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What kills my hard drives?

navelfluffnavelfluff
edited February 2007 in Technology
A few days ago one of my hard drives died (clicking noises and BIOS boot error). It contained mainly backups, so it wasn't vital this time. However, that was the 4th HD to die in that PC during the last two years. I no longer believe this is coincidence. Does anyone have a clue as to what could kill hard drives like that?

This is a fairly old PIII, in a cabinet I bought for a PII. I haven't noticed any other instability in the system. I have planned to use this old PC as a file server, but now there are no more hard drives left to serve files from. I want to be certain it's fairly safe before I put more HDs in there, and at the moment I can't afford to buy several HDs to put in a RAID array.

Comments

  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    1) How old were the drives that died?
    2) Is there a common failure point? i.e. all on same PS plug or IDE controller
    3) Sniff the drive, any burnt components?
    4) What is the ambient temperature and humidity in the room?
  • AprecheApreche
    It very well could be a bad IDE controller on the motherboard. Did you try to plug the drives into another computer and see if they work? Are you buying really cheap drives? Give more info.
  • AndrewAndrew
    On a side note, the hard drive on my iPod broke this weekend. This is the second iPod that has had a broken hard drive in 5 months. Hopefully it is still under warranty.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    On a side note, the hard drive on my iPod broke this weekend. This is the second iPod that has had a broken hard drive in 5 months. Hopefully it is still under warranty.
    My iPod battery went flaky this morning while driving to work. I had to plug it into the cigarette lighter jack to listen to Geeknights!

    The battery wasn't even low either, I thought the thing just died because when I tried to turn it back on the apple logo would flash for a second and then the bottom 20% of the display would be hard black.
  • navelfluffnavelfluff
    I have not tested the drives in any other PC because my other PC only has SATA. The last 3 drives were IBM Deskstar 60 GB, Seagate Barracuda 160 GB, and the last and newest was Seagate Barracuda 200 GB which I think was about a year old, but I'm not sure. And yes, it was cheap. None of the drives were completely new when they failed, and the Deskstar was ancient.

    I think maybe they were all connected to IDE1 together with the optical drive. I believe at least the last three failed drives screwed up the communication on the IDE cable so that I could not use the optical drive until the failed hard drive was removed, and when tested on the other IDE cable, all communication would fail there too. I don't remember exactly how everyone behaved, but I think they all had clicking noises. I haven't noticed any burnt smell.

    The ambient temperature is about 20-23°C/68-73°F and the air is usually quite dry. I recently tweaked down the fans to reduce noise. The diagnostics tool said the CPU and motherboard temperature was well within limits, and by manual inspection the hard drives seemed OK.
  • AprecheApreche
    The drives might not be dead. The IDE controller might just be messed up. Also, the IDE cable could be messed up also. Also, it could just be the IDE controller killed the drives. I can't say more without testing.
  • navelfluffnavelfluff
    edited February 2007
    So, I should buy new cables, an IDE controller and some new hard drives and put them all in - and if the drives haven't died after 18 months, the problem could possibly have been solved. Hurray.

    I may start checking voltage and stuff like that, but I'm not experienced with that sort of error checking inside PCs. Well, the other day I did resurrect my mp3 player by the help of a multi-meter, solder iron and my awesome dexterity, so I'm not completely hopeless. :-)

    Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I guess I hoped someone here was experienced with this kind of trouble and had a good hunch of the cause and how to fix it. I know some professionals I could ask for advice, but they are more into software.
    Post edited by navelfluff on
  • CorbinCorbin
    I may start checking voltage and stuff like that, but I'm not experienced with that sort of error checking inside PCs. Well, the other day I did resurrect my mp3 player by the help of a multi-meter, solder iron and my awesome dexterity, so I'm not completely hopeless.
    Please give details this sounds interesting!
  • navelfluffnavelfluff
    I may start checking voltage and stuff like that, but I'm not experienced with that sort of error checking inside PCs. Well, the other day I did resurrect my mp3 player by the help of a multi-meter, solder iron and my awesome dexterity, so I'm not completely hopeless.
    Please give details this sounds interesting!
    Details of what? Of me resurrecting my mp3 player, or of me trying to measure things in my computer? That last part may have to wait for a while as I am very busy these days.
  • ChurbaChurba
    What kills my hard drives?

    I once killed my Broken hard-drive with my favourite hammer - a 2 KG sledge. Not too light to be practical, but still light enough for detail work.
  • tuttle88tuttle88
    image
  • ErwinErwin
    Crazy ex-girlfriends kill hard drives
  • tuttle88tuttle88
    I now have a desire to throw a computer off a balcony, I think that would be really satisfying.
  • navelfluffnavelfluff
    Sometimes I want to throw my ex-girlfriend off the balcony, but that's a completely different issue.
  • ChurbaChurba
    Sometimes I want to throw my ex-girlfriend off the balcony, but that's a completely different issue.

    I concur - If I ever meet you, I'll show you the scar where one of mine shot me with a .25 rifle.
  • navelfluffnavelfluff
    I concur - If I ever meet you, I'll show you the scar where one of mine shot me with a .25 rifle.
    Oh dear! My scars are not visible, apart from an increased number of grey hairs.
  • ChurbaChurba
    Oh dear! My scars are not visible, apart from an increased number of grey hairs.

    Yeah, some guys say "Oh, my Crazy ex" and she's not really crazy, just the guy didn't understand her for one reason or another - But when I say Crazy Ex's(There really is more than one) I really mean literally batshit Insane.
  • tuttle88tuttle88
    Sometimes I want to throw my ex-girlfriend off the balcony, but that's a completely different issue.
    I concur - If I ever meet you, I'll show you the scar where one of mine shot me with a .25 rifle.
    So to someone who knows nothing about guns is that a big one? I guess all guns are big if they are being pointed at you.
  • ChurbaChurba
    edited February 2007
    No, Its quite small - Though, most Calibres are Relatively small. The Measurement of Calibre is expressed in Inches, or more accurately, Decimals of an inch - So a .25 Calibre rifle shoots a round that is roughly 0.25 inches in Diameter, or 5.588 Millimetres, if you want it in real measurements.

    By comparison, a .38 Calibre is roughly 9.65 MM, a 9 MM is obvious, a .45 is 11.43 MM, and a .50 Calibre is 12.7 mm. Paintball guns, for the most part, are .68 Calibre.

    Also, it should be noted that A "Gauge" Measurement for a shotgun is Different - it is actually taken from how many lead spheres the diamitre of the bore would equal a pound - for example, in a 12 Gauge shotgun, it would take 12 spheres.

    Add - The scar is a depression about the size of the Fat end of a Cheap Bic Ballpoint Pen. Not very exciting, really.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • tuttle88tuttle88
    Add - The scar is a depression about the size of the Fat end of a Cheap Bic Ballpoint Pen. Not very exciting, really.
    But still, you got shot.
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