Back to back hard drive crashes...

[DavidS]

I have a NewerTech miniStack with a 1TB hard drive in it that is mostly full as a backup and our media server. It started giving me the dreaded clicking noise this afternoon and is not recognized by my computer. I contacted OWC support chat and it is still under warrranty. The problem is that I bought if off Craigslist and do not have the original purchase information, though they have it in their system. The support tech is going to get back to me about making an exception. I emailed the person I bought it from to see if he can look up purchase info and get it to me, so I can RMA the unit.

Should I try putting it in the freezer? Doesn't that help fix clicking drives? While there is no critical data on it, I'd love to be able to recover the info off it.

I also bought a bare Hitachi 2TB drive from NewEgg last month (since the 1TB miniStack is almost full). I hooked it up this afternoon via a SATA->USB converter cable. I had already formatted it a few days ago and it was operating with no problems. It was still empty, though. Anyway, smokey smell and nothing. it does not spin up at all. I just did an RMA for that via Hitachi.

I'm shutting off my computer for the rest of the day. I'm afraid to see what Strike 3 will bring.

[mattkime]

its possible that the drive is fine and the power supply or other circuitry is fried. (although the clicking sound doesn't bode well). my first step would be to remove the drive from the enclosure but that likely voids your warranty.

[DavidS]

mattkime wrote:
its possible that the drive is fine and the power supply or other circuitry is fried. (although the clicking sound doesn't bode well). my first step would be to remove the drive from the enclosure but that likely voids your warranty.

Yeah, my plan was to put the 2TB drive in the miniStack case. However, there is a sticker on the bottom that states "NWT Warranty Void if case is opened." So, that is not going to happen right now.

[hal]

probably the power supply isn't providing enough power

[IronMac]

That's certainly a possibility because I had an USB-powered external HD that did the same thing. But, I have had MORE drives go bad with the clicking sound.

hal wrote:
probably the power supply isn't providing enough power

[deckeda]

The miniStack uses an external power supply brick. If it works, it's likely fine (not "partially" dead) and can't make a HD click. Anyway, I doubt the power supply is the problem with a clicking HD.

[Acer]

FWIW, the freezer trick does not fix drives, only revives them long enough to get the information off...if all goes well.

[jimmy d]

I bought two 1 TB NewerTech miniStack drives a couple of years ago from OWC to use as backups for two Mac Minis. Within a few months, one of them wouldn't mount to the desktop. I called OWC, and when I described the symptoms (no clicking), they knew right away what the problem was, as if it was a common one with these drives. They gave me great service, no complaints about that, and fixed it under the warranty. More recently, the second drive is exhibiting the exact same behavior, but is no longer under warranty.

Two out of two.

I've decided not to have it repaired because I can no longer trust the NewerTech miniStacks as backups, and I think, based on my conversations with OWC's tech support, that they knew there was a problem with these machines and they continued to sell them anyway. I'll replace them with better quality (I hope!) drives, toss the NewerTech miniStacks into the toxic waste dump and chalk the whole deal up to experience.

[Buzz]

jimmy d wrote:

Two out of two.

But is that the enclosure, or the drive mechanisms in them? Is it possible OWC just got a bad batch of 1TB drives, or bridge boards in the miniStacks? Is the first one that was fixed still working OK? Sounds like they replaced the faulty part. Because, as you have confirmed, no drive is 100% reliable 100% of the time, redundant backups are wise.

///

[Rolando]

I have a 1TB Ministack go back over a year ago. I was using it as a boot drive. It was replaced under warranty, but it is still noisy after it warms up. I use it a repository for backed up movies.

http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1...msg-972705