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High failure rates of external drives can also be attributed to the USB controllers - they're better than their IDE predecessors (which failed a lot, sometimes
by jotm 13y ago
High failure rates of external drives can also be attributed to the USB controllers - they're better than their IDE predecessors (which failed a lot, sometimes taking the drives with them - only low level utilities could revive them).
Otherwise, I don't see how or why the hard drive manufacturers would bother to send the worst batches (which aren't that much worse) to external hard drive assemblers.
- sp332 13y agoIt could also be that they shut down more frequently. More stop-start cycles mean more wear on the moving parts of the disk.
- bentcorner 13y agoIsn't that a feature of the USB enclosure? (i.e., not an issue once a drive has been "shucked")
- ZoFreX 13y agoI repair computers for friends and families and the majority of the time I get a broken external to look at, it's the enclosure that's at fault and the drive is absolutely fine. I encourage people to buy their enclosures and drives separately - it's a little more expensive, but this way you can RMA just the enclosure if it fails. With an all-in-one, you either void your warranty to get the data back, or ship the whole unit back for a replacement.
- jotm 13y agoThat's an interesting point, since I have a Samsung hard drive I took OUT of an enclosure and out of curiosity I checked the warranty on it - it's a 3 year warranty that is still active and the web page said I could initiate a return. So, technically, I could RMA the drive myself if it fails... or would they notice it and not process the return?