Crappy HDDs Killing Computers

[Andy Green]

Tim wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 13:04 +0100, Andy Green wrote:
>> After three hours on the different powersupply one of the drives (with
>> no SATA connection) has spontaneously started clunking every few
>> seconds and has twice spun down and up again.  When I picked it up to
>> read the label it stopped clunking briefly then resumed.
> 
> Just for interest's sake:
> 
> Was it mounted somewhere with decent air flow for heat dissipation?

No, it was resting on top of a plastic box in a room during this test. 
But on picking up the HDD it only felt quite warm, I could hold it easily.

While in the case there were multiple fans and it was in the appropriate 
slot.  Further the second HDD to fail did not last out a week in the 
same position that the first lasted most of year.

> Was it bolted to a metal chassis that would help with heat dissipation?
> Was it grounded?

Yeah it was via a Class 1 PSU where 0V == Earth Ground.

> Were anti-static precautions taken during handling?

No, I have never had a failure of anything I could put down to static, 
and that includes unmounted chips much more sensitive than a HDD IO 
connector.  Certainly when it was in the case there is zero chance of 
static causing the trouble since the case is earthed metal and the HDD 
does not come to the outside world.

Recently I took a design of mine through testing for compliance to 
various standards, and it survived 16kV air discharges and one directly 
to the case by accident, without special precautions.  In a climate like 
England, static is not a real consideration with modern ICs.

-Andy
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