My Seagate 4TB HDD from Dec 2020 has suddenly died, Any suggestions?

[Sonik Wiz]

Yeah I know this thread is mainly about HDD's. But fans have motors just like hard drives so that's my segue ....
This was taken about a year ago after about 4 yrs operation:

This is my "family" computer. Check & clean maybe once a year. Make sure the in take filters/grill is clean as often air blows over the HDD's first . Cool is good.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

oh, and another thought....
while you're in there cleaning the heat sink 'n such, replace that BIOS battery. Everyone seems to think it will last forever but it probably will not.

 

[furui_suterioo]

I bought a "brand new" drive from Bezos recently and received one that had clearly been installed in someone else's computer(scratches, the packaging was torn apart), sent it back and received another that looked brand new but was missing the instructions. So beware of buying drives from Bezos because "brand new" apparently means open box.

 

[jimfisheye]

Not only did Amazon eclipse ebay for bootlegs of popular items, they've started selling them themselves. You know how Ticket Bastard started their own scalper companies and sell directly to them? Like that. Amazon sees a bootleg version of a popular item selling on their site. They start their own company bootlegging it and that "3rd party" sells it on Amazon.

Careful out there! We're in an era of gaslighting like it's never been seen before!

 

[atrocity]

I forgot to mention cloud storage, (thinking Google, Onedrive, Mega, etc etc) although for myself I don't care to do this.

Consider this my periodic plug for Jottacloud.

 

[jimfisheye]

Mega charges $338 a year for 16TB of storage. I suppose you have to contact them for more space or maybe that's all you can get? So then which 16TB subset am I going to backup here? Yeah, I'm gonna keep buying hard drives!

I thought Mega was one of the more frugal choices too.
That Jottacloud would be over $1100 per year for 20TB! Dang!!

Hard drives purchases are still looking real good!

 

[atrocity]

That Jottacloud would be over $1100 per year for 20TB! Dang!!

Check again...$9.90/month for a personal account with unlimited storage. "Upload speed is reduced if storage exceeds 5TB" but I have not found that to be a problem. I'm in year three (I think) of having over 9TB with them and they've never complained. I honestly have no idea if my upload speeds are good or bad. I back up from a script that runs rclone, so it's one of those "Start it up and walk away" things for me.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Check again...$9.90/month for a personal account with unlimited storage. "Upload speed is reduced if storage exceeds 5TB" but I have not found that to be a problem. I'm in year three (I think) of having over 9TB with them and they've never complained. I honestly have no idea if my upload speeds are good or bad. I back up from a script that runs rclone, so it's one of those "Start it up and walk away" things for me.

It does seem rather tempting as, perhaps, a 3rd or 4th copy but I have concerns about them being in business when I might need them and I am also concerned about how long it will take to download 40TB (my music library) after a disaster. I am sticking with a duplicate NAS located remotely and a stack of local external HDDs as backups.

 

[jimfisheye]

It does seem rather tempting as, perhaps, a 3rd or 4th copy but I have concerns about them being in business when I might need them...

Absolutely don't rely on a cloud account for a critical backup! Definitely 3rd or 4th only.

Guess I'll have to look that up again? I quoted the price of their 20TB package. The cheap one is "unlimited" and they'd just let me put 20TB in there and be good with charging $900 less? Hmmm...

 

[mandrix]

I keep a free Mega account since it first opened, but I sometimes adjust it upwards if I need some temporary storage on a month by month basis.
Also a few things on Google Drive, I keep a paid account there but never rely on it for permanent backups, mostly upmixes and stuff.

I can only get ADSL where I live, so trying to upload/download large backups is out of the question. Just good old double twisted pair phone line. I get about 6/7 MB/s down.
The guv'mt paid to have fiber laid up and down every pig trail road out here in the sticks, but it all got handed over to Windstream/now Kinetic and we don't get a residential fiber option. I mean, we just pay for the stuff (your taxes) and as usual some company reaps the reward. They got a free fiber backbone but at least as I understand it all the distribution hubs are fiber connected.

 

[atrocity]

Absolutely don't rely on a cloud account for a critical backup! Definitely 3rd or 4th only.

No argument there! My main music primary is a two-drive ZFS mirror backed up to THREE other local drives, plus Jottacloud in Norway and hubiC in France.

Guess I'll have to look that up again? I quoted the price of their 20TB package. The cheap one is "unlimited" and they'd just let me put 20TB in there and be good with charging $900 less? Hmmm...

Yeah, it's...odd. But I've used them trouble-free for years and they've never complained. On the other hand, I have a lot more I could upload to them but am trying not to overdo it.

 

[Pontoneer]

The problem could be in the USB interface, the drive's electronics, the drive's drive or the platter itself (very unlikely on that one, unless you had a head crash).

(1) What "disk utility" are you referring to?
(2) Can you see the USB device under "devices and printers" when you hit the start button? I assume you got a Windows machine.
(3) If not, then, try swapping the cable or plugging it in a different port.
(4) If you see the device, right click on it, does it have an error? right click and try to troubleshoot it and hopefully it will repair the connection.
(5) If you don't see the device, then you might have to open the case and retrieve the drive. I assume it will be a SATA HDD.
(6) Grab a USB to SATA adapter cable or device.... Plug it into your computer and the drive.
(7) Under START->COMPUTER, do you see the drive? If yes, open it.
(8) If you don't see the drive, START->COMPUTER->MANAGE->DISK MANAGEMENT.... do you see the drive?

Worst case, if the data is very important, there are places where they will do data recovery for you, they will actually take out the platter(s) and read them and store the data for you in another drive.

Good luck.

Disk Utility is one of the system utilities in OSX ; the lady has a Mac .

 

[Pontoneer]

Those water cooled G5 machines were fun to work on (ie repair/refurbish/mod). I hung on to mine (and some Protools HD accl cards) a little too long and you can't give the stuff away now.

Anyhoo, if you're on Mac you can use Carbon Copy Cloner (still Mac only) to clone. It has safety net and scheduling features. CCC genuinely clones the whole drive including everything with the OS install. The clone copy will boot your machine just like the primary. A Time Machine volume will save your data and some app installs but will not boot your machine. You'd need to boot from a clone or other system drive, clean install OS to a new drive, then migrate your data from the Time Machine volume. Time Machine is a fine choice if this is starting to read like Klingon! It's simple and will save your stuff.

The power supply needing 3.5" external drives are more robust. The bus powered portable drives are more disposable. Or so it might appear.

Anyway, you're doing this right! You make backups. You replace broken drives and get backups current again. You avoid any scenario that might lead to needing to do data recovery.

My SOP here is to risk annoying anyone who might be listening rather than have to console someone who lost something.

I still have my DP G5 , as well as two Quad core MacPro and one 8 core Mac Pro , plus my 17" MBP ; I started with Apple way back in the days of the Apple II , before they were Macs .

I remember CCC , it was very good , also worth the money for Data Rescue : I've recovered corrupt CF & SD cards as well as numerous drives with it over the years .

I used to buy iOmega external drives many years ago , but switched to G-Technology and now have about two dozen drives , mixture of G-Drives and G-RAIDs daisy chained on FW800 , plus 2 G-speed ES arrays with their own driver card in the 8core . Haven't had a G Technology drive fail on me yet .

 

[Pontoneer]

I have a separately powered USB strip and that is where all of my external HDs are connected to, so:
1-IS that a good idea(thank you for your replies @tonyE and @jimfisheye) ??? I am guessing that would be a NO.

And

2-does the fact that my external HDs are always on actually diminish their lifespan/is it safe to di that or would it be better to unplug them and just plug them when they are needed??

THANKS AGAIN ALL OF YOUSE QQ BRETHREN!!!

Mine are always on ; the two G-Speed ES arrays are also on a UPS , like my MP 8-core and the monitor , so that I can do a controlled shut down if the power goes out ; I do also have a 4KVA Honda Generator out back , and while I've never used it to power computers , my two APC Smart UPSs do act as mains filters and are supposed to smooth things out . The Gene is really only to keep the freezer running and keep a few lights on in the house if there is a protracted power cut .

 

[ar surround]

I bought a "brand new" drive from Bezos recently and received one that had clearly been installed in someone else's computer(scratches, the packaging was torn apart), sent it back and received another that looked brand new but was missing the instructions. So beware of buying drives from Bezos because "brand new" apparently means open box.

Perhaps you should have sent the drive directly to Jeff Bezos and suggested that he have it installed in his new $485 million yacht currently under construction. Or better yet, sent it to Blue Origin suggesting that they use it in one of their spacecraft.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Perhaps you should have sent the drive directly to Jeff Bezos and suggested that he have it installed in his new $485 million yacht currently under construction. Or better yet, sent it to Blue Origin suggesting that they use it in one of their spacecraft.

Yes, they will be stuck in space with no instructions

 

[JediJoker]

I bought a "brand new" drive from Bezos recently and received one that had clearly been installed in someone else's computer(scratches, the packaging was torn apart), sent it back and received another that looked brand new but was missing the instructions. So beware of buying drives from Bezos because "brand new" apparently means open box.

Are you sure you didn't buy from an Amazon seller? I don't think Amazon itself is in the business of defrauding customers.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Are you sure you didn't buy from an Amazon seller? I don't think Amazon itself is in the business of defrauding customers.

Not sure, it was at the top of the list with 5 stars. I kept the one with no instructions as it appears truly unused and it has been fine so far.

 

[JediJoker]

Not sure, it was at the top of the list with 5 stars. I kept the one with no instructions as it appears truly unused and it has been fine so far.

Always check the "sold by" and "ships from" fields below the listing. It's not always obvious.

 

[mandrix]

Never bought a drive from Amazon...but, but it and Ebay are getting so flooded with crap products my return rate went from 0 to often on Amazon, making me more careful. But when you're on a (cue up The Kinks singing "I'm on a low budget") sometimes the chance is worth the gamble.
daaaamnitman just spilled OJ all over my kB & had to give it a bath.
But I get contacted directly by foreign vendors wanting me to review their products...which is supposed to be a big no-no. Yet Amazon flagged a legit review I made (all mine are truthful) stating I broke the rules but REFUSED to tell me what I did wrong and told me to stop asking about it! So...no more reviews they can kissit.

anyway would I buy a HDD off Amazon? Mmmm doubtful. There really are some good sellers/resellers on Ebay.
its been fun typing with the virtual kb