Slashdot Mirror
Any Recourse for Failed Drives?
mijoe asks: "I have been using various HDDs in my boxes with the exception of Western Digitals since I had some problems with them in the past. My recent issue was with a pair of Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120s. I had both drives fail in about a 2 month span. One of them is 14 months old, and is out of warranty. The logic board is bad (I swapped with a good one and recovered my data), but Maxtor was very short with me when I asked where I could buy replacement boards. Since then, I've switched to Seagate drives for the 5 yr warranty and quiet performance. Is there any place I can buy parts? It seems like a huge waste to throw out a 120 gig drive with the mechanical bits in good working order. What can I do when drives break down? Should I just switch to another manufacturer until I suffer a rash of failures again and then move to the next company?"
It seems like a huge waste to throw out a 120 gig drive with the mechanical bits in good working order.
It is a waste. the vast majority drives die when their platters or head goes - very few actually lose a logic board. As such, there are LOTS of dead drives with good logic boards floating around. Just fleabay/Craigslist for your drive model along with the word 'parts' or 'repair'. Pick up a drive with bad surfaces and cannibalize the still-good logicboard . . . Win/Win.
Western Digital (back in the Caviar days) were the WORST drives ever. Back then the only drives I used were Quantum fireballs - fast as hell, and reliable (I still have a 20GB FB Plus LM in use today). But overnight, on a new manufacturing process, Western Digital stole the performance crown, and their "Special Edition" "J" series drives have been rock solid and stable. If I had stuck with my hatred of WD through the "Caviar" drives, I'd have missed out on these great drives, and their even-greater 10K RPM "Raptor" drives as well.
And before Quantum? All I used were Seagate, and Micropolis (remember them?) In every case, something changed, and they weren't the performance leader anymore. I changed, and for the better each time.
When you lose a drive, how do you know its bad manufacturing? And (with the exception of incidents like the IBM Deskstars) - I haven't seen any evidence that a particular modern-day drive is more "prone" to failures than any other - and I can't honestly believe that one person or entity can purchase enough drives to create an empirical sample-set.
But that's just me. YMMV, but I wouldn't blacklist a company because they "used" to make bad drives. I mean, who do you end up hurting but yourself?
In my fifth failed drive, I often have a working drive (on the shelf) in which I can carefully remove the logic board and exchange it with the failing drive.
Only the 3rd time, the spindle was jammed or the motor is dead (no spinning), in this case, it was the RAID that save the day (as usual).
In all cases, these drives were selected for their highest reported reliability (that I can determine from various websites). Then I research for the latest drive models with the best uptime and go out and buy them.
You do DO backup, don't you?
Something like 23% of all IT folks ever bother doing backup period. Less than 5% do backup daily. Its a common theme with small/medium business not having an IT staff.
For SMB IT folks, invest a lil' extra in H/W RAID; it'll save your hide (not to mention your job). If you're budget-constrained (another common IT issue), go with software RAID.
When you turn equipment on, changes are higher that you will break it then if you had left it running.
The electrical resistance of a part varies with its temperature. In general, the colder a part is, the smaller its resistance.
Current I=U/R
So the smaller the resistance, the greater the current.
Consider that most lightbulbs break when you turn them on.
Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. T. S. Eliot