Re: Fans and Hard Drives

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From: Ron Bogart (ripSPAM_at_SUXtbit.net)
Date: 12/05/04 

Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 23:43:25 -0600

In news:%23Gc9Avo2EHA.1260@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl,
JAX <slipslide@pop.not> did some thinking and came up with these words:
> Re. the later post about using Seagate, that's still a debatable
> point, but personally I'd go for WD instead until someone eventually
> PROVES to me that Seagate has as good a track record as WD.
>
> The OP states that the failed drives were Maxtor. I have never had
> much luck with Maxtor and have switched to WD, but I will have to
> consider the Seagate warranty when I buy another drive. Seagate's is
> 5 years!!
> FWIW, JAX
>
> "johnf" <john_f@bigREMOVEpond.net.au> wrote in message
> news:%230gpr%23d2EHA.3408@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Basic rules I use.
>>
>> If the cabling allows it, separate feeds for the drive fans. (any
>> component which is motor-driven, such as fans - which have to start
>> spinning from a static state, have a quite high 'stall-current"
>> before the fan actually starts rotating, which will cause a voltage
>> drop to the drive on the same cable. Miniscule possibly, but
>> depending on the cable cross-area, but it's still there. The fan,
>> for a short period demands a high current, which causes a voltage
>> drop to anything else on that cable. Keep as much breathing space as your
>> case will allow between 2
>> drives to give ample airflow above & below each & make sure your
>> case ducting is pretty dust-free..
>> Whether the drives are S-ATA or IDE really doesn't come into it
>> AFAIK. Regarding LEDs, they draw bugger-all current, so I'd just classify
>> that advice as ignorance/ extremely limited electronic knowledge.
>>
>> Re. the later post about using Seagate, that's still a debatable
>> point, but personally I'd go for WD instead until someone eventually
>> PROVES to me that Seagate has as good a track record as WD.
>>
>> BTW, it wouldn't do any harm to dig up some Power-supply voltage
>> monitoring software - you may have one rail that's feeding a voltage
>> way out of tolerance, seeing you've managed to lose 2 drives in a
>> short period of time.
>>
>> --
>>
>> johnf
>>
>>> I have lost 2 hard drives in the last two months. One being 2 years
>>> old and did not concern me. The other was just recently but Maxtor
>>> RMA it successfully. The Hard drives were IDE types.
>>>
>>> I was reading in some articles (but cannot remember what the links
>>> are), that you should not connect fans to the hard drive power
>>> leads. Can anyone confirm this to be true? If this is true, should
>>> you connect the LED power button to hard drive leads as well?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mike

I have had nothing but trouble with the last 4 WD drives I bought - switched
to Seagate and haven't had another problem. For the record though, all 4 WD
drives that failed and failed miserable (including replacements) were 80 Gig
drives. 

-- 
Ron Bogart {}  τΏτ¬
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
"Life is what happens while we are making other plans."
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