OT: Puzzling HD failures

Check your cables. You have had them in and out so many times, they might start to fail.

Check your machine for viruses and Trojans. Check that your software is fully updated, check that windows is full updated, and finally you have to check how the drive is attached.

If you are using an external enclosure and USB 'hooks', you have to watch that you do not use the same USB port over and over as they DO 'wear out'. If it is eSATA or direct SATA, check those cables. You should also check the drive's power cables, and the power supply voltages.

D.

ysis.

g.

re

I had a USB drive that went belly up. Turned out to have a SATA drive inside which I hooked up to the mobo and power cables directly and it ran with no problem. Perhaps the USB current limit starved the drive making it non- functional. al

Many external drive enclosures use "odd ball" connectors which can fail easily. This may cause an intermittent which can make the drive appear failed. I've seen the same problem with removable drive carriers made to slide into adapters in 5 1/2" case openings.

With any system failures, connectors should be the first thing to check.

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Virg Wall

I use the removable HD kits,with plenty of the carriers for multiple drives. Changing carriers makes no difference; the part that mounts in the PC remains untouched. Even if there was a cable problem, it would not show in this manner.

Spinrite "lives" on a write-protected floppy with a PCDOS boot (not altered for years), so virii etc are not even remotely possible. Spinrite Version 6.0 is the latest (since numerous years ago) and runs in DOS and not windows. What is left in your list? How the drive is attached..see prevous "answer".

Problems with HD power would not show in this manner.

Possible. Am not using USB; These are PATA drives, directly connected (via removable HD kits).

• Bingo (sort-of); am using those removable drive carriers (exclusively due to the great convenience). But i have numerous carriers and it seems to make no difference which ones i use. More recently i dug into a "pile" of older failed drives and with one sector as an exception on two of 4 drives, all now passed. The only thing common so far, is that these now-good drives had sat in an anti-static bag for two or more days.

See the section

*Partition alignment changes may break some systems* at

I /think/ I encountered this with Ubuntu 10.04 installed on a Seagate

160GB hard drive, on an Abit NF7 motherboard. Booted fine a half-dozen times, but then the BIOS hung up detecting the drive the last time.

They would if the PS problems were intermittent problems.

My very first PC was a reject that kept trouncing formatted hard drives. The first time I turned it on, I could hear the power switch sizzling. As soon as I fixed that, the unit never failed again and never trounced another hard drive again. That was my first PC, an Everex 286. I still have it somewhere.

Guess how those drives appeared to an outside observer?

As per one suggestion, i replaced the frame of the removable HD kit (ie: the part that mounts in the PC and gets the wear & tear). There was one other common factor that logic dictates should not give problems: i had added an electrostatic air filter about the time these HD failures showed up. I removed that the day before replacing that HD kit frame. (Shhh) so far have not seen any new problems (do not tell Murphy).

D.

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ysis.

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ive

Three points

1 Spinrite checks the electrical interface to death before checking the platters so I suggest you stop looking at the cables, however your PSU might not be up to it. 2 Drives hate vibration so murphy might not be involved with changing the filters which might get you a resonance you won't notice. 3 drives can only tolerate a certain rate of temperature rise, where are you storing them before using them.

Colin

The electrostatic filter may have been it. Since you 'fixed' two things at once, you will not know the true culprit.

Use a big ES air filter in your whole house (at least the PC room) instead of at the device location. Especially for a group of devices as sensitive as these.

You have big dust problems? I get a lot here, but I monitor my temp points all the time, and I only clean up my heat sinks and tines about once every three months, and they are pretty filthy then. Oddly the temp does not move a lot between cleaned and jammed with dust.

Yep; dusty so it fails the black glove test..which is why i tried the ES filter. So next thing is a cheap HEPA. Check; i also notice that the filthy buildup of dust on the CPU heatsink seems to make much difference.

I guess that mine doesn't because I have a fairly cool running CPU.

Maybe I should OC it and see how far I can push it, since a new PC is on my horizon soon. I always refrained from OCing my CPU because I figure that Intel set the speed rate of it through some form of testing.

How are the HDDs mounted? Putting them on flexible noise damping mounts can cause problems ie head movement plus Newton's 3rd

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Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onetribe - Occult Talk Show

You are nuttier than a fruitcake!

A modern HD can be mounted in ANY position as long as the vents do not get occluded.

And NO, vibrational resonances do NOT build on a dampened mounting.

I see some of the silliest shit in the world being said in here.

They have ALWAYS been made to be mounted on vibrational dampening systems, and they have always suffered LESS vibrationally sourced issues as a result.

the

Spinrite

sectors

analysis.

(ie:

=20

That had been problems with early VC head positioners that were not properly balanced. Most current production is properly balanced. Still the current designs are intended for fixed mount, and likely not doubly balanced.

That would be a nutcake then, mostly.

And as far as the other claim regarding vibration resilience goes...

Regarding the silliest shit I agree, though Slashdot is leading.

Werner Dahn