Video: Shouting at disk drive causes high latency, low morale

Here's a tip for everyone who hasn't made the jump to solid state: try to be nice to your disk drive. Brendan Gregg from Sun's Fishworks team wanted to see the effects of vibrations on his disk array, so he proceeded to shout at it. On video. Yeah, we bet that's pretty embarrassing for the drive in question, and what results is a sharp spike the number of I/O operations that take over 5ms to complete. Moral of the story? Yelling at your computer isn't going to make it run any faster. How about next time we see how it reacts to Ozzy, Mozart and warm, gentle nuzzles? We've placed video of Gregg's sadistic hardware taunts after the break.

[Via Slashdot]

[konshuss @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:14PM]

next try waving a giant magnet in front of it for kicks and see if it physically drags the drives out of the bay ;) even if that doesn't work, fun will be had...

[Esat Dedezade @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:11PM]

Looks like someone's been taking Mickey Rooney Crazy Pills.

[Eugene @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:21PM]

He's hot, though.

[Esat Dedezade @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:18PM]

I dont play Crysis becasue I don't have a pc that can run it... and what's this nonsense about you buying me?

[Blackstar @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:41PM]

What?!?! I can't hear you over all those hard drives!

[Mary! @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:03PM]

Mmm, that Brendan's one sexy cub.

[Chris Are @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:27PM]

@Martin

Wasn't that one of the ancient computers Strongbad used?!

[Marcela @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:41PM]

I'll have to agree girls, he is cute...too bad he is insane... or at least..really really weird.

[Jason @ Jan 2nd 2009 3:52PM]

Admin screams at computer whilst geeky ladies seek to woo him away from said computer.

Have we just witnessed the birth of Skynet?

[Knee to the Groin @ Jan 2nd 2009 8:20PM]

So good thing the girls are here on Engadget's comment system, won't have to worry about finding and creepy weird guys...


Except iEye

[Knee to the Groin @ Jan 2nd 2009 9:07PM]

So constant screaming in frustration ultimately leads to more fail?

I think I'm finally starting to understand Engadget's comment system...

[Madoxy @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:13PM]

Explains why playing really loud Music on my Qosmio makes it freeze all the time...
I guess I should move on to SSD then....

[bureX @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:12PM]

Yelling never accomplished anything... but constantly slapping my old CRT display when angry used to do wonders for my productivity!

[Blaine Oliver @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:16PM]

I used to have a CRT that needed to be hit to make the blue display, otherwise it didnt give me any blue.

[Esat Dedezade @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:18PM]

My knuckles still remember the bruising they got when I punched my CRT right in the middle of the screen. I think the only thing that broke were my knuckles.....

[Karl Hackswell @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:22PM]

I took a Louisville slugger right to the center of a 17 CRT one time...and that is a mistake you only make one time my friend. Yeah, it didnt feel good and I looked like a whuss when the bat just bounced off the front of the glass.

[martin @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:22PM]

Yep! i did the same thing with 2 x 2 wood... just bounced. i smashed the plastic instead. darn stupid 486.

[Chris Are @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:29PM]

@Martin

Wasn't that one of the ancient computers Strongbad used?!

sorry for the first one. I could blame it on the commenting system, but I'm pretty sure that was "user error." :-P

[XIYL @ Jan 3rd 2009 2:10AM]

@Karl Hackswell

I used an axe on my Trinitron when it died and it was very satisfying. So I guess the lesson here is that axes are better than bats.

[Anoldcarsnickname @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:13PM]

Why would you post this?

[bill cant fart @ Jan 2nd 2009 9:58PM]

Why would you comment?

[Gad Get @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:43PM]

To make people like you post comments.

[Andir3.0 @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:06PM]

As evidence to why Vista was so slow on it's release? I mean, all the people screaming about the movement of key configuration options, hiding all the networking options more and making it generally unlike their old computer experiences in every way...

Then they got used to working in it and SP1 rolls around about the same time and people stopped shouting causing their PCs to speed up!

It all makes sense now.

[Karl Hackswell @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:14PM]

Wow, they must really be bored over there at Sun, huh.

[alex @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:52PM]

These guys have wayyyyy too much free time on their hands. Sun should look into laying people off if they don't have enough things to do besides yelling at HDD.

[Kyrra @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:17PM]

Shock and Vibe testing is a very important part of enterprise level testing of servers and storage. Knowing how hardware will respond under different scenarios is important to know so limits can be set as to the operating conditions of the hardware. Sure this is an unlikely case, but you have to look at how soundwaves can effect the drives. Think about harddrives near anything that produces extreme amounts of sound (speakers or engines for example).

[the real Brad @ Jan 2nd 2009 4:19PM]

That's why they made solid state drives.

[Krilith @ Jan 6th 2009 11:17AM]

So the 600 watt concert speakers on the sides of my desk... maybe not such a good idea.

[tom @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:15PM]

Come on engadget. I know it is a Friday after January 1st Holiday and a day before a weekend, holiday mood remains. You should still try harder to post meaningful news.

We all know, mechanical drives ie. Disk drive of any sort and hard drive with platters are sensitive to shocks and vibration. That's why there is a warning sticker on the packaging and warning words on the manual.

[konshuss @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:31PM]

that's why there're fun experiments like this, because worrywarts such as yourself heed all warning stickers and spend the rest of your time hunting this site for hard hitting controversial news.

this is a fun fit of whimsy, and i suppose if they didn't post this story it would be instead replaced by something extremely important you are probably missing out on.

or it could be you're just as bored as they are.

[rlynd3 @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:04PM]

Come on dude, the write up is funny and the 'mental picture' of someone yelling at there disk drives.., even funnier!

That's it! I'm dropping you as a friend...

[rock99rock @ Jan 2nd 2009 3:16PM]

@tom

Engadget: The Meaningful News Site

...

Is this your first time here?

[the real Brad @ Jan 2nd 2009 4:20PM]

@tom: We programmers don't pay much attention to warnings, we worry about errors only.

[John @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:21PM]

Come on guys, I think dumb stuff like this is pretty sweet. lol

[Adam @ Jan 3rd 2009 4:00PM]

Guess I know why that Crazy German kid's computer was going so slow when he wanted to play Unreal Tournament ;-)

[inteller @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:39PM]

well good lord, so you are saying the lourder a machine room the worse your disk I/O is?

This is really crappy if true.

[the real Brad @ Jan 2nd 2009 4:21PM]

Soon, they'll be taking the fans out of systems because they are noisy...

[Boarderwoot @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:47PM]

I thought this was a pretty good test, so I just tried it on some of my subordanates. Apparently it increases latency in them as well. Next time i'll attempt the Crazy Train approach.

[Johan S @ Jan 2nd 2009 12:49PM]

This has to be the most scientifically valid experiment I have read about all day. But then, this also the first thing I read today.

[Jan @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:27PM]

amazing shit

what about slapping the hard drive ?

[Ross Miller @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:33PM]

I imagine the hard drive would then leave you and go live with family while it investigates filing for charges.

[Bryan @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:36PM]

And what happens if someone shoves it in their bum?

(yes, I did say bum)

[Chris Are @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:30PM]

Let us know!

[Bryan @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:37PM]

Sorry buddy, can't speak for you, but mine's an out only.

[konshuss @ Jan 2nd 2009 3:28PM]

if you're making an omelette you gotta crack a few eggs.

[Pavelz @ Jan 2nd 2009 1:40PM]

Vibrations is a serious issue!

[Peste @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:23PM]

Not for women my friend. :)

[Breex243 @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:34PM]

Oh snap. Vibrations. Well, I'm fucked.
The sound reactive cold cathodes in my PC must be indicating heavy vibrations, seeing as how they're flashing to the beat of bass from trance songs, which is being blasted out of a 10in sub 4 inches away from the side of my case. Hopefully the heavy-ass nature of my full tower case (complete with a water cooling loop and an extra 15 pounds of radiator) will help to buffer the vibrations but oh snap! I should really find a place to put this thing that doesn't have heart-pounding, drive head crashing bass.

[Boarderwoot @ Jan 2nd 2009 3:20PM]

Wow, you must play some hardcore trance songs to require watercooling.

[Miggity @ Jan 2nd 2009 2:16PM]

Pssst! Hey you guys at Fishworks, Ghostbusters 2 was just a movie!