> yes it is.
> 
> i'm just worried about how long hard disk will survive being often
> turned
> on/off, changed temperatures etc..
> 
> hard drives last very long if used constantly but don't like rapid
> changes.

Are ATA/IDE disks designed to be powered on/off periodically while SCSI
disks, being manufactured for the high end, designed for continuous
operation? I have heard this is especially true for laptop disks. There
was some focus on some PC hardware review sites on the very low rating
some IDE drives have for continuous recommendation (e.g. IBM did not
recommend some of there drives for long periods of continuous
operation) and also the shrinking warranty periods. While it probably
wouldn't be a good idea to power cycle any drive every 5 minutes, I
don't think some IDE disks may last long if run continuously as in
server environments (it probably depends on the model/vendor as well,
but generally servers have different needs from PCs and the devices
will be engineered with typical usage in mind).

> 
> if long - it's worth of using. for example SCSI-only system with fast
> (and expensive) disks, + SCSI hot-plug rack+SCSI-to-IDE converter and
> couple of cheapest low end IDE drives as backup

Since warranty is going down for IDE disks and reliability may become a
problem in the future and the potential problems for continuous usage,
how well can IDE disks serve as long term backup? Isn't it also
long-standing practice in IT environments to store backups
offsite/offline in case of things like lightening, fire, and online
component failure? If the power fails for some reason (including the
backup power supplies), how safe will be hard disks (SCSI or IDE) that
were powered up at the time?

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