Dual new HD failure

terrachild · Oct 30, 2013

Okay, I'm stumped.
I have a new ASUS X79 MB.
I hooked up two new Seagate 4TB sata drives in a raid 1 config and all was fine.

Fine until I turned off my computer unhooked the power cables to the two drives, left the data cable plugged in, and turned my computer on again. I did this to test a third drive.
The problem is, after my test, the two Seagates suddenly won't even spin up.
I checked the power cables to the drives, swapped the cables with the one powering my DVD drives, which I know work, and still nothing. I held both of them in my hand with the power cable only (no data cable) attached to the drives, and there was no vibration at power up. Nothing!

How can two new drives fail at exactly the same time for no apparent reason?

I've disconnected power cables to sata drives and left the data cable attached countless times over the years. That shouldn't do this.

Help?

smorizio · Oct 30, 2013

check to see if it a firmware bug. try updating the drive firmware to see if the drives are found. try the drives in another pc to rule out bad power supply or other issue.

terrachild · Oct 30, 2013

I've tried another drive on the same psu cable and it spins up fine, so it isn't the psu or the cable.

The two drives were connected to the psu with a y-splitter cable. That is molex to two sata power connectors.
Is it possible that even with the computer off, that maybe momentarily touching the molex connector backwards would do something?

The computer was plugged in, but it was definitely off. There shouldn't be power to the drives cable in that case.

alyoshka · Oct 30, 2013

"The two drives were connected to the psu with a y-splitter cable. That is molex to two sata power connectors."

And what else do you have connected to that same power cable.?

It is advisable to use only one power output for one peripheral ..... that's the basic rule nowadays, yes, I remember having plugged in 2 things in every power outlet of the PSU a decade ago...... and it worked.... but electronics then and now vary in sensitivity to current, we didn't have such PSUs then....
So there is a chance that you may have damaged the drives especially since your PSU seems to be a generation older than the 2/4 tbs have recently come out.

Being Seagate.... hmmmm. I have used them nearly all my life, but, I did have problems with the first bunch of 1.5TB drives they came out with, 2 Drives, same shipment same FIRMWARE, failed twice , Replaced and the new ones failed too....that's 3 Times simultaneous failures in the same rig..... finally I had to write to them and tell them to replace the drives with drives with a different PCB revision and firmware.... I would not accept the same things again and they did so..... They're working fine till date... this was five years ago.
But recently Seagate seems to have had a lot of problems and HDDs are failing left right and center... so....either way you ought to send them in for a replacement
get the new drives within 7 days I think and try them out.... if they do fail soon after that.... send them in for replacement too and check versions of firmware and pcbs before and after replacements that'll give you the exact reason for the failure be it the firmware/pcb/or your PSU.

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Dual new HD failure

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