TWO Maxtor failures in a row

[Timothy Daniels]

Timothy Daniels wrote:
The older drives do cause problems, but aren't such
a nightmare to repair.

The DiamondMax Plus 9 seems to be current flavour
for external USB devices. They have a terrible heat
problem, and no way should they be used as such.

Odie, you're da Man to talk to about this: I blew
out a 'Plus 9 by accidentally applying 12v to the 5v
terminal. There was a "pop" heard on startup, and
what appears to be a wire-wound resistor labeled
"IR5" on the circuit board got discolored and had
a burnt odor. For all I know, the "resistor" is a fuse.
Is the drive recoverable? What range of price are
we talking about if it can be recovered?

Regarding heat - my 'Plus 9s inside the PC's
case run about body temp (i.e. ~37 deg. C) - a
little warmer in the horizontal position, a little cooler
in the vertical position, and a *lot* cooler in the
removable tray that has a fan built into the base.
The airflow makes a big difference, and it's obvious
to me that those external USB enclosures just don't
provide enough cooling capacity by relying solely
on air convection.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Arno Wagner]

Odie, you're da Man to talk to about this: I blew
out a 'Plus 9 by accidentally applying 12v to the 5v
terminal. There was a "pop" heard on startup, and
what appears to be a wire-wound resistor labeled
"IR5" on the circuit board got discolored and had
a burnt odor. For all I know, the "resistor" is a fuse.
Is the drive recoverable? What range of price are
we talking about if it can be recovered?

Ouch. I did that once to a pair(!) of Fujitsus. On one a chip
exploded. The other just smoked. Fortunately I had backups of
everyting critical, but since then I make sure to check the wires are
in the correct order when doing PC power cables (I was doing a 1->4
Y-cable and one of the 'raw' 1->2 Y-cables had yellow and red
reversed.)

Arno

 

[Timothy Daniels]

(I was doing a 1->4 Y-cable and one of the 'raw' 1->2 Y-cables
had yellow and red reversed.)

I know, I know - the wiring is so *trivial* that you think
"What the hell could go wrong"?. POP! :-(

*TimDaniels*

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Odie, you're da Man to talk to about this: I blew
out a 'Plus 9 by accidentally applying 12v to the 5v
terminal. There was a "pop" heard on startup, and
what appears to be a wire-wound resistor labeled
"IR5" on the circuit board got discolored and had
a burnt odor. For all I know, the "resistor" is a fuse.
Is the drive recoverable? What range of price are
we talking about if it can be recovered?

You'd probably need to replace all the electrics, right down to the
heads.
Nasty job, and you're probably looking at the darker side of £200 or so.

I expect the international majors would charge 5-10 times that amount.

Regarding heat - my 'Plus 9s inside the PC's
case run about body temp (i.e. ~37 deg. C) - a
little warmer in the horizontal position, a little cooler
in the vertical position, and a *lot* cooler in the
removable tray that has a fan built into the base.
The airflow makes a big difference, and it's obvious
to me that those external USB enclosures just don't
provide enough cooling capacity by relying solely
on air convection.

If I didn't have a fan in my case, I would mount my drives upside down.

I don't know which part of the drive you're measuring for temperatures,
but certain chips stay fairly cool while others are too hot to touch.

I now have fans blowing directly over all my drives - the remain
cool to the touch.


Odie

 

[Timothy Daniels]

You'd probably need to replace all the electrics,
right down to the heads. Nasty job, and you're
probably looking at the darker side of £200 or so.

I expect the international majors would charge
5-10 times that amount.

<!!!> Eeeeps. Well, I don't need the drive
*that* much....

If I didn't have a fan in my case, I would mount my drives
upside down.

Do you mean with the chipside down? Or up?

I don't know which part of the drive you're measuring for
temperatures, but certain chips stay fairly cool while
others are too hot to touch.

I'm using the ol' Finger Probe. None of the bearing
humps or chips feel warmer than body temp.

I now have fans blowing directly over all my drives -
they remain cool to the touch.

I suspect that cooling is the primary factor in HD
longevity.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Do you mean with the chipside down? Or up?

Chip side up.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Chip side up.

How about on an edge - either a short edge or a long edge?
The vertical profile would promote convective flow.

*TimDaniels*

 

[John Turco]

Brody,

I get a lot of drives through here.

The following is based on drives I receive for data recovery, and my own
perception of the storage market.

I am finding that of the current crop of drives, the Seagate ST series
is the best - I get very few in for recovery. They are my first choice
- by a long, long margin.

The worst are Deskstars. Again, by a long margin. Not only are they
falling over all the time, but they are absolute pigs to recover. This
goes for all their current models up to and including the 123.5GB (I
don't have sufficient data on larger drives to begin including them) as
well as their drives up to 3 years old. Avoid like the plague.

I know that a great deal of regulars on this newsgroup will disagree
with me. Before you start flaming, remember that these are all my own
opinions based on my own experiences and my own perception of the drive
market.

Odie
--

RetroData
Data Recovery Experts
www.retrodata.co.uk

Hello, Odie:

Does Hitachi still rely on IBM-developed technology, or has it
introduced its own HDD designs, by now?


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>

 

[John Turco]

Ouch. I did that once to a pair(!) of Fujitsus. On one a chip
exploded. The other just smoked. Fortunately I had backups of
everyting critical, but since then I make sure to check the wires are
in the correct order when doing PC power cables (I was doing a 1->4
Y-cable and one of the 'raw' 1->2 Y-cables had yellow and red
reversed.)

Arno

Hello, Arno:

"Smoking" is even more hazardous to ICs' health, than it is to
peoples'!


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hello, Arno:

"Smoking" is even more hazardous to ICs' health, than it is to
peoples'!

Believe me, smoke comming out of a harddrive is very dangerous
to the owners health! ;-)

Arno

 

[Odie Ferrous]

Does Hitachi still rely on IBM-developed technology, or has it
introduced its own HDD designs, by now?

They seem to be remaining silent on this. (If anyone has any news I
would be interested.)

But bearing in mind that the crap has flowed smoothly from IBM ownership
to that of Hitachi, my guess would be that Hitachi have at least devised
a printing machine that stamps HITACHI on the drives. That appears to
be as far as they have got with developing their own technology.


Odie