Creepy HDD

[Waterlimon]

So, many years ago, my secondary HDD broke (it was an old one from previous computer, supported with blu tack because it wouldnt fit so I couldnt use the proper screws...)

All was fine for all those years, but today, I heard constant 'click click click' if the computer was on.

First I was afraid my main (and only in use) HDD was going to die. Took me a while to figure out that the old HDD still had power connected to it, so I just pulled the wire from it and now all is fine...

Wonder what triggered it to come back to life...

[Thomas988]

The revolution begins.

[T-Bouw]

Sounds to me as if your power supply wasn't providing enough power anymore. When you removed the old HDD, more became available for the other HDD.

[Waterlimon]

Sounds to me as if your power supply wasn't providing enough power anymore. When you removed the old HDD, more became available for the other HDD.

No, I hadnt done anything to the machine for years, and then suddenly the old HDD (still with power) started clicking :/ (so I just unplugged it, which I should have done when it died... I probably had just unplugged the data cable only)

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I will tell you the most unbelievable story, but it has really happened. For my old job I worked in an office where we had a radio. The radio always worked fine except on rainy days. It would still play as normal, but when someone walked passed it turned off at random... as said: only on rainy days. When the weather was fine it never happened. Strangest thing I've ever seen. Never figured out why.

Technology can do the strangest things.

[T-Bouw]

I will tell you the most unbelievable story, but it has really happened. For my old job I worked in an office where we had a radio. The radio always worked fine except on rainy days. It would still play as normal, but when someone walked passed it turned off at random... as said: only on rainy days. When the weather was fine it never happened. Strangest thing I've ever seen. Never figured out why.

Technology can do the strangest things.

I want to try to give an explanation for this as well, but ahhh...I can't...

That's almost unbelievable indeed!

Perhaps it's related to the fact that radiosignals posesses energy?

I'll ask a colleague of mine specialized in radio-tech when I have the chance.

Edited April 30, 2015 by T-Bouw

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I would die for an explanation! It seriously is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. First we thought it was a coincidence, but when we kept a close eye on it we found this really was the case. It only worked when we passed within a meter or so. Any further had no effect at all. Also, it wasn't consistent; you could pass it ten times without the thing turning itself off... completely random. But only on rainy days.

In case of the hard drive I think some connection was broken and "fixed" itself under the right circumstances over a long time. (Tempreture for instance)

Edited April 30, 2015 by Galileo Kerbonaut

[Deutherius]

I will tell you the most unbelievable story, but it has really happened. For my old job I worked in an office where we had a radio. The radio always worked fine except on rainy days. It would still play as normal, but when someone walked passed it turned off at random... as said: only on rainy days. When the weather was fine it never happened. Strangest thing I've ever seen. Never figured out why.

Technology can do the strangest things.

My guess would be the electrostatic principle. I could build you a movement detector with an antenna, a few NPN transistors, resistors and a capacitor, that will detect the movement of large conductive objects (like people) around the antenna. Humidity in the air will change the amount of charge gathered by the antenna.

I'd assume the radio was doing something similar, although it's hard to tell what exactly was going on inside that was turning it off.

[Nuke]

ive had hard drives that have appeared to die chug along for years without actually failing. some time before i switched to ssds i had a 1tb drive to lock up for long periods for no reason. reinstalling the os didnt help, but the problem went away when i removed the drive and replaced it with an older one. however when i put the "dieing" drive into another machine it ran fine. lo and behold it is still useful enough for use as an axillary backup and also support a few linux partitions as well. i haven't had a problem with it in years and it still chugs along just fine. ive had this happen to other sata hard drives and ssds as well.

i want to attribute it to faulty sata controllers because in most cases a failing hard drive will work without glitch in another rig. but when you fall back to k.i.s.s. it makes me wonder if the cables are to blame. so ive come to the conclusion that sata cables and connectors really dont hold up well to a lot of plug/unplug cycles and will become loose and can creep off the connector entirely of its own devices. a simple application of the 'wiggle it' technique and all systems nominal. you might want to question the sata cables that come with your mobo and spend some cash on higher quality cables. but ive saved enough of those surplus cables to apply the use once and throw away practice and the problems with sata drives quickly went away. never had these kind of problems with earlier ide drives.

ive heard of situations where applying too much torque to a hdd screw can damage the drive, destroying the precision tolerances needed for a modern hard drive to function. ive always favored hand tools even when i was a system builder. but ive seen people use big power drills to install a hard drive and wonder what they were thinking. its a computer, not a house. at least use the torque setting to prevent over tightening. that sound of mashing planetary gears and over torqued motors always makes me cringe.

a general rule of thumb is if a piece of hardware fails, remove it immediately. depending on whats wrong with it, it can ruin other parts over time.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Nuke

[Flymetothemun]

~snip~

i want to attribute it to faulty sata controllers because in most cases a failing hard drive will work without glitch in another rig. but when you fall back to k.i.s.s. it makes me wonder if the cables are to blame. so ive come to the conclusion that sata cables and connectors really dont hold up well to a lot of plug/unplug cycles and will become loose and can creep off the connector entirely of its own devices. a simple application of the 'wiggle it' technique and all systems nominal. you might want to question the sata cables that come with your mobo and spend some cash on higher quality cables. but ive saved enough of those surplus cables to apply the use once and throw away practice and the problems with sata drives quickly went away. never had these kind of problems with earlier ide drives.

~snip~

I'm sorry, but when I read this this came to mind.

Once again, I'm sorry.

[Nuke]

i dont blame you, those things are evil. never had one problem with the older ribbon cables that these things replaced. i think the sata specs were designed with servers in mind, so you could have trayless hot swap bays with their own backplane. general consumer grade cables get the short end of the stick. but its ok, i expect everything to go mSata eventually, as i noticed mSata slots starting to pop up in mobos lately. nothings better than eliminating cables entirely.