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back to article Dell PowerEdge boots up after Hurricane Sandy acid bath

It is not clear how many servers Hurricane Sandy wiped out, but at least one Dell PowerEdge box in the Maspeth neighborhood of Queens not only survived the flood sufficiently to allow for the company to boot up the box to get its data off, it managed to do that after being soaked in acid-laced salt water. The server in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Good job

    All the offices I manage run Dell machines and they've been very reliable. I am quite happy with their Pro Support for Business as well. Very good on Dell and very good for the folks that had to do the work on site. But I have to say, without offsite backup, you are risking too much.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Good job... Though other Dells...

      ...after about a year of usage have failed due to SATA controller failure. I've had this happen on several PowerEdge servers. So, it's really up to the specific model I think. I would not go praising Dell for diddly squat.

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      1. squigbobble
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        Re: Good job... Though other Dells...

        SATA controllers in general are unreliable as owt. It's not just Dell.

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        1. kain preacher
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          Re: Good job... Though other Dells...

          I remember Intel have a bug in their sandy bridge chip set. The SATA controller degraded over time.

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  3. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Backups

    Are for data you care about to keep in 2 places.

    Sandy is a good example of why "Upstairs" isn't 2 places.

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    1. Hellcat
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      Re: Backups

      If it's not backed up (and verified) in 2 places - it's not backed up.

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  4. Herby

    Another thing that helps

    Is a freezer. It takes the humidity and condenses it out. Make sure that the equipment can "take" it.

    One notes that if you leave an ice cube in a freezer, it tends to "disappear" after a few weeks.

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  5. Mondo the Magnificent
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    Par boiled rice..

    I've used pair boiled rice to dry a cell phone out that my son left in his shorts pocket when wakeboarding

    It's like natures silica gel and sucks up water faster than Gordon Brown could suck up the working class taxes.

    The article just goes to show how well made modern servers are. Kudos to the techs who embarked on the mission of mercy and revived the saline infested server

    If it was my server, I'd continue to use it as rename it to "Lazarus"

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      I think what you intended to say was 'write it off as an insurance loss, take it home and name it Lazarus'

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  6. SaveMefromeejits
    Facepalm

    Shocked I say, Shocked.

    I'm failing to see why this is such a shock!

    I assume the power was already out before this happened.

    So it got wet, they hosed it out, dried it with rice, turned it on and it worked.

    Well, I for one am shocked. Who'd have thought a dried out circuit board would ever work again.

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    1. Corinne
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      FAIL

      Re: Shocked I say, Shocked.

      You miss the point that it didn't just get wet, the water was saline (salty) and there was battery acid mixed in (presumably from UPS or similar stored nearby).

      We all know about simply drying out electronic goods, but for them to survive extended submersion in a sea water & battery acid mix is different.

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  7. The Serpent

    "If it was my server, I'd continue to use it as rename it to "Lazarus""

    diskdoctor df0:

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    1. Grommet
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      Re: "If it was my server, I'd continue to use it as rename it to "Lazarus""

      Nice. A Geek joke I actually got...

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      1. unitron
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        Headmaster

        Re: "If it was my server, I'd continue to use it as rename it to "Lazarus""

        That's not a geek joke, it's a theological one.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes, first the rice..

    First the rice.

    Then the EL wire and blue LEDs everywhere.

    Then cut down the fan until it's little bitty blades on a BIG hub.

    Then put some card stock around the fan so it makes more noise.

    Then put a subwoofer in it.

    Then the spoiler.

    Add some Bondo for "ground effect".

    Then paint it neon yellow.

    Then add "Type-R" stickers. Lots of them.

    It *starts* with rice, but it ends up in tears.

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