[atlas] USB drive more harmful than helpful?

>From both my own (short term) experience and from what's being written on this list, I'm getting the impression that the USB drive may be costing more than it's worth. 

I have in only about 3 months experienced multiple probe issues due to USB drives and there have been multiple threads on this list which suggest that I am far from alone. 

I will go so far as to suspect that a substantial number of disconnected and abandoned probes have similar issues, but the hosters may be unwilling or unable to spend the necessary time to investigate and resolve them. 

If the main reason for the drive is to cache data during unavailability of the command and control center, this may not be worth the effort. 

I would suggest making the drive optional. That may mean fewer data points from and/or fewer UDMs possible on those probes without a functioning drive. But it may also mean a couple thousand probes more connected and therefore available for measurements at all. 

I'm not saying that probes should not ask for their drives to be fixed/replaced, but it should not be a requirement for the probe to run. One might give an incentive to hosters to run their probes with functioning drives by giving less credits for connected probes without a drive. 

Any thoughts?

Michael
-- 
Sent from a mobile. Please excuse my brevity. // M: +49-163-6866568
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