7 Hard Drives Failing: What are the odds? These are the odds. [IRS SCANDAL]

American Digest ^ | June 22, 2014 | Gerard Vanderleun

[QT3.14]

I run a data center. Disk drives that are left running continuously last between two and three years. Three years is about 36 months.

The odds of a disk failing in any given month are roughly one in 36. The odds of two different drives failing in the same month are roughly one in 36 squared, or 1 in about 1,300. The odds of three drives failing in the same month is 36 cubed or 1 in 46,656. The odds of seven different drives failing in the same month is 37 to the 7th power = 1 in 78,664,164,096.

[originalbuckeye]

I am waiting for someone to say: Mr Koskinen, I understand you are a Democrat. I understand you are a big donor to the Democrat Party. I understand that the National News Media bends over backwards to cover for all Democrats. I understand that this White House and this Office of the Attorney General also cover for all Democrats who have broken the law. Do you understand that Americans all over this once great country are in shock at the lawlessness of this Administration? Just because you are all Democrats and have enjoyed a privileged existence in this country does not mean that you all should not be held accountable for your lawlessness! Where is your integrity? Where is your conscience? Where is your sense of right from wrong? I'll tell you where...... All are nonexistent.

[GOPJ]

In my whole life I've only met one journalist who could do math beyond a high school level... This is an OMG revelation... and it'll be totally missed by the MSM.

[roadcat]

The odds of a disk failing in any given month are roughly one in 36.

And what are the odds of an I.T. person ignoring a failed hard drive in an array, let alone ignoring seven failures. I was responsible for maintaining hundreds of servers, some of which had complicated RAID arrays. Rare to have a failed hard drive not swapped within a day or two and have the system rebuild the data on the new one. I was asked to assist other departments that had problems after I.T. personnel quit, in one case a pair of servers that went unattended for over a year with a failed hard drive, the rest of the RAID array kept the servers going. Bad management there. So the IRS must have incredibly bad I.T. management, and the lot should be fired.

[kidd]

And the odds of these drives all failing within 10 days of an investigation starting are?

Nearly 100%. If the person being investigated is a democrat.

[relictele]

You mean off-site storage on a single retail home PC isn’t best practice?

The IRS is also desperately hoping nobody grasps the ‘redundant’ part of RAID.

[Political Junkie Too]

What a coincidence... those are the same odds of Obama winning all of the swing states in 2012.

-PJ

[vbmoneyspender]

What about raid. Disks fail but that doesn’t mean the data is lost because the disks are redundant

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Seriously...These people should have been in jail a long time ago.

[crusadersoldier]

Occam’s razor anyone

[Lx]

Depending on the level of RAID, one or more disks can fail without a problem, except for performance but I’ve never had an array fail due to two disks failing.

[Rebelbase]

Email server anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[A Navy Vet]

"Those of us in the data storage industry are having a good laugh over this whole mess."

Glad you're enjoying it, but don't you think maybe you should bring your "data storage" brothers together and make your points known in the media? I did myself in my early days as being on the sidewalks with a bullhorn and was also the central organizer for the first Free Republic gathering in DC.

You folks who have the technical knowledge are the ones we need to see on the evening news. Still, can't blame you if you want a low profile and not jeapordize your income nor your families. Live in peace as you look into the mirror.

[Professional Engineer]

Lois Lerner just won the mega super power ball lottery!

Oh yeah, its Bush’s fault and you’re a racist.

[I want the USA back]

They take us for fools.

[JaguarXKE]

We could make a jingle;

7 Hard drives failing

6 Rats a flailing

5 Lame excuses...

[Pearls Before Swine]

My drives last more like 8 to ten years. I’d start with 1 in 100 per month... so the odds are even higher.

One thing I’m not clear on is whether these drives all supposedly failed in the same month. I heard some testimony last night which said the multiple failures of key personnel drives was either incorrect or overstated, so I’m unclear what the latest is.

Help on that point, anyone?

[Repent and Believe]

What’s the matter Obama administration? ‘Afraid of a little TRANSPARENCY?

Hugh????

Hey I.R.S. :
I think all of the U.S. taxpayers’ individual financial records’ were 2014 lost in a series of hard drive crashes too. There is no income to report this year. What are you going to do about it?

[vbmoneyspender]

Exactly.

[Mycroft Holmes]

With an average lifespan of 3 years on hard drives I must have been incredibly lucky over the past 30 odd years. All of my hard drives ended their lives by becoming too small.

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[Texas resident]

I would love to see someone say to Mr. Koskinen:
“Since you demand to act outside of the law, you no longer have any Constitutional protections. Sword cuts both ways there tiger.”