Damaged hard drive?

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LancelotSA

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So I'm here to let you guys confirm what I already know......

I just knocked my 1TB external hard drive off the table while it was having files written to it. Now when I switch it on it is giving me the dreaded clicking sound and is not being picked up on the PC via USB.

So have I killed it?

Is there anything that can be done. It has 500Gb of stuff on it....
 
The interesting thing is that the drive says warranty void if drive experiences shock in excess of 350Gs... is a fall off a table that much?!?!
 
It is possible that the hdd has become loosened from the bracket (inside). Is it possible to open the bracket and check the connections WITHOUT damaging the casing?
 
The "cradle" = bracket = casing (everyone calls it something else!!)
 
Sounds pretty dead to me. Is this one you bought very recently?

You could recover the data, if it were very important to you, but it'd be costly, depending on the type of failure (usually mechanical, in this case).

Yes, 350 G sounds like a lot, but
G ~= 10 m/(s.s)
Say it fell 1 m. It probably reached a speed of 10m/s by the time it hit the ground. It then reached 0 m/s in a VERY short time. The shorter the time, the faster the deceleration.

F = ma

and thus, F is proportional to the acceleration. So if you think that the drive slowed to 0 m/s in an extremely short time, then it stands to reason that the force experienced must have been VERY large.

So, for a conservative estimate of the mass ~= 0.5 kg, it would require that your drive took approximately 15 ms to slow to a halt; this is COMPLETELY possible.
 
The annoying thing is that it is never the actual drive that is of concern but the lost data!

Critical stuff I have backed up elsewhere but it is the month's if downloads on there that will be lost :( And the drive is fairly new! Damn the cable that pulled it off :)
 
Can it be taken back for replacement after a fall? If not, is it worth trying to open it and give home repairs a go or are the chances of that being successful almost 0?
 
If there is no visible physical damage, take it back and say it "ees brokken"!!
 
LancelotSA said:
Can it be taken back for replacement after a fall? If not, is it worth trying to open it and give home repairs a go or are the chances of that being successful almost 0?
Click to expand...

If there are no physical indications of it having been abused, try RMA it and see what they say. It's not like you have anything to lose in doing so.

Best of luck. It's never fun to lose your data :(
 
LancelotSA said:
The bloody trouble is remembering what exactly was on it! I know it was around 600Gb but no idea exactly what! :(

Does it get taken back to where you bought it or does one contact Seagate directly?
Click to expand...

Well, this is where I love shopping online--request a return and they send the couriers to pick it up. Then it's just a matter of time until you either get it back, or get a new one. Love it :) Much better than going into a store and dealing with those dreary, "Huh? Whatchoo expect me to do?" faces.

If not a store then you'd have to likely contact one of the Seagate suppliers (instead of Seagate directly), technically any of them should be able to help but I've never gone through a supplier to RMA before so... I have no idea. Feel free to edjoomacate me on how it all goes :D
 
There could be accelerometer stickers in that drive that will change colour if it exceeded the 350G's and a similar sticker for liquids.
 
RoMark said:
There could be accelerometer stickers in that drive that will change colour if it exceeded the 350G's and a similar sticker for liquids.
Click to expand...

Possibly. I see it is under warranty until Aug 2012 so let me take it back and see what they say. If I have no joy then so be it.

That sounds like some interesting science though. Are there honestly stickers that can indicate Gs?
 
sn3rd said:
Sounds pretty dead to me. Is this one you bought very recently?

You could recover the data, if it were very important to you, but it'd be costly, depending on the type of failure (usually mechanical, in this case).

Yes, 350 G sounds like a lot, but
G ~= 10 m/(s.s)
Say it fell 1 m. It probably reached a speed of 10m/s by the time it hit the ground. It then reached 0 m/s in a VERY short time. The shorter the time, the faster the deceleration.

F = ma

and thus, F is proportional to the acceleration. So if you think that the drive slowed to 0 m/s in an extremely short time, then it stands to reason that the force experienced must have been VERY large.

So, for a conservative estimate of the mass ~= 0.5 kg, it would require that your drive took approximately 15 ms to slow to a halt; this is COMPLETELY possible.
Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for clearing that up. I always wondered just how hard/fast a disk should fall before it breaks....

Loosing a disk sucks, I accidentally deleted mine, and as you mentioned, it sucks not knowing what is missing - or if you will even miss it :)

@Lance - You need to take the disk back to where you bought it, although any shop could help you most will not because they simply don't give a rats ass. Of course, you could send the serial to me and I could check - assuming you bought it in JHB?
 
LancelotSA said:
That sounds like some interesting science though. Are there honestly stickers that can indicate Gs?
Click to expand...

Yeah, those guys from Mythbusters stick them on their dummy....

Edit - meant to add "to test Gs in impact tests". Doesn't really make sense without that last part :D
 
Last edited:
Conradl said:
@Lance - You need to take the disk back to where you bought it, although any shop could help you most will not because they simply don't give a rats ass. Of course, you could send the serial to me and I could check - assuming you bought it in JHB?
Click to expand...

Nah, I bought it in Durbs. I checked the Seagate website and it showed it to be under warranty until Aug 2012.

I found this which was also pretty interesting but again no one did the actual maths! :)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/216253-14-hard-drive-shock-tolerance

But they did make 350G sound like a large number! The thing is that the fall of my hard drive would have been slowed slightly by the fact that the USB cable was still plugged in to the computer and hence provided some resistance.

I assume the shop returns it to Seagate who then check it out before deciding whether to replace it. What happens then? Will the shop give me a new drive?
 
LancelotSA said:
I assume the shop returns it to Seagate who then check it out before deciding whether to replace it. What happens then? Will the shop give me a new drive?
Click to expand...

Typically, the supplier does a basic check (I imagine just to see if there is any physical damage or if the drive has been mishandled in some way) and then either replaces it and/or sends it off to the manufacturer if you dispute their refusal to replace it (for whatever reason), otherwise they just return it to you. Takes about a week or so (thinking of online stores) but no idea for physical stores.

What I mean to say is that I don't think the shop would give you a new drive; they'd first send it back to one of the Seagate suppliers in ZA who would then issue a new drive which you'd be able to fetch from the store at some point.

At least that's my guess.
 
Lycanthrope said:
Typically, the supplier does a basic check (I imagine just to see if there is any physical damage or if the drive has been mishandled in some way) and then either replaces it and/or sends it off to the manufacturer if you dispute their refusal to replace it (for whatever reason), otherwise they just return it to you.
Click to expand...

Out on interest, in looking for some information online I found this Seagate warranty void checklist.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=14de3804f3333210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

As stated by yourself clear signs of physical damage are immediate reasons for voiding the warranty. I see they also mention "no ESD bag or SeaShell". Unfortunately I don't still have the bag it came in.
 
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