Re: cold storage saves data from failing external
- From: E Z Peaces <cash@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:16:28 -0400
Gary Gorbet wrote:
(1) The refrigerator can help you rescue data from a failing external
drive.
(2) Sometimes the failure is the enclosure instead of the drive itself.
[...]
I was concerned about all the condensation from the freezer,
so next time I just put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Condensation might affect the enclosure but shouldn't occur within the drive. After you remove it from the refrigerator, it will be warming, so there will be pressure inside. Pressure will be reduced as it cools in the refrigerator, but the air in there will be dry.
Hitachi says my drive should be operated no colder than 0 C and with a temperature change no greater than 20 C per hour. So the refrigerator would be the best bet.
I've always been satisfied with Newegg. Last year I bought a Newertech Ministack from Other World Computing. I regret it.
That enclosures could go bad was not really a new revelation to me, but
I *assumed* in this case that my hard drive was going bad. I ordered a
new 500 Gig Seagate from Newegg. I've had great luck over the years
with both Seagate and Newegg, so was horrified when the new drive would
not mount. It then occurred to me that I ought to at least investigate
the possibility that the enclosure was bad. I took the drive to work
and tried it in an enclosure there. It came right up. Back home, I
tried my "bad" drive in the enclosure borrowed from work and -
surprise! - no problems mounting and using the volumes.
They offered it as an enclosure alone or an enclosure with a disk that was not specified except for capacity and physical size. I bought it with the disk.
Each day I'd turn it on before my Mac. The light would come on and the disk would hum. One morning there was no light or sound.
The 12V output of the power brick was only 6V. It was supposed to have short-circuit protection, which suggested that the drive had not caused the failure. However, it was possible that in the experience of Newertech techs, a problem with the drive could cause the power supply to fail or a power supply failure could damage the drive.
I emailed them. The tech didn't comment on whether there was likely to be a problem with anything besides the brick. I told him I hated to send the disk in because it was my only disk big enough for a compete backup. If something happened to my internal drive after I sent my external drive back, I might never recover important files.
He said I'd have to send in the drive to get the power supply replaced under warranty. I wouldn't have minded sending the enclosure back if I could have popped the disk into another enclosure so I could be sure it worked and hang onto the data. However, a sticker on the enclosure said opening it would void the warranty. In view of the fact that the enclosure was also sold with no disk, that restriction seemed unnecessary. It meant the customer couldn't get warranty service without exposing his disk to the risk of being dropped, erased, lost, replaced, or copied by "identity thieves."
Rather than risk the data, I paid them about $35 for a new brick.
With the new brick, the drive worked fine for four hours and several starts as I moved files between computers. Then there was no light or hum. The new power supply was still good. Evidently the failure of the old power supply had damaged the enclosure. I had hoped tech support would warn me of this possibility, based on their experience.
So I sent the whole thing back under warranty, with a note explaining that when I turned it on connected to nothing but the new power supply, there was no light or hum, and the new power supply tested good under load.
When it came back, the original brick had been replaced. Now I had two new power supplies. An initialed form said everything except the power supply was perfect. I turned it on. No light or hum. Trusting that Newertech really had gotten it to work, I connected it to a USB hub. It damaged my hub.
I emailed Newertech to say it had not come on when connected only to the power supply. I said the power supply was good. They waited 48 hours, then said they thought it was some other device causing the problem.
I emailed them back, repeating that it had failed to come on when connected only to the power supply. They waited 48 hours and told me again they thought some other device was causing the problem.
It was clear to me that if I sent it back again, they would return it without fixing it. If I'd realized they weren't going to fix it, I could have saved myself $75 and three weeks by buying an enclosure from another manufacturer. No more Newertech or Other World Computing for me.
Even if I'd gotten good warranty service, everything would have been easier with a separate disk and enclosure. I guess we've learned the same lesson on that score. I've had a hard time being sure which Firewire enclosures will boot a Mac.
.
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- cold storage saves data from failing external
- From: Gary Gorbet
- cold storage saves data from failing external
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