They do make lens warmers although I don't own one.

I don't use raid anything but was told some raids can by read by other similar computers.
Raid 6 comes to mind.

In my Intel desktop I added an Intel 545s, 500GB. Love my Intel!!!! The 545s is for temporary storage and small work only.

On average when it gets about a month's storage on it, 40% filled or so, I download to my main 4TB hhd and start over with the ssd.

Although not exact, that is about every two weeks. (That keeps low hours on my main backup too!)

I have 4tb Seagate units. They're used about five or so years and I fill them to about 90 to 95% before retiring them.

They have only been used for backup and never really been turned on for more than about 15 minutes at a time excwpt for when I need to reference something from the past. That rarely needs more than an hour and doesn't happen very often. I can probably count the times on one hand.

In my estimation, both my drives are equal to less than 100 days total, per year old. As I mentioned both 4TB drives only cover 5 to 7 years so that is about 5 to 7 hundred hours old. Everything seems to work well.

They are external drives not internal so I can do the low hour mark very easily. Only two internal drives have gone bad for me in over 45 years. (The older ones weren't 4tb. I was lucky to have 1 megabit of storage back then. LoL)

Most of my friends leave their external drives on 24/7, (some kind of raid number?), and have mentioned an occaisional drive going bad.

Rereading articles, it seems that I was incorrect, in a way.

Being that few "regular people" read and write as many times as the SSD's are rated, I guess the SSD do last. HDD are suppose to last forever but I would guess that the mechanical parts will go bad after a very long time.

For those who nearly fill their SSD, that tells me the unused portion will be used lots over and over again. That will wear the unfilled portion out much faster than is a much larger unused portion.

So to me that means either will store well enough for "us regular people", but not is the SSD is nearly filled to begin with.


Here are some quotes from the following articles:


1) https://www.exittechnologies.com/blog/it-tips/hard-drive-vs-ssd-vs-storage-system/

"HDD’s are more vulnerable to mechanical failure since they contain moving parts...
Usually, they will warn the user before failure as they start to make a lot of noise or load data slowly."

"Solid-state drives do not suffer from mechanical problems...
However, the electrical circuits that contain the data can wear out and fail. Writing data is harder on the drive than reading data.
One unique issue that SSDs have that hard drives don’t is electron wear.
When writing a 1 or a 0 to the same location repeatedly, that cell can begin to wear out. This is mitigated through a concept called wear leveling or provisioning.
Normally, an SSD fills up to 60 % and that data doesn’t change much, but the remaining 40% changes often as the user creates and deletes files.
Once a failure occurs in that overused 40%, the whole drive fails. The provisioning function reorganizes the information on the drive as needed. That way all sectors are being worked evenly, prolonging the life of the drive."


2) https://www.howtogeek.com/322856/how-long-do-solid-state-drives-really-last/

"A joint study between Google and the University of Toronto covering drive failure rates on data servers. The study concluded that the physical age of the SSD, rather than the amount or frequency of data written, is the prime determiner in probability of data retention errors. It also determined that SSD drives were replaced at Google data centers far less often than conventional hard drives, at about a one to four ratio. But it wasn’t all positive in favor of SSDs: they experienced higher uncorrectable errors and bad blocks at a much higher rate than hard drives over the four-year testing period. Conclusion: in a high-stress, fast-read environment, SSDs will last longer than hard drives, but be more susceptible to non-catastrophic data errors. Older SSDs are more prone to total failure regardless of TBW or DWPD."

One thing to consider.

Over a very long time, the magnetic hard drives are more reliable than solid state drives. At least that is what some factories say and they make both kind so it's not a matter of just selling their brand.

Here you go!

This is one with the "Fox" in the distance!

Just click the left or right arrow to see the others from this years event.

Some I used a 70-200mm. Some I think was with the Fisheye. (not sure)

https://www.facebook.com/142634195803011/photos/a.2504868726246201/2504871029579304/?type=3&theater

Yes. You'll love it!

Not being a Nikon guy, (Pentax for me!), that will be very close.

If you use a crop camera, you will need to stay back a few feet further than what a full frame will do but it will work fine just the same.

I found a few day/evening shots of mine. Using this cellphone I'm not able to copy and paste the link. When I get home, I can get them for you.

Something you might consider is to be creative and use a fisheye.

Up close, balloons are relitively easy to use the distorted appearance of fish eye or non-rectilinear (sp?) wide angle lenses on. If you have time, try it! It just might be the look you like.

The Irix 15 that I mentioned using earlier in this post, is rectileaner so I need to switch lenses for that effect.

How close do they let you get? The ones I frequent let you almost touch the balloons. Because of that, if I use anything greater than my 15mm Irix f2.4, it is junk until after they get about s 1/4 mile away.

Most play "Fox and Hound". That is when one balloon fills up and takes off. Immediately after the "Fox" leaves the ground, the other "Hounds" start filling up and leave when they are ready and it's safe.

The first to land nearest wherever the "Fox" lands, (any distance but usually around 10 miles to 50 miles depending on conditions), wins braging rights and if they want, they can be the "Fox" next time.

Also, you'll see 1, 2, 4, and maybe 6 burners on different balloons. They depends on the air temp and the amount of people they carry.

If you are able to get close, prior to filling, talk to them. They have a wealth of information. Remember NOT to walk on lines or touch the ballon itself.

My Intell computer has a 32gb Optain memory SATA card on the motherboard.That makes the C drive on an hhd run faster and more reliable.

Can I safely replace the SATA style 32gb Optain memory card with a 500gb sata m.2 card? Would there be a big inprovement or not very noticeable?

Probably around Black Friday or so, I plan to upgrade my laptop from it's hhd to an equal size ssd. The main problem I can think of is to properly transfer the operating system.

What suggestions does anyone have that is easy enough for me to do?

A simple and inexpensive fix to the darkness problem you experiencing is to get a pure white piece of print paper then compare your screen brightness with it. Tweek the screen as necessary to match.

Note: Do it in the same background lighting as you edit with. You might need to talk to the printer company to get their specs.

Hello there fellow Pentaxians and welcome to the Ugly group. I've been using them since the mid 80's.

Made my own from horse reins. Instead of the usual black nylon, i know have two wonder leather straps.

The camera fastener is a manually screwed unit but the entire strap us custom. I also hD go wash out the stain used in the tanning pricess.