Re: Expert Advice Sought
- From: Arno Wagner <me@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Aug 2005 21:41:56 GMT
Previously Andy <kanadaiy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> To All Cognoscenti,
> I had a desktop computer built for us by a local outfit 22 months ago. It's
> equipped with a Maxtor 6Y120PO hard drive in a slide-out cage. Shortly
> after taking delivery of the unit I discovered that the tiny fan built into
> the front of the slide-out cage was missing. An inquiry to the head honcho
> of the outfit produced the answer that they had removed the fan as it was
> unneeded because today's drives operated at high temperatures without any
> harm. I felt uneasy about the matter, but who am I to argue with a
> technician, right?
Well, besides shock, heat is still the number one HDD killer.
Maxtor says 5C...55C with no impact on ARR (i.e. warranty claims)
and up to 60C with "acceptable" impact, whatever that means.
If you intend to operate your drives longer than the warranty
period, staying well below the 55C most of the time and
never exceeding it may be a good idea.
> About a year ago our computer started seriously misbehaving. After much
> pulling of hair a disk scan revealed four files with bad clusters in the
> occupied areas of the partition containing Windows XP and our application
> programs. Lately major problems reared their ugly heads again. One problem
> was a badly seated memory card. The other, according to a disk scan with
> CHKDSK /R, dozens of files with bad clusters in the occupied areas of the
> partition containing the data files. I don't know how many because the list
> scrolled off the screen.
Looks like a typical dying Maxtor disk. The nice thing about them
is that the die gradually, i.e. when you observe the first warning
signs (defect sectors that the disk could not hide, or better
steadily growing reallocated sectors in the SMART values),
most data is still intact and you can get it off.
> The computer sits on the floor in our living room and no jarring has ever
> occurred.
> Question one: is the removal of the fan from the slide-out cage a likely
> contributing factor to the repeated and increasing failure of the disk?
Personal opinion: Yes. But there is a random chance factor involved,
you may have just gotten unlucky or the disk might have been subject
to excessive shock before it was mounted in the PC.
> Question two: is the disk toast?
Most likely. When a modern disk cannot hide defects anymore that
is a _very_ bad sign.
> Expert advice from qualified technicians would be much appreciated.
Well, I don't qualify. However I have in excess of 50 HDDs currently
running, most of them mounted myself and many Maxtors among them, so
I have non-exoert experience.
Arno
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Computer Temperature
- From: Andy
- Re: Expert Advice Sought
- From: Andy
- Computer Temperature
- References:
- Expert Advice Sought
- From: Andy
- Expert Advice Sought
- Prev by Date: Re: Expert Advice Sought
- Next by Date: Re: It's worse than that it's dead (maybe anyway)
- Previous by thread: Re: Expert Advice Sought
- Next by thread: Re: Expert Advice Sought
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
