[plug] Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

[Craig Ringer]

Craig Foster wrote:

> I'll preface this method with a similar reason to you. The WD 20G drive was
> faulty in Linux (read errors even in PIO mode) but fine in Windows (go
> figure) - the supplier wouldn't accept it under warranty, so I bent the
> rules...
> 
> Anyway, I ran a repeated 'cat /dev/random > /dev/hdd' to the drive

You'd be much better off using /dev/urandom, as /dev/random will block 
reads when it runs out of randomness, while urandom will continue using 
a psueudo-random numbers generator.

I must say that I've never had trouble returning drives - I just supply 
a smartctl drive status report and things are sorted out without any 
fuss. I've bought all my disks from Austin for a long while partly 
because of this convenience.

--
Craig Ringer