I almost died today.
Well.. today i was on my comp tryin to install some stuff... then my harddrive started making this odd noise. Then before i knew it my hard drive lit on fire, from the bottom. It was crazy. good thing i have a window in my case and i flew to my PC to shut it off or i coulda lost more then just my harddrive. Im just glad i was actually near my PC and not asleep or away or something... or i could have had a real mess.
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This gives one pause to consider proper wiring. I will be rechecking the wiring splices in my computer. Also, makes me wonder about cheap components, namely PSUs. (not implying you had any of this, Jengo)
i think i will just blame this on a crappy P.O.S. Quantum HDD
oh and thanks leo for your concern for me and my family.
I'm glad you caught it in time and you and your family are ok.
I don't think Quantum drives are manufactured anymore but if they are (or their owner would care) this is certainly something to bring to their attention.
A maxtor 80gb was in it
That's realy strange to see some things like that... HDD turning to fire
Hopefully for Jengo there was more fear than damage heh
I also have a couple of Maxtor 20 gig hard drives in folding rigs, but I bought them before Maxtor bought out Quantum so I know that they aren't Quantum drives.
I always suspected PSU's maybe overloading the circuit but I have no proof as once I have something like that happen I pull the psu also and won't trust it.
Maybe its a particular chip or chipset on the circuit board. But since its happened over years of time doing computer support on drives of all makes and sizes I doubt it.
Tex
Now you've got me freaked out, though, because I've got 3 hard drives and I always leave my compuer on.
Jengo, glad you were there!! Was anything else affected best you can tell?
Glad to hear you're okay!
I would say that it was a physical head-crash.
If the hard-drive was spinning at full-speed when the head crashed into the platters, and it didn't crash in such a way that it completely and instantly halted the drive (which is what usually happens) then the friction of the drive turning against it's casing and head would create a lot of heat, and it would be right on the middle of the bottom of the drive case...
p.s. glad it didn't burn down the house and everything in it!
im thinking maybe CBDroege knows what hes talking about.
no other components were harmed, not even the IDE cable. Thank god my case is kind of big and roomy.
just remember. if your harddrive starts making funny noises, turn it off as fast as you can!
and as for pics, if the garbage man hasnt taken the garbage yet i might still be able to snag the drive
Was it a Quantum Fireball? I know there is a model by this name. Anyway, do you have any pics?
I have my computer running 24/7 for over 2 years. Never had any problems, and it seems that the computer is more reliable when constantly on.
The chance of a head crash is high, the chance of a resultant fire is low.
Long answer:
A hard drive is made up of many spinning platters with magnetically sensitive coating. These plattes are stacked one on top of the other, with a small gap inbetween for the head. The head, which reads and writes all of the drives stored information, has to do some complicated manuvers. It has to not only move in and out to acces different sectors, but it also must move up and down along the stack of platters in order to access different portions of the drive. This is accomplished with small and delicate belts and gears.
Newer drives move much faster, and have more platters, which must then be thinner and closer together.
The movement of the head must be very exact at all times in order to properly read, unlike other platter storage (like CDs and vinyl) where the read head just has to point at the right spot, and a little bit of wobbling is okay.
This is the reason that a harddrive should always lay completely flat while operating, and why it should never be moved while it is turned on.
If the delicate and sensitive little gears and belts start to wear out, the movements of the drive may become inexact. It is a mechanical eventuality that the hard drive will experience a 'head crash'. This is when the head has missed it's mark by a bit, and has physically impacted the platters. (Just like it is a mechanical eventuality that your monitor will eventually get fuzzy or start to loose color def. It simply happens after awhile.) You can take care of the drive to extend it's life, but all Harddrives should be replaced at least every three years to prevent their eventual crash.
When they do crash, there are three things that can happen:
Most common: The head impacts one of the platters, and either shatters it, or becomes solidly embedded in it, thus completely halting the drive and destroying any information.
Not as common: The head bounces off of one of the platters, causing the head to become damaged, and red impossible. The platters spin to a stop, and the data is possible to recover later, although costly.
Very uncommon: The head impacts the platter(s) in such a way that they are broken, but not completely impeded from spinning, also the head has bounced away from the platters, so that is is either not in the way, or only brushing the platters. This situation can cause a lot of friction, as the platters continue to try to spin, but are neither completely impeeded, nor are they completely free to move. Friction causes heat, and enough heat causes fire.
As you can see the issue should be really rare, and is not really something to worry about. If you want to take some steps of precaution, then put a fire extinguisher in your office somewhere in case of a fire issue. Don't worry too much about it happening when you are not arround, because a head crash, when it happens, almost invariably occurs durring a major read/write operation, which usually means that you are sitting at the system.
Boy are you wrong. The old drives (80's and very early 90's) that used stepper motors had a belt to control the heads. Drives since the 90's use a voice coil motor to control the heads and the heads are directly attached to the VCM. The heads do not move up and down, and float only because of the very tiny air current created by the spinning of the platters. Each platter has a head for each side, so there is no need to move up and down (this would create an incredibly slow drive) As for the motor that spins the platters, just read the link below.
http://redhill.net.au/id.html <-- Very good source on hard drive information
Yes, infact it was a quantum fireball, i think it was a 10TA or something like that, it was only a 10gig drive just enough for an OS and a few apps and such. It was the only drive i had in the machine as i am currently trying to save money to finish the machine.
And no, no pics sorry. The garbage man took the drive before i could go back out and get the drive. its not like it matters... it just looks like someone held a lighter to the bottom of a harddrive... nothing spectacular.
And thanks guys for your thoughts on me and my family.
I'm guessing something along the lines of what Tex was saying - one of the control chips at the bottom of the drive overheated and started burning on the PCB. I seriously doubt that the fire had anything to do with the drive heads, platters, or spindle. Which means your data may have been recoverable. Though based on what you said it probably wasn't worth it.
Although I doubt that the 'Boy are you wrong" was a requirement.
If you want to correct people, fine, but do it constructively.