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Well another Hard Drive has just died on me... This time a 200g Seagate (another $180 down the drain).

Not sure what would cause it but one of the chips on the hard drive itself has fried (yep, actually burnt onto the harddrive!!!)

I was lucky that I only lost 2 days worth of photos, even though one day was my wifes family Xmas

This is the second HD this year that has become unusable for me, I am trualey at a lose as to what it causing them to fail (well besides the obvious burning).

I think it is about time I backup all my DVD's as well as my existing HD. I also need a new backup stratergy (I know we have all discussed this before).

Oh well, I am now off to backup everything I don't have on DVD already.

W00DY

Woody, I would have to say that if it has happened twice, there may be a problem with your set-up. I am no IT expert (although we have plenty here), but it just seems too coincidental. Perhaps one of our experts can shed some light.

Greg B wrote:Woody, I would have to say that if it has happened twice, there may be a problem with your set-up. I am no IT expert (although we have plenty here), but it just seems too coincidental. Perhaps one of our experts can shed some light.

Just to clarify only one HD has had a chip burnt.

The other one got hit by a virus and then had a heap of bad blocks on it so I could not save anything to it.

Sorry re-read my post again and I didn't make that very clear

I think it is just bad luck!!! I am reluctant to go out and buy anther 200gig HD though. But my only other option is to buy plenty of DVD's and just keep 2 copies of everything I guess.

Does anyone know much about zip drives are they worth looking into or are DVD's the way to go?

W00DY

Hey! Seagate always provides 3 or 5 year warranty on Seagate drives of that size.

http://support.seagate.com/customer/war ... dation.jsp

and key in model & serial number, it will return with the remaining warranty of the drive, if there's a warranty still, then an RMA is issue with shipping address in Australia, Seagate does not care where did you buy and no invoice needed for warranty. If the warranty is still current, then they will send a replacemnet for you once they received the bad drive(s).

The problems of burned chip on the PCB, maybe from your power supply, surge etc...
If that's still happens then a new and proper power supply brand as Antec is required.

As Birdy said

Mate; I’d be taking out the power supply & getting it tested.
It sounds to me that, for some reason it spicks every now & then

Just a thought.

Cheers
Ray

Woody,

As birddog says, check the Seacrate website to see what the warranty deal is.

Then as both Birddog and Ray said, kick the power supply. They're generally a very cheap - not to be confused with inexpensive - component. Replace it with something good.

Birddog114 wrote:Hey! Seagate always provides 3 or 5 year warranty on Seagate drives of that size.

This is good news. Will they replace the drive considering the problem and that I don't have an original receipt?

I just did a check on the site and my drive is under warranty.

Birddog114 wrote:The problems of burned chip on the PCB, maybe from your power supply, surge etc...

Interesting you say this becouse I was just thinking the same thing. I had this drive as an external drive hooked up via an external casing. We went out earlier tonight when the storm hit Sydney. The PC was turned off however the external drive was on. When we came home the drive was fried, I guess you could pretty well bank on a power surge.

The fact that we are bypassing the safety switch on the main power board to the house (due to renovations and re-wiring) doesn't make the situation any better.

I think I will go out tomorrow and buy a very good power board with a surge protector on it. Any recommendations?

W00DY

gstark wrote:Woody,

kick the power supply. They're generally a very cheap - not to be confused with inexpensive - component. Replace it with something good.

Considering my latest post do you think the power supply to the PC shoudl still be replaced, or would a good power board be sufficient?

W00DY

Does anyone know much about zip drives are they worth looking into or are DVD's the way to go?

Woody,
Are you joking?, what can you do with the Zip drive nowaday: 100Mb/ 250Mb and 750mb (rare)
Iomega has the product called Iomega Rev, with the media cartridge is 30Gb, can backup with compression as 90Gb on one media. compression is not always good on graphics or photos and also very limited.
Cost the drive + 1 media is around $500.00 and a blank media is also around or less than 60 bucks.
Yes it's external USB2 or Firewire device.
The other solution is backup on DVD as you said with top media as DVD Armor Plate from TDK

Birddog114 wrote:

Does anyone know much about zip drives are they worth looking into or are DVD's the way to go?

Woody,
Are you joking?, what can you do with the Zip drive nowaday: 100Mb/ 250Mb and 750mb (rare)
Iomega has the product called Iomega Rev, with the media cartridge is 30Gb, can backup with compression as 90Gb on one media. compression is not always good on graphics or photos and also very limited.
Cost the drive + 1 media is around $500.00 and a blank media is also around or less than 60 bucks.
Yes it's external USB2 or Firewire device.
The other solution is backup on DVD as you said with top media as DVD Armor Plate from TDK

Thanks Birddog, I have never used or looked into ZIP drives so have never known their limitations.

I will stick with DVD's.

W00DY

You're saying that this was an external drive?

Ok, then it'll probably be the external unit rather than the PC.

It's certainly worth trying to get a warranty replacement, but based upon what you're saying, this may well not be covered by warranty. One way to find out though. The worst they can say is "no".

gstark wrote:You're saying that this was an external drive?

Ok, then it'll probably be the external unit rather than the PC.

It's certainly worth trying to get a warranty replacement, but based upon what you're saying, this may well not be covered by warranty. One way to find out though. The worst they can say is "no".

Yeah it was external.

I don't expect them to cover a power surge (especially if they knew I didn't have any surge protection at the time)

I will be calling them on Monday and give it a go.

W00DY

Woody,
In your earlier post you did not mentioned that you were using the external case.
So it's not the PSU inside the PC.
OK throw that internal case in the bin, try to get warranty on the Hdd and buy another external USB 2/ Firewire case.
Lust a very good power board with surge protection or an small UPS.

Woody,
do this way, just log on to Seagate warranty as I said earlier.
and key in all details of the drives and get the RMA online.
Play dumb, pack the drives, send to Seagate Australia on Monday and wait for their response, follow up couple days later
Don't ring, don't ask and keep your mouth shut until you hear from them or call them few days later with your RMA number.
Then they will say: we'll send you the replacement drive.
Seagate don't need the proof of purchase because once supplier sold Seagate drive, they are automatic generate the serial number for warranty, and they did not care where and when you purchase.

Birddog114 wrote:Woody,
do this way, just log on to Seagate warranty as I said earlier.
and key in all details of the drives and get the RMA online.
Play dumb, pack the drives, send to Seagate Australia on Monday and wait for their response, follow up couple days later
Don't ring, don't ask and keep your mouth shut until you hear from them or call them few days later with your RMA number.
Then they will say: we'll send you the replacement drive.
Seagate don't need the proof of purchase because once supplier sold Seagate drive, they are automatic generate the serial number for warranty, and they did not care where and when you purchase.

Exactly what I was planning to do.

It would be good if I can get a replacement as I only have an 80g drive now. But I don't expect them to replace it so I can't complain if they don't.

About 18 mths ago, a group of friends kicked in for my significant other to have a Harley ride for their 50th Birthday. I followed "other" and Harley all over Canberra taking photos - you know the kind of thing - Harley driving into frame, Harley driving through frame, on Harley with Helmet etc - once in a lifetime memories of a one off event.

Downloaded them onto HDD, wiped card. Meant to burn them to 2 DVDs. A week later, "Other" forgot (again) that our house doesn't have enough power to turn on a mouse wheel and turned on the oven, washing machine and dishwasher at the same time. There go the fuses again. To make matters worse and obviously hoping they could get the power back on again before I noticed (sure!), they reset the fuse before I got a chance to switch the computer off. Power surge, fried motherboard, corrupted hard drive which wouldn't boot to OS.

I was in such jolly humour after this that, when I rebuilt the PC, I completely forgot to try and rescue the photos and just reformatted the lot.

Perhaps this was just an excuse, but the following week I went out and bought a shiny new Maxtor One Touch external firewire drive - now my important files back up automatically to something that should be far enough away from the PC (physically) to survive any similar occurrence. A truly trouble-free set and forget solution - although still not foolproof as Woody's experiences with his external drive show. I have to say, though, that the reason I didn't simply build my own external hard drive (using a normal drive and an external case) was that I had done this before with a DVD burner and it never worked as well externally as internally. I had every intention of simply returning the Maxtor if it didn't behave just as reliably as if it were internal. Fortunately it did and does.

So I still burn to two DVDs - it's just that the external HDD backup is very quick and easy and gives me a second line of defence. Also, after seeing people who lost everything in the Canberra bushfires because they had no warning to evacuate (thankfully the fires didn't touch our place, although they came far too close for my liking), I keep one set at work (ie off site). When you pack up your car ready to evacuate, it highlights what's important to you. Aside from two changes of clothes, toiletries, birth certificates and such, all we packed were the photographs, so I figured I should look after them. In fact, my next holiday project is to digitize all my old photos (kids growing up sort of thing) and slides (mouldy slides of photos taken by my Dad) so they can be backed up to DVDs as well.

I use surge protectors as well (mostly Belkin now), but the one on the PC that fried was pretty ancient - a false economy.

Re surge protection, today I saw an interesting looking doohickey that seemed to be a cross between a surge protector and a UPS. It was a surge protected six outlet powerboard with battery backup and claimed to give 30mins running time on the battery. It was more than $200 but less than $300 at Hardley Normal. Think it was a Belkin.

I had a Seagate hdd die last month. It just stopped responding, restarted again long enough for me to back it up & then died for good about a minute later!
Checked with Seagate site warranty on it & it expired January 2005. Got RMA of their site, send it on Wednesday & following Wednesday replacement arrived from Singapore! Great customer service!
The replacement they send is always a reconditioned drive of the same size as original.
Get a good quality power supply for your computer - Enermax, Antec to name few.
I also use APC Smart UPS 700 uninterrupted power supply - best accessory for my computer I ever bought! Will save you money in the long run.

Sorry to hear W00DY, bugger! I have a couple of spare SeaShell cases (the protective cases that come around Seagate drives) that you can have if you need to ship the drive. Keep your fingers crossed, you might score a Barracuda 7200.8 when you RMA the old one, or at the very least you have an excuse to get one.

Ouch, sorry to hear of your misfortune Woody.

A surge protector or UPS for your computer is good for peach of mind - even if it's just a placebo. I use an American Power Conversions powerboard with filtering for phone lines as well - it's handy if you hook up a fax machine or have ADSL connection on your systems, for instance. APC and Belkin both offer ridiculous amounts for replacement of connected equipment should the unit fail to do its job: $80k, $200k, etc. I know of no other brands confident enough to offer this type of warranty - although I'm sure there's tons of conditions that apply if you'll need to claim.

2 hard drives in a row does seem to be pointing to something else that's going wrong.