Dead Drive?

[nparker13]

My primary boot drive, an 80GB OEM maxtor (i think) almost died today. Can anyone figure out why?

I started my computer, and explorer.exe just kept closing and opening in a loop. Windows wouldnt load. I hooked the drive (which was EXTREMELY hot) to an external USB enclosure to browse the contents on my laptop. It would just freeze, and I would get a delayed write error. I ended up waiting, to let the drive cool down, and it allowed me to access it (could the excessive heat have caused it?) I still couldnt boot windows.

I took my 200gb backup drive, which i regularly ghost my primary on to, formated the primary, and restored the ghost. Worked perfectly.

There is no extra noise from the hardrive, and it is running fine now. My computer is in a ventalated area, which has a desk fan blowing air out of the area 12 hours a day.

What could be wrong?
Is it a hardware issue?
Should i replace the drive?
Is the ghost ok to use to restore? (prefs and registrations was kept this time)
Should i consider getting a diffrernt primary drive?
Is there a better way to cool my system?
Can i leave the side of the case off? Its not that big of an eyesore, its sort of out of sight, and nothing wouold be hitting it, but it would prob get dusty.

thanks
nate

[Bilar Crais]

Any idea what temp is was running before you pulled it?

Awhile back, when I put in a Maxtor 120g, I didn't have any fans blowing on it, and didn't think anything of it. One day, I pulled it out to do some maintainence, and it was so damned hot, I think I scorched my fingers...had to be well over 60c. Now, I have a low rpm 120cm fan blowing directly on it
(intake), and I exhaust it out the back with an identical fan. Under continuous duty, it now runs around 34c.

Heat is a big time killer!

[nparker13]

do you have any links to fans or examples of them? where did you get them? im assuming they plug directly into either the mobo or the powersupply?

-nate

[RobertH]

Heat is the #1 killer of harddrives, its just like an engine, youve got a lot (well not that many but still) of very intricate moving parts in there with a very small amount of non replacable lubricant. If it starts to heat up that will start to break down then you get nice grindy noises and are looking for a new drive.

One thing you may want to look into is motherboard monitor, its not being updated any more but one of its "advanced" features is that it can read the temps from the sensor built into most newer drives when they are plugged into the motherboard ide controller (not sata/raid controllers unfortunatly) ive got that setup on my pvr system and the computer alerts me (by making horrid beeping noises) when the temp goes over about 45c, wich with 2 panaflo 80mm fans and 3 tiny low rpm 60mm fans keeps everything nice and cool in my htpc, plus since its a celeron it runs nice an cool compared to the athlon i used to run.

[RobertH]

you can get all sorts of fans from new-egg:
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufactor...alog=62&DEPA=1

[Bilar Crais]

It's going to depend on your case. My Antec already had provisions for 120cm exhaust and intake fans, and the drives mount in a rack system right in front of the intake fan, so it's pretty handy. I bought some Silvertone 120cm fans, which came with rheostat voltage controlers, which mount in the floppy bays in the front. So I can crank them up or down as I see fit. They have the larger three wire connectors; they probably draw too much current to run over the motherboard headers. There are a myriad of hard drive cooling solutions to choose from...there should be something available to fit your particular needs.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.frozencpu.com/

In the hottest days of summer (who would have thought that it can get up to 112f. in North Dakota), I have no choice but to pull the side cover off and crack down the FSB. The worst thing, as you say, is the dust.

[softnerd]

There's no doubt about it being a hardware problem. One thing's for sure: don't put any critical data on that hard drive. If it's that far gone it might be on a downward spiral that you can't stop. You might want to just write it off to be safe (get it replaced if it's still under warranty). Also, the lower-end Maxtor drives have a bad rep for failure rates. Seagate drives are a little more $$$, but you can usually find one with a 5-year warranty.

[DanielS]

I've seem this happen on one of my 7200 RPM Maxtors before. Strangest thing. Normally they run just a tad warm. But this one was drop-dead blazing hot for some reason. I let it cool off and added a 3.5" bottom cooler to it after that. Curiousor and curiousor!

[Seattlite]

I've heard many complaints about Maxtor... my experience, 1st and only Maxtor I bought died in 3 months. Returning was such a headache, I tossed it in the trash.

My DELL came with a Seagate, I've always heard great things about Seagate, went and bought a Seagate... happy since.

So I'm just going to say, the problem was probably that is was a Maxtor. Sorry that i can't give you any troubleshooting advice, but sometimes a smelly load is just a smelly load... regardless of how many vent fans, or how much perfume.

[DanielS]

First, let me say that I've almost always had GOOD luck with Maxtor (had to RMA only one drive in 6 years). I actively cool my drives in desktop applications with 3.5" bottom coolers. I always have with all my HDs. I think that's why my IBM Deathstar lasted so long when most others died prematurely. That being said, the industry as a whole seems to consider them less than reliable. I don't cool them in my HTPCs due to space and noise considerations.

Due to experience from others, I've switched to using Seagates for my customers.