Two different drives failed in 3 months??

[jlowder]

A few months ago my IDE hard drive bit it. So, I go off and buy a 250 gig SATA WD drive. Next thing you know, grind, grind grind BOOM.

Now, I have a few questions here. The motherboard is brand new. One drive was connected via the IDE, this new one via the SATA connection. It's not likely that BOTH connections are bad, right?

The SATA drive got HOT as ****. It was then that I noticed that the two fans on the back of the case were not running at all. They were connected to the power supply.

Could it be that either a) because my fans weren't running, the hd's just over heated? or b) my power supply isn't working correctly?

I'm going to go out and buy a new case and ANOTHER HD today. I'm hoping this will solve the problem, but I wanted to know what those familiar with this kind of thing had to say about it. Maybe there is something I can do to better protect my drives or better determine the cause...

Thanks.

Jason

 

[waylander]

I would do exactly what you are doing but please list all your system specs (this should be the first thing you do regardless of what your problem is).

Do you have any way to monitor the temperatures in your case? If your fans aren't working it would seem like a temperature issue but I think you'd start seeing the effects from a hot cpu and gpu as well. Make sure that whatever case you get has 120mm fans at the front (just in front of your hdds as intake) and at the back (as exhaust), a side fan to blow cool air to your cpu (if it draws air down into the hsf) or a top exhaust fan which can release any trapped hot air out of your case would also help.

 

[jlowder]

Well I'm running an AMD 64 3200 and I'm not sure of the Mother board but it requires NVIDIA drivers (is there an NVIDIA MB?). 1 gig of ram..

The CPU fan DOES work. There are two fans on the back of the case, which are not running. There are NO fans on the front of the case or anywhere else for that matter.

The first time the drive failed, I took off the side of the case and pulled the drive out and left it on the carpet while I got XP re-installed on it. That's how I noticed it was so hot and the rear fans were not working... Not sure how to test the temp in the case.

Ok, I'll look for a case with fans in the front and rear.

Thanks.

J

 

[qwertycopter]

It's not likely that BOTH connections are bad, right?

Hard drives fail not from bad connectors but because of manufacturing errors and exposure to heat, ESD, vibrations, and impacts.

So the SATA drive was installed in the case with non-working fans when it failed? AT this point was it making the characteristic click/grind/whine noises of a failing hard drive? Also, how long was it running in the case without fans and what were you doing with the drive in this time?

You then set it outside the case and it failed again? Did it make noises this time? What is it doing now.. working or not?

pulled the drive out and left it on the carpet while I got XP re-installed on it

That wasn't a good move. Carpet generates static electricity which can easily damage the delicate traces on the circuit board. Furthermore, the carpet will trap heat preventing the drive from cooling correctly.

 

[Sonic_Reducer]

for temp check i use evarest it's very nice , well i have a wd 120gb caviar sata and runs about 36 degrees on my case wich i have 1 intake on front right in front of the drive and one intake on the site and then 2 outake one in rear and one in the right side near cd-roms, maybe your psu needs replacement.

 

[mpjesse]

The number one killer of hard drives is HEAT. Period.

 

[kittle]

The SATA drive got HOT as ****. It was then that I noticed that the two fans on the back of the case were not running at all. They were connected to the power supply.

Heat is definately your issue here. if the drive is too hot to touch while your system is on - you will have problems.

one thing to lookout for with those fans - are they plugged into a "fan" plug that comes from the power supply? I had a PSU that had dedicated fan plugs. but they didnt work. any fan plugged in either turned very slowly (about 4rpm) or did nothing. Until I plugged them into the normal molex connectors. then all was fine.

 

[jaguarskx]

A similar situation happened to a co-work a few years ago. He had two WD 250GB HDDs, both died within a month of each other. WD sent him replacements and he quickly put them up for sale on e-Bay.

 

[jap0nes]

i think it was:

A) heat
B) a bad power outlet. You should use some kind of power regulator
C) a bad power supply
D) two or more combined

 

[allhell]

Get a better case for sure but send back the defective drives for warranty replacement.
OH!!! i'm sorry you can afford it.

 

[bigsby]

now that's just being a dick. People who are dicks get banned mighty quickly.


Yes you should plug your fans into a regular molex connector and make sure you have a fan in the front where your hard drive cage is. That is the biggest issue why your hard drives were failing. Another part why your drives failed from heat is from a badly designed case. I somehow run my computer with a prescott on only the cpu fan and the 80mm psu fan. How the case was made so it would function like that was pretty crazy, with the 120mm fan sucking in air from the front, and a little goes over the hard drive, then its got a tunnel which brings it though this massive cpu cooler and northbridge. Its then pointed at my video card, which has not fan. then it gets sucked out the back by the psu.

 

[allhell]

I take it you think that its ok for some dumb manufacturers to design silly 7200 rpm hard drives heaters that run "so hot" & get away with it?
OH!!! I'm sorry you can afford it too.
I see from your cpu that you like heaters also & think its ok.
How dumb am I?

 

[allhell]

27000+ posts,,,, hhhhmnnnn,,,, your name says it all...

 

[chrispyski]

I've been reading these forums for some time now and I'm finally motivated to write.

I've had 3 250gb SATA Western Digital drives fail on me in a 1 year period (WD2500JD), my last one just died yesterday. Since this is my storage drive it's not a huge loss, but 3 failures in a year?!? My 74GB Raptor is still alive and kicking.

I suppose my question is this, is there a more reliable large storage manufacture than Western Digital, cause since I have heard nothing but problems from there drives other than the Raptors. I'm thinking of switching over to Seagates...

Any opinions?
-Thanks

 

[allhell]

I strongly suggest you read the reviews on Newegg about any drive you intend to purchase to hear what others have experienced.

There too many drives out there that run way too hot like some intel processors,,,, & that combination in a small case thats not adequately ventilated can be disasterous.

 

[chrispyski]

Yeah, thats exactally what I ended up doing. Opted just to go with a decent 7200.09 Seagate from Newegg.

I don't think the drives ever got that hot because I have intake fans blowing right on the drive bay and my temp probe placed on top of the drive itself never got above 35C. I just think I got a series of bad WD drives and as a result, I'm never going to buy another one again.

 

[INeedCache]

I wouldn't necessarily put a lot of trust in those reviews from newegg. Some are written by real computer-knowing folks, and others by run of the mill first timers. But, besides that, all brands of hard drives have failures. You may end reading reviews by people who have very little experience with more than one or two hard drives. Someone buys a Maxtor hard drive and it fails, then they believe all Maxtors suck. Another buys one and it purrs along without incident for several years, so to them Maxtor is reliable and the best. Kind of skewed, don't you think? You can certainly read those newegg reviews, and you can get some input here, but I'd also check a few reputable sites online like www.storagereview.com, and get their perspective as well. Also, you might want to check with some local shops or system builders, and get their perspective as they deal with a lot more drives than home users. From our shop's perspective, we have found Samsung to be quite reliable over the last 3-4 years.

 

[plewis00_uk]

I wouldn't necessarily put a lot of trust in those reviews from newegg. Some are written by real computer-knowing folks, and others by run of the mill first timers. But, besides that, all brands of hard drives have failures. You may end reading reviews by people who have very little experience with more than one or two hard drives. Someone buys a Maxtor hard drive and it fails, then they believe all Maxtors suck. Another buys one and it purrs along without incident for several years, so to them Maxtor is reliable and the best. Kind of skewed, don't you think? You can certainly read those newegg reviews, and you can get some input here, but I'd also check a few reputable sites online like www.storagereview.com, and get their perspective as well. Also, you might want to check with some local shops or system builders, and get their perspective as they deal with a lot more drives than home users. From our shop's perspective, we have found Samsung to be quite reliable over the last 3-4 years.

This is true, as is the fact that if someone is annoyed at a company they are more likely to complain and make an issue about it than if they are happy (i.e. I mean, they are less likely to voice their happiness if there are no issues). Therefore anyone who says this is better than that because they haven't had a failure isn't representative of the whole lot. Also, this means you are more likely to see complaints about any given manufacturer than any other.

These latest big hard disks with lots of platters do get hotter than others, it's just a fact, high spin rate with lots of moving electronics leads to heat. If you can put fans in there do it. For people like me using SFFs, it's very hard to do so and my hard disk runs hot as a result (300Gb Maxtor), not so hot I can't touch it, but hot enough I'm a little concerned.

 

[Codesmith]

I just buy the drives that offer the best warranty.

So currently I only buy drives with 5 year warranties, which means WD Raptors, RE's and Segates. and I run full diagnostics on all new HD's.

Plus only build with cases with hard drive cages that are cooled by the front intake fans.

I also when I build a custom PC for a client, I always contact them when their HD warranty expires and try to talk them into getting a new HD.

All the hard drives I have worked with with the exception of IBM's have outlived their warranties.

 

[allhell]

I agree there lots of idiots or people with adjendas write many reviews but I think most of us can recognise & ignore those after reading a few.
I do a lot of reading before I purchase anything because easily 60-70% of what i purchase is refurbed stuff.

 

[w_xelnaga]

Maxtor SATA is bad news! (not sure about their PATAs though)


I have 4 Maxtor SATA in my box and my attemp to keep them below 40C failed. I have no idea how hot they were running until I touched them one day. They are hot! Several HDD monitor programs report the same temp 55-61C range! all 4 of them!

I quickly upgrade the case to Antec P160, redo all my wiring, but that does not help either. I have a huge fan blowing directly to these Maxtor and that would not make any different. Anyway, after 10 times rewiring my box and reposition my fans, I finally got these suckers to stay at 42-48C range (out side temp is 23, case temp is 35). The other 3 drives WD run at 28C!!! And no, it's not that these WD got better spot. I have them all mixed out so these WD get the same amount of airflow just like the Maxtor.

I know there is not a perfect HDD and they all fail eventually (so far 1 Maxtor and 1 WD had died on me), but if I am gonna get a new HDD, i would stay away from Maxtor for now, until they can get the temp of their drive down.

Hope this helps.

 

[qwertycopter]

What model are the 4 Maxtor drives?

 

[makishi]

maXtor HDs for me is a bit issue...

i've knew a lot of my friends went gaga over maxtor HDs but they all had the same problem.... "HEAT" just like what mpjesse wrote...

should you have Maxtor Hds i recommend to set up your computer to let enough ventilation in your casing, and leaving at least enough spaces in between the hardwares...

choose a Seagate HD. really nice.