I keep frying hard drives

[Nick]

I have had around 5 hard drives breaking down on me in the last few
years - losing data on each occassion. Just recently, I had 2 SATA
drives die on me in one week. The earlier ones were Western Digital and
Samsung. The latest 2 are Maxtor 250Gb and 300Gb.

Somebody suggested that ventilation/cooling was an issue. So in the
latest pc I had plenty of fans and ventilation around the HD area but
still 2 of them died. They normally start off with a ticking noise and
then die within a week or two.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[John Doe]

I have had around 5 hard drives breaking down on me in the last
few years - losing data on each occassion. Just recently, I had 2
SATA drives die on me in one week. The earlier ones were Western
Digital and Samsung. The latest 2 are Maxtor 250Gb and 300Gb.

Somebody suggested that ventilation/cooling was an issue. So in
the latest pc I had plenty of fans and ventilation around the HD
area but still 2 of them died. They normally start off with a
ticking noise and then die within a week or two.

What am I doing wrong?

Not keeping a removable media copy of your important files.

The merchant you buy them from is suspect.

You could be mishandling them. Or maybe you need a better power
supply. Or maybe your house current is substandard and you should
add a voltage regulator (line conditioner).

Some of those leads are better than others. There's no way to know
without being there and knowing everything you know about the
situation.

Good luck.

 

[Chris Hill]

I have had around 5 hard drives breaking down on me in the last few
years - losing data on each occassion. Just recently, I had 2 SATA
drives die on me in one week. The earlier ones were Western Digital and
Samsung. The latest 2 are Maxtor 250Gb and 300Gb.

Somebody suggested that ventilation/cooling was an issue. So in the
latest pc I had plenty of fans and ventilation around the HD area but
still 2 of them died. They normally start off with a ticking noise and
then die within a week or two.

Start by getting a program such as speedfan and checking the hd
temperature. The lower the temp, the longer drives will ast. I don't
like to see a drive above 90f. Fans are fine, but if they aren't
doing what needs done because they are blowing in the wrong direction
or are mounted in the wrong place, they won't help.

 

[Larc]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:39:50 -0500, Chris Hill

|
| >I have had around 5 hard drives breaking down on me in the last few
| >years - losing data on each occassion. Just recently, I had 2 SATA
| >drives die on me in one week. The earlier ones were Western Digital and
| >Samsung. The latest 2 are Maxtor 250Gb and 300Gb.
| >
| >Somebody suggested that ventilation/cooling was an issue. So in the
| >latest pc I had plenty of fans and ventilation around the HD area but
| >still 2 of them died. They normally start off with a ticking noise and
| >then die within a week or two.
| >
|
| Start by getting a program such as speedfan and checking the hd
| temperature. The lower the temp, the longer drives will ast. I don't
| like to see a drive above 90f. Fans are fine, but if they aren't
| doing what needs done because they are blowing in the wrong direction
| or are mounted in the wrong place, they won't help.

The normal working temp of most HDDs is @ 35 to 40C, which would be 95 to 104F.
Keeping most at 90F (@ 32C) or below would require specific HDD cooling in many
cases.

Even in a very well ventilated large case, my HDD runs @ 36C according to
SpeedFan v.4.29. I have two WD PATAs that are several years old and have never
given any problems, so the temps must not disagree with them.

Larc



§§§ - Change planet to earth to reply by email - §§§

 

[Chris Hill]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:39:50 -0500, Chris Hill

|
| >I have had around 5 hard drives breaking down on me in the last few
| >years - losing data on each occassion. Just recently, I had 2 SATA
| >drives die on me in one week. The earlier ones were Western Digital and
| >Samsung. The latest 2 are Maxtor 250Gb and 300Gb.
| >
| >Somebody suggested that ventilation/cooling was an issue. So in the
| >latest pc I had plenty of fans and ventilation around the HD area but
| >still 2 of them died. They normally start off with a ticking noise and
| >then die within a week or two.
| >
|
| Start by getting a program such as speedfan and checking the hd
| temperature. The lower the temp, the longer drives will ast. I don't
| like to see a drive above 90f. Fans are fine, but if they aren't
| doing what needs done because they are blowing in the wrong direction
| or are mounted in the wrong place, they won't help.

The normal working temp of most HDDs is @ 35 to 40C, which would be 95 to 104F.
Keeping most at 90F (@ 32C) or below would require specific HDD cooling in many
cases.

Even in a very well ventilated large case, my HDD runs @ 36C according to
SpeedFan v.4.29. I have two WD PATAs that are several years old and have never
given any problems, so the temps must not disagree with them.

It just requires a big case and a fan in front of the drive. Cooler
is definitely better, but many of the smaller cases just weren't
designed for cooling. I had an emachine with a microatx case and the
drive would easily hit 105 or higher on a regular basis because there
was no cooling to speak of.

 

[Geoff]

I ran two seagate cheetahs, 10,000 rpms close together with no problems. I
had them for 5 years.

As one poster said, I suspect the vendor and the other thing is make sure
you have enough juice, a 400 to 500 watt power supply.

-g

 

[Nick]

I do have a decent power supply in the current box, cant say same for
the old boxes.

How would a poor power supply effect the HD or kill it?

 

[Agent_C]

The normal working temp of most HDDs is @ 35 to 40C, which would be 95 to 104F.
Keeping most at 90F (@ 32C) or below would require specific HDD cooling in many
cases.

I have a 15,000 rpm SCSI drive that would quickly fry without active
cooling. (I learned this the hard way).

The drive is mounted with the circuit board facing up and a Vantec
Iceberg heatsync/fan combo mounted directly on top.
http://www.casecooler.com/vablichacoh1.html

It stays at a fairly constant 33c.

A_C

 

[JAD]

I do have a decent power supply in the current box, cant say same for
the old boxes.

How would a poor power supply effect the HD or kill it?

basic...low voltage / high voltage burn / spikes

 

[Nick]

Actually I just noticed that 2 of the data HDs were sharing the power
socket with 2 case fans. So in effect one power line was powering 2 HDs
and 2 fans. I have a 550w power supply.

Still does not explain why the system HD went as it was on its own
power socket.

 

[EDM]

Actually I just noticed that 2 of the data HDs were sharing the power
socket with 2 case fans. So in effect one power line was powering 2 HDs
and 2 fans. I have a 550w power supply.

Still does not explain why the system HD went as it was on its own
power socket.

I missed the first part of this thread, but the four most
common causes of premature HD failure are:

1. Overheating (over 40C is a death sentence for any
HD, temps should preferably be kept under 35C);

2. Improper mounting (e.g. overtightened mounting
screws, warped drive bays and other problems that
cause drive case flexing);

3. Exposure to vibration/shock, and

4. Flaky power. A PSU wattage rating doesn't tell
you anything about the /quality/ of power it supplies.
E.g. voltage from cheaper PSUs can fluctuate wildly
during load changes.

 

[Nick]

I took the system drive out and connected it to another pc using a
different cable and it started up and was shwoing the files ok. So I
pluggged it back into the original pc using the new cable (minus the
other drive) and it started up ok. The only problem was that Winxp
would not start up; it was complaining of a corrupt hive file which
must have happened during the crashes etc. I connected it back to the
other pc, recovered the files from repair folder and re-connected and
it worked ok. It seems to be working ok now although it forces an
consistency check everytime winxp starts up.

The other drive seems to start up now but slows up after a fvew mins
use - signs that its dying. I am just going to get the files off and
discard it.

So it seems that the data disk was faulty but it also took down the
system disk. Weird. Was the cabel at fault? Was the data disk
reponsible for taking everything down?

 

[Conor]

I took the system drive out and connected it to another pc using a
different cable and it started up and was shwoing the files ok. So I
pluggged it back into the original pc using the new cable (minus the
other drive) and it started up ok. The only problem was that Winxp
would not start up; it was complaining of a corrupt hive file which
must have happened during the crashes etc. I connected it back to the
other pc, recovered the files from repair folder and re-connected and
it worked ok. It seems to be working ok now although it forces an
consistency check everytime winxp starts up.

The other drive seems to start up now but slows up after a fvew mins
use - signs that its dying. I am just going to get the files off and
discard it.

So it seems that the data disk was faulty but it also took down the
system disk. Weird. Was the cabel at fault? Was the data disk
reponsible for taking everything down?

Chances are that it caused data corruption on the system drive when
files were being transferred.