Graagh! 2x Hitachi 2TB, both DOA

[slashbinslashbash]

I have had a RAID-1 external backup enclosure for a while now, and finally got around to buying drives for it last week. Fry's had the 2TB Hitachi 7200RPM for $109, so I got 2. I put them in.... and funny noises, very loud spinning sound, random clicking. Not normal. The external enclosure was not recognized by my Mac Pro when I connected with FW800, FW400, or USB. So I tested each of the drives individually and found that one of them was borked -- it was producing all of the excessive noise, and the enclosure would not be recognized with that drive plugged in singly, but the other drive was quiet and could be recognized. So I drove back to Fry's today and exchanged the bad drive for a new one. The return guy at Fry's tested the bad drive and told me that their testing machine would not recognize it either.

So tonight I put the new drive in the enclosure and.... same *#*%*# thing! Except it's actually louder this time, and the clicking is worse! Arrrgh! What are the odds?! This is my first time owning a 3.5" Hitachi drive (although I have not had particularly good luck with their 2.5" drives either) and this is not getting things off on the right foot! I currently have 4 Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB's and they all work great (same with every Seagate drive I own, or have owned)... and I quit using WD drives several years ago because of a high failure rate among drives that I used personally or as part of the computers I administered at work. I understand that HDD's fail with time and use, but you'd think they could at least work right out of the damn box! Where is the quality control?

So now I've got to drive back to Fry's (30-45min drive each way, depending on traffic) and get another one. I am going to ask them to test the drive before I leave the store this time. I am also going to bring the enclosure, a power inverter and my laptop so that I can test the thing before I drive away. What a PITA!

 

[C1]

Could happen. Make sure that you arent buying returned units (& resealed in shrink wrap). Also Im assuming that you have the XL version & not the older SimpleTech II version made for Hitachi. I bought two of these & one died after a few hours. The physical HDDs are good (although with 5 platters they get quite warm - even hot), but the electronics in the enclosures seems to be problematic with these units. If you check the reviews, you will see a disturbing number of enclosure failures (DOAs out to six months of light use) & almost always it's the enclosure electronics.

People have had good luck with the raw drive, so if you like its performance then just transfer yours into a couple of the fan cooled external enclosures Frys sells for $29.99.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

They are definitely not returned. They are originally wrapped and sealed, no shrinkwrap, just 2 plastic bands around the outside of the box and the internal sealed/unopened gray antistatic bag around the HDD itself.

The enclosure is a Guardian Maximus from Newertech. It uses an Oxford 936DS chipset. I purchased it from a member here on the FS/FT forums earlier this year. I like it because it does RAID 1 without any configuring.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

After the second one, I'd definitely be looking at the drive enclosure.

 

[pjkenned]

Yea I have like 20+ of them, some from Fry's. 0 DOA, only one has died after a few months. I would strongly suggest looking at the enclosure and the connection to the main PC.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

It's hard for me to doubt the enclosure. It is a dual-drive enclosure and it has just one internal power cable, going to both drives. If the voltages were off and frying the drives, wouldn't it fry both of them? Remember, I still have the original "good" drive that has had no problems -- and each time, I have swapped the "good" and "bad" drives' position with respect to both the power cable and the SATA cables. The "good" drive continues to perform like it should -- quiet, and immediately recognized when it's the only drive in the enclosure.

 

[ElenaP]

There are several possible causes for to get a batch of DOA hard drives. Most widespread is the damage during shipping. Basically if you drop a boxload of hard drives, some are likely to get damaged. Repeat that several times and the entire lot is bad.

 

[tcsenter]

Check if the external enclosure has firmware update available.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Picked up a 3rd drive (2nd replacement) today at Fry's. It works. The enclosure is currently working on 1.25TB of backups from my Mac Pro. It will be nice having all my backups in one place. Previously, I was splitting them among a couple of smaller drives. I hope the HDD companies come out with bigger drives relatively soon -- these 2GB's are starting out at over 50% usage.

 

[Fireblades]

So far, I've received 14 of the Hitachi 2TB disks from two completely different sources, including drives manufactured in April, May, and June. 8 of the 14 have arrived dead so far. More replacements are on the way. Check the reviews on NewEgg about this disk. I wouldn't suspect the enclosure at all.

 

[RebateMonger]

Check the reviews on NewEgg about this disk. I wouldn't suspect the enclosure at all.

It looks like pretty much ALL of the Seagate, Hitachi, and Western Digital 2 TB disks sold by Newegg have 15% to 33% "zero-star" ratings (which certainly signify DOA or very short lives). Seagates continue to be "in the lead", but in the wrong direction.