Temp upload folder..

[World_Eater]

I have one request (or idea)...

What if DC++ could copy files that about to be uploaded from my PC, to a temp folder or temp drive. The same drive as my temp downloads.

I share 100Gb, and I have a dedicated DC++ machine that's on almost 24/7. I only have one HD (120Gb) running most of the time. That HD has 100Gb of shared files and the rest is for my temp download. When the downloads are complete they are moved over to another drive on the machine. That drive is turned of by windows after 10 min. This means that only one of my HD's is working all the time while the others are "asleep".

I would like to have an "temp. upload folder" (t.u.f.) on the same HD as my temp download. That way I could, if I set windows to turn off my HD's after 10min, have only one of my HD do all the work, while the others where sleeping (most of the time).

This is how I see it in action: I share all the stuff that's worth sharing on all my disks. When someone finds something on any of my disks that they want, they cilck download. When my PC gets a request for a file it copies the file to my temp upload folder. The file stays in the t.u.f until its completely uploaded, or if the other user logs of or disconnects it stays in t.u.f. for, lets say, 30min then it's removed.

I think that this could increase the lifetime of the other HD's. It would be less noisy and would produce less heat, if you have many HD's. And since the temp. up/download disk didn't have to be very big or fast (10-20GB/5400rpm) you could use some old drive or buy a small cheap one. This would be best for people who share only large files or have slow internet connection

I hope to get some feedback on my request..... (Good and Bad.)

[Qbert]

This sounds like an interesting idea for helping cache disk usage, even if it only helps in this specific situation. However I don't think many people would be able to make use of it. Anyways, an IDE hard drive should be able to last a minimum of a couple years with correct cooling; and if they fail they should still be under warranty and if not then they may be too old.

This feature can however help you in your case, but I do not feel it should be designed by DC++. This type of feature should be handled by an external program made to handle disk caching, and programmed to alleviate sleeping hard drives. I wouldn't doubt it if such a tool already exists.

I recall last year I was trying to find a similar tool, like a Ram Disk Cache'r to help out the OS Filesystem in caching huge ammounts or all of a file automatically without the intended application trying to do so or needing to know. I was interested in this because I always have a very large ammount of ram going unused.

[GargoyleMT]

I believe this is a bit too specialized for inclusion into DC++...

[World_Eater]

Actually I thought of RAM-Drive or PuRAM when I got this Idea. Imagine...
No HD running, except when they where moving files to or from the RAM-Drive. But they are much to expensive for my wallet, for now..

I really did think that anyone who had 2 or more HD's they shared could benefit from this feature. I have a friend who has 7 HD's in his dedicated DC++ PC. He had an episode where 3 of his disks crashed the at the same time due to overheating. Sure he got two of them back on warranty, but he lost all the data on these 3 disks. I do not think this would have happened if not all of his 7 disks was running at the same time that night.

It would be better to lose an old,small and slow drive full of incomplete download data and temp upload data, then to lose a new, large drive full of shared useful files...

Not to be pessimistic, but the more you use something, the faster it will be useless.

[GargoyleMT]

The opposing bit of advice is that the power up/down cycle is much more wearing to a piece of electronics than running continuously. I've heard thermal expansion/heating&cooling as one cause of wear. Big data centers typically have a yearly shutdown of computers, because on startup is when they're most likely to fail... so they shut down and start them up again so they can replace those that have gone bad.

(That's all second hand information.)

I have 8 HDs in my primary computer, and I don't have any of them go to to sleep.

[TheParanoidOne]

I have 8 HDs in my primary computer, and I don't have any of them go to to sleep.

Noisy!