Sigh. It seems that every year one of my HDs crashes, loose a couple of days worth of work (I make backups once/twice a week), buy a new HD from another brand, only to crash again next year.

Weird thing is that the HDs always crash when the computer is idle. I usually go out to run some errands and when I get back my computer has crashed and when I try to reboot I find out one of the HDs is shot. This time it's a 500Gb data disk that holds all my important data. Sure, I have a back up which is only a few days old, but still it's going to be a pain to restore everything. Not to mention I've lost a few days of work. Argh.

I have no idea why they crash, it's not that they are busy all the time. Only for storing data occasionally.

This time was a Maxtor HD, before that a Western Digital crashed, before that a Samsung. I'm sick and tired of these crap brands. What brand should I try next?

At this point, i think they all do. Nothing is built to last anymore, its why i do regular backups onto cd/dvd ( and a 2nd copy of stuff i really cant afford to lose.. ) tho in general i think SCSI last longer then IDE.

If you do an image backup every so often, reloading isnt a pain.

Filter your power.

Back in the day, I used to drop drives right & left.
Untill I cleaned up my power.
Never underestimate the value of a good UPS.

Wouldn´t it be feasible to run two? Just 'top' the second one up once a week, for example,and then shut it down until the next top-up? Then you would always have one virtually up-to-date in reserve, but dormant? I do that with my 500GB USB drive for my Karaoke Show.Keep one to use all the time, and when I download new songs, I transfer them once a week to the reserve one. Of course, my knowledge of these things is virtually zero, but it works for me..but maybe I am WAY out of my depth here
Nick

quote Originally posted by Boondawg: Filter your power. Back in the day, I used to drop drives right & left. Untill I cleaned up my power. Never underestimate the value of a good UPS.

I used to run a industrial line filer on my stuff when a UPS was too expensive for home ( i got it free, it cost even more.. ), but it didn't seem to help me much on drives.

But i do agree, its a good idea.

It sounds like you need an automatic disk backup system. Do you have any hard drive cooling fans, the ones that mount directly to the drives? I found these make the hard drives last longer too.

.

I had a couple of hard drives crash on me.

Then I realized that the air circulation on my PC was screwed up because I hadnt put blanks in a couple of open slots.

I fixed that and havent had a problem since.

Cooling is key.

OMG, I forgot how much IE sucks (Firefox won't start because it's missing its data files.

quote Originally posted by Boondawg: Filter your power.

Funny you should say that, since I suspect it must be something with my power. Even though it's grounded, it's grounded on the plumbing. I also need to replace my DVD rewriter once a year because they break down each time too - no idea why because I hardly ever burn DVDs or CDs (other than for the occasional backup).

quote Originally posted by fierofetish: Wouldn´t it be feasible to run two?

I already have a second 500Gb HD with the sole purpose of backing up the first. But I don't do daily backups (I should). I make a backup perhaps once/twice a weeks. My last backup is from last tuesday. Thanks to the holidays I haven't done much work this past week, but I did loose some workand of course all my emails froms past week (which were stored there as well) - and that sucks big time...

RAID. With HDD's being so inexpensive these days, it just makes sense for critical data.

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: Funny you should say that, since I suspect it must be something with my power. Even though it's grounded, it's grounded on the plumbing.

I suspect you are on the right track.

When I was grounded to the plumbing, (done myself, becouse of old wiring without ground, in the wall) I also had the same problems.
The UPS fixed it.
Although, the "Ground Fault" light stayed lit on the UPS all the time, I never lost a drive again.
Before that, it played hell on all my drives, from 3.5 to optical, and everything inbetween (hard drive, Zip, etc.).

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 12-23-2007).]

This is the sound it makes. Quality sucks, I'm all out of HD whirring sound recording microphones.

Heat is the main killer.

That sounds like a seek problem with the heads. Defiantly the sound of HDD death.

[This message has been edited by 84Bill (edited 12-23-2007).]

quote Originally posted by 84Bill: Heat is the main killer.

These HDs don't get hot at all. Case temp is below 86F and the HDs feel cool to the touch...

Like Boondawg suggested, I think you should examine the electrical system in the house. Dirty power will kill even the best computer components. An online UPS or power conditioner might be in order.

Also, if you're having that many drives fail, you need fault tolerance! I'm talking about RAID, of course. A simple 2-drive RAID1 setup should suffice.

Are they getting too hot?

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: These HDs don't get hot at all. Case temp is below 86F and the HDs feel cool to the touch...

Interesting... I have a set of Dell_tm Western Digitals that get so hot I cant even hold onto them. And some Seagate SCSI's

quote Originally posted by IEatRice: Are they getting too hot?

Only when Bill, Phranc and Aceman are arguing !!

Like FrugalFiero said - RAID.

I'm currently running a RAID 0 on my OS drive for performance reasons, will all data on separate drives, as well as backed up. I keep an OS image in case one of my OS drives craps out, but even with the performance advantage, I'm thinking about switching over to a RAID 1 next time around - just to know I won't have to worry about a HDD failure. The chances of 2 drives failing at the same time are pretty slim, barring a catastrophic event like a lightning strike or something similar.

RIght now I'm using Western Digital drives. I've got 2 Raptors for my OS RAID 0, and I use their IDE 7200 RPM drives for data storage. I use the Caviar RE version, not the SE. The RE is the "RAID Edition" which is designed for 24/7 operation. I don't run it 24/7, but it's good peace of mind.

Of all the drives I've seen fail at work - Maxtor is probably the biggest culprit. Seagate is probably the least failure prone, although it's hard to tell since we do use fewer Seagates.

[This message has been edited by Formula88 (edited 12-23-2007).]

I've had bad luck with every brand except Hitachi, but I haven't been using them long enough to have bad luck, 7 drives and it's been less than a year (three in my PC and one in each laptop, sold all but one of the laptops). I used to use Western Digital almost exclusively, but I've had three go bad. Usually takes a few years for the WD's to go bad, all other brands I've tried died in a couple months or so. My current PC has two 80mm case fas blowing right over the hard drives, with the intake air coming right from a vent I added to the front of the PC, and there's two more fans at the back of the computer pulling the air out, they stay NICE and cool.

------------------

1984 Fiero SE

Hitachi and Maxtor are the same drives with different labels these days, IIRC.

I can't think of any other reason for the failure then dirty power, or just plain bad quality hard drive. Like I said, case temp is well below 90F and the HDs are cool to the touch - always. The data drive is only used when, well, storing data so the failure can't be stress related. In fact, this HD failed when the PC was idle (or as idle as can be in a Windows system).

I can feel the platters are stuck, or at least they are not spinning up. So it looks like an electronics failure - which is frustrating because in all probability, all my data is in tact. I just can't get to it...

You might try holding the drive in your hand and snapping your wrist in such a way that the platter will move, relative to where it's sitting.

Also, try the old tech support trick of putting the drive in a ziplock bag and putting it in the freezer for a while. That's been proven to wake up "dead" drives on quite a few occasions. Hopefully long enough to get your data off. It might even work several times, but I wouldn't count on it.
(Usually, this works for the drive that is making the "tink-tink-tink" noise, but not spinning up.)

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 12-23-2007).]

quote Originally posted by fierofetish: Only when Bill, Phranc and Aceman are arguing !!

PLEASE don't feed the trolls

HD doesn't need a huge amount of air but it can't be in the dead zone many are in allot of machines. Even the coolest running ones throw heat that needs removal.

Why it died when it went to stand by... most likely thermal change. It got real hot then something contracted when it cooled and opened a circuit. It is a fairly common problem to electronics. (If this wasn't bad enough normally... This is apparently a huge problem being hidden in in many ROHS compliant products. The lead free solders are driving just about everyone nuts. It's being fingered as a potential cause of RROD in Xbox360.)

I have a large 120mm turning at very low speed in my case that keeps the drive bay cool. The drives are running 86-100F.

Most drive coolers are crap. They don't get heat out of the drive bay and worse often make airflow even more restricted. Many that claim to increase surface area in fact fail miserably to do so thanks to poor mechanical attachment.

You're better off modding the case and moving drives as needed to make sure there is airflow around them. Now that nearly all drives have on board thermal monitors, checking cooling is fairly painless.

When was the Maxtor made... Before the Seagate buyout, they were producing some real crap. After the Seagate buyout and you're buying Seagate's lowest grade product.

Once you replace it... Get PCwizard and check the drive temperatures when they've run awhile. (It's the cleanest installing system info tool. Doesn't throw stuff all over and can even be dragged to and run from removable media. I keep a copy on a thumb drive.)

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

Just FYI, my two favorite hard drive brands are Seagate and Western Digital. I've never been let down by either brand. As a matter of fact, I exclusively use Seagate drives in my web/file server.

On the other hand, I make a point to avoid Maxtor drives. My experiences with them are not very positive.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 12-23-2007).]

How about some new technology if you can adapt it? http://www.samsungssd.com/w...is_ssd/overview.html

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: Funny you should say that, since I suspect it must be something with my power. Even though it's grounded, it's grounded on the plumbing. I also need to replace my DVD rewriter once a year because they break down each time too - no idea why because I hardly ever burn DVDs or CDs (other than for the occasional backup).

Having an electrician's license and a plumber's license I can offer an observation here. Not all grounds are created equal. If you have an older 2 wire system then creating a good ground means installing a Ufer bar.
Most plumbing is hung or run through a variety of conduits before ending up in the solid Earth. Plumbing is fine for a ground if you expect to get struck by lightning but if you want to ground low amperage devices you need a dedicated ground that will win the resistance war every time. I suggest a piece of # 5 rebar. Drive it into the ground near your foundation about 4 feet (more is better). Use a ground strap with a set screw to attach your ground wire (no smaller than #10 gauge, #8 is what you would use for most electric motors like hot tubs, etc). Then install GFCI outlets and use a battery back-up Line Conditioner for your PC equipment.

Other tips, keep the HDD's out of direct sunlight and away from heating vents. And use compressed air to clean them weekly.

Good luck

[Edited by Cliff Pennock: "Removed a remark for personal reasons."]
[Edited by Toddster: "Corrected the reason for removal."]

[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 12-26-2007).]

Here is another article on SATA SSDs http://techreport.com/articles.x/13163

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 12-23-2007).]

Hard Drive brands-

I have had the most problems with Maxtor and Western Digitals, and the least with Seagate. I had a Western Digital 250gig that was used solely for backups and shut off. It lasted about 1.5 years, and was probably only used once every two months. i had abot 3 Maxtors die, and 2 Western Digitals

Notice that Western digital had a one year warranty for a few year peiod there- I think they knew they were producing junk.

I havent had any dead seagates, but I dont have that many either.

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: This is the sound it makes. Quality sucks, I'm all out of HD whirring sound recording microphones.

all i could hear was a 50's or 60's air cooled Porsche or VW driving through town honking it's horn

For those that don't follow tech news...

Maxtor = Seagate. They were bought out around a year or three ago. Maxtor is now Seagate's "consumer" brand and many products only get a 1 year warranty. Frankly many thought Seagate should have just killed the brand entirely and still won't touch Maxtor.

Prior to the sale, Maxtor was turning out serious amounts of crap. Any old Maxtor inventory was suspect out the door.

I use Seagate, WD, Samsung, and Fujitsu, drives without much problem.

The main problem I ran into with older WD was rotation noise. Even the worst noise makers hardly ever failed and I haven't found them any worse than any other line. I've had no problems with newer ones.

Yes, I was about to say that: Maxtor eq Seagate.

I had already tried "snapping" the hard drive (where you quickly turn it in the rotational direction of the platters), I had also tried the freezer trick, it didn't help. Also, the hard drives do not get hot at all at any time. There are two hard drives inside my computer and two outside. The two inside are positioned directly into the case's airflow (in fact, they are positioned directly behind one of the case's fans). They are not stacked and both have at least two inch of space above/below them. Inside the case the temp never rises above 90F because the CPU is watercooled (meaning heat is dissipated outside the case), the Northbridge is cooled too and heat is transferred using heatpipes to one of the case fans, and my videocard blows its hot air directly outside the case.

I was planning on buying the exact same HD tomorrow (if they still have them, then again, I just checked and the HD is only 7 months old) and try to switch the PCB because I suspect it's an electronics problem since just hookinh up the power to this drive is enough for the PC to fail to seen any of the HDs. If that doesn't help, then the platters are probably really stuck and I'll open up the HD and give them platters a little "nudge". Unfortunately, that will void the warranty...

Seagate is the brand to buy right now. They are one of my accounts and when I visit their corporate office, they give me their latest hard drives to install in their access computers and video surveillance equipment. They have developed a 1 terabyte drive that is designed specifically for DVR equipment. It is designed to be overwritten a few times daily so it is a very reliable drive. If you can get one of these, your problems are solved.

Seagate is the only brand of HD that I buy. I've built a few systems, all with Seagate HD's, and never have had one crash on me.

Seagate's seem to be a lot quieter than other drives I've heard, plus they have a 5 year warranty.

A few things to consider:

1. Solid State hard Drive

2.Raid


3. DROBO. ( http://www.drobo.com/?gclid...iUwZACFQ1ZHgodTXcsOw )

4. Backup onto DVD or some other media.


As others have said, heat kills, but what I only recently found out was, that some HDDS don't like beging COLD! They LIKE to run "warm".
Also, some "hard drive error checking" apps that used to be useful at detecting/dealing with errors can actually hurt a dying drive... if you DO have a 'dying drive" , ghost it to another drive, with the "ignore errors" or "sector-by-sector" copy.


I can't wait till "Hard Drives" stop spinning...and are reasonably priced...


As silly as it sounds, progress on my things have been delayed several times by HDD issues. First, my tablet, then my home pc, then my home PC again...(luckily, the drives were under warranty, but still... )


It's not so much re-installing the OS, it's the OS updates , re-installing the apps and updating all of them...

Just a WASTE of time...!!!!

[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 12-24-2007).]

quote Originally posted by theogre: For those that don't follow tech news... Maxtor = Seagate. They were bought out around a year or three ago. Maxtor is now Seagate's "consumer" brand and many products only get a 1 year warranty. Frankly many thought Seagate should have just killed the brand entirely and still won't touch Maxtor. Prior to the sale, Maxtor was turning out serious amounts of crap. Any old Maxtor inventory was suspect out the door. ...

I used to use Quantum drives before they were gobbled up by Maxtor.
The Quantum Fireball that I had was one of the quietest drives I've ever owned, and it lasted 6-8 years before it finally died. The smaller Fireball drive that it replaced never failed. I just outgrew it.
Maxtor offered a "Fireball" line after the buyout, but I was never sure that it was the same stuff as the old Quantum drives.
My last drive purchase was a WD. Okay, so far.

I bought the exact same HD today and exchanged the circuit board. That did not help at all. So now I have the new HD in my system and I'm currently restoring from last tuesday's backup.

An observation about the new drive though: this drive is much faster than the old drive (even though they are the exact same drives). In fact, the new drive is more than twice as fast according to Sandra. So it seems that my old drive had been defective since the beginning.

A second observation is that If I look at the bottom of these drives, I see a few contacts on both drives that aren't actually making contact to anything (see picture below), so they are probably test contacts. But if I take a close look, I see that with the new drive these contacts are clean, but with the old drive, you can see "contact marks" which suggests that these contacts have been used so perhaps this drive is refurbished?