace hardware on the fly and not loose anything.

That's also why you get a longer warranty on SCSI disks. The standard period is 5 years. IDE you get 1-3 in general.