[Leaplist] Excessive, early, drive failure is no surprise to me!

[Steve Litt]

On Saturday 03 March 2007 09:56, pberry2 at cfl.rr.com wrote:
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&art
>icleId=9012066

Everyone talks about drives failing with regularity -- I feel like I must be 
the luckiest guy on earth.

First, if a drive lasts more than 3 years, I consider it fully depreciated and 
don't complain if it fails after 3 years. After 3 years either:

1) The drive is hopelessly small and not available anymore or
2) A new drive of the same size is selling for 1/3 the amount

I remember 2.5 drives going bad on me before 3 years:

1) I had an IBM Deathstar from the era when Deathstars went bad. Note that I 
had about 3 Deskstars in my fleet, and only one went bad within 3 years (and 
IIRC it was about 2 years).

2) I had a Western Digital, which for months operated with an intermittent 
power cable, cycling up and down in mid operation. I swapped out the power 
cable, but a few months later (maybe 1 year after purchase) it went bad, 
almost certainly from the stress my electrical defect had put on it.

2.5) A Western Digital drive I'd temporarily decommissioned, after replacement 
with a bigger drive, failed to work upon installation in my daughter's 
computer. I did a "Steve Litt Wipe"** on it, and tossed it in the garbage.

I've had tens of other drives, mostly Western Digital, that ran beyond 3 
years. Most of them were less than $300.00, many less than $200.00. Most 
spent at least a few months in my daily driver machine, which means they were 
stressed considerably with all sorts of varying tasks. Our household now has 
9 computers, almost all of which contain one or more disk drives I purchased 
separately, and trickled down from my daily driver through the food chain.

**Steve Litt Wipe: This is a data wiping technique whereby the drive is taken 
to the driveway, repeatedly struck with a 24 ounce hammer until the platters 
either shatter or bend and lose their coatings, and the circuit board is 
smashed beyond repair. The drive casing must be forced open to visually 
inspect the loss of platter coating -- it must never be assumed. The 
remainder is then thrown in the garbage.

Steve Litt
Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware
http://www.troubleshooters.com/