<plays taps> 500GB bites the dust...

[eccerr0r]

Well, there it goes, thank you for your service WD 500GB SATA HDD after 8 years of service, a bit over 6y 9m of power on hours..

Quietly died, didn't hear much of grinding or anything, it just suddenly stopped detecting reliably on many SATA boards. Can't get it to detect on a USB-SATA adapter or my 6-series board. Was sort of detecting and dying on my ICH10 which was what it was installed on prior to removal.

I didn't notice when it died as it was part of a 4+1 RAID (Linux MDRAID) array, Linux silently failover to the hot spare without intervention. Except I still need to make sure the system will boot...

There were no SMART errors that I could see during the "purgatory time" but now does not respond to SMART.

Wonder if it's worth trying to resurrect for a short period of time to wipe it... probably not. Smashing it probably is easier. Then again if it's just something minor wrong with it...

[diif]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Have you tried cleaning the contacts on the pcb ?
A pencil rubber is good at removing the oxidation.

[gabiz_ro]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

If you have some knowledge, just a quick look on PCB and could identify some points where to measure some voltage.
Except 5V and 12V power lines,that are easy to check,look for others IC,find datasheet check voltage on Vcc pins.
Also there must be present some other power lines,3.3V 1.8V maybe.

[eccerr0r]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

hmm... wasn't aware that sata disks were prone to contact oxidation. Never had an issue with it on PATA disks.

Will try it later... though I would hope these are gold plated...

[diif]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Yes, and whatever the plate is it oxidises.

[eccerr0r]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

woah what the $(#$&!# is going on there. I took the board off and see the same corrosion. That's not even gold plated it looks, not sure what that brown stuff is...
Hmm. Need to clean it off and see if the disk behaves any better.

[diif]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

A pencil rubber works great.

[eccerr0r]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

I tried rubbing it a bit with an eraser, did not clean up the corrosion much. Then I tried some isopropanol and start rubbing it, also did not do anything at all... hmm.

That really is some corrosion there... it's pretty stuck on there.

[diif]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

I had no success with IPA but then followed someone's advice and used a rubber. Takes a bit of a rub sometimes to get it shifted.

[Uranium-235]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Have a ladys laptop with 1 hard read error and 14 re-allocations. Shes only using 60gb, gonna get a Ss 850 evo 256gb in there

What sucks: it's not a netbook, it's 7 years old (nahlem i5m), but I have to open the damn thing up to get to the hdd bay

[eccerr0r]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

I've never seen this kind of corrosion before. This is ridiculous.

[dragos2009]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

you can scrap that corrosion off with a flat head screwdriver but do not push too hard on that pad because you can rip it off the pcb just enough to clean that corrosion and i tell you that because i used that method on all pre 2010 hdd that went through my hand and all of them are working even now

[gabiz_ro]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Better use fiber pen.

[eccerr0r]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Tried using a sharp single edge razor blade to carefully scrape the pads... no dice, no behavior change, still doesn't work...

This is a pre 2010 HDD as well, but why the distinction?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

if u ask me, i say this stinks of planned obsolescence. we'll just add something or skip a few steps during manufacturing to get the drive to just barely outlast the warranty and make ppl pay and pay for new hard drives every few years...

[eccerr0r]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

So you're seeing about 100% failure rate after a few years? That would indeed seem suspicious, but as they say with the so called "bathtub curve" - who knows how steep that tail end is...

[momaka]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Does the HDD make a normal boot sound after power up? If yes, then those contacts for the headstack may not be the problem. It is worth trying to clean off that corrosion anyways, though. I've also revived an HDD before due to that same reason (it was a Seagate Cheetak 10k SCA server HDD). The HDD made clicking noises upon power-up or refused to spin up sometimes. Cleaning the corrosion from those contacts got it running. Like stj suggested, pencil eraser / rubber works the best. Just make sure it is a nice and soft eraser. If it's old and/or hard, it won't work.

Anyways, 6 years and 9 months works out to more or less almost 60k power-on hours - that's quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if the disk bearings have developed loose tolerances. Also, I don't trust HDDs that don't have at least a few hundred power cycles on them.

[Wester547]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

Also, I don't trust HDDs that don't have at least a few hundred power cycles on them.

So you don't think HDDs that run 24/7 are reliable? For what it's worth, I have a ST340016A which conveniently decided to develop a bad head stack after 16,000 hours of use and 7,000 power cycles for no apparent reason, about three years ago. Only had 50 reallocations (the drive was completely scanned before the head stack failed and came up clean) and was never mishandled or abused in any way (it died after 530,000,000 seeks in accordance to S.M.A.R.T.). Upon power up, it makes a very rapid and horrific clacking noise. I have another one, though, with only 2 reallocations, that still works fine, knock on wood, no issues, after 22,000 hours and 7,000 power cycles (has survived 560,000,000 seeks). I don't blame the other one for failing, given that it was manufactured in November 2001. What's strange about the failed one is it takes somewhat longer to spin up (by some seconds) than the one that still works, but both are only 1-platter drives. Not sure what to make of that.

That said, I don't think surviving many power cycles is a surefire indicator of long term reliability. Most desktop HDDs are rated for 40,000 - 50,000 start/stop counts at room temperature.

I don't trust HDDs, period. Brand doesn't matter. Seen way too many models from each and every brand either develop too many bad sectors, grind their heads into the platter, die by way of bad head stack assemblies, fail because of seized bearings, bad PCBs, or simply die altogether. I understand that how one physically handles a HDD greatly factors into lifespan. But this thread is another example of what I hate about RoHS - preamp and VCM contacts on HDD PCBs oxidizing and falling victim to corrosion much sooner than they should.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

that makes it sound like hard drives should be exempted from rohs. if it makes hard drives fail more, that would be a self defeating prophecy. it actually worsens pollution rather than reduce it, with more bad hard drives going into the landfill. i guess corporations just try to be "environmentally friendly" whenever it suits them and their profit margins...

[dmill89]

Re: &lt;plays taps&gt; 500GB bites the dust...

that makes it sound like hard drives should be exempted from rohs. if it makes hard drives fail more, that would be a self defeating prophecy. it actually worsens pollution rather than reduce it, with more bad hard drives going into the landfill. i guess corporations just try to be "environmentally friendly" whenever it suits them and their profit margins...

Not just HDDs but any "durable" products (things designed to last more than 2 years), ROHS is self defeating in these products, causing more early failures and more waste. ROHS might be fine for "disposable" electronics (most Apple products, smartphones, tablets, etc.) that are likely to become obsolete (or fail when their integrated Li-Ion/Li-Po battery dies and can't be replaced or costs more than the device is worth to replace) and replaced after a couple years anyhow, but things like PCs/laptops, TVs, appliances, etc. that normally last 5+ years (or at least should last that long) should be exempt from ROHS.