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Disk Drive Errors

After you determine if the number of tape drive errors is reasonable, examine the disk drive error rates. The Hardware Error Display helps you in your analysis. Most disk drives have built‑in recovery mechanisms, similar to tape drive mechanisms. Disk drives are also equipped with alternate tracks, which can be substituted for a defective area of disk space. Because many of the newer disk drives are completely sealed and do not contain removable media, they should have extremely low error rates. Any disk errors should be noted with concern.

Hardware reliability can depend on how well the vendor’s service personnel maintain the equipment. Sometimes equipment can have a poor performance record at one site, but perform perfectly well at another location. Unfortunately, no clear pattern exists to account for this difference.

Any analysis of the true cost of alternative vendor equipment should take into consideration the cost of possible increased downtime, reruns, hardware errors, abends, IPLs, and so on, which can occur from using that equipment.