My first external HDD died! :(

Hey guys

just wanted to let you know that I realized that my first external HDD is dead. It was a 16 TB Seagate Hub bought in July 2021.

I always advertised to use internal drives because of the 5 year warranty (on Exos) and the overheating problems that farming 24/7 might cause. Still I have 3 external drives. 2x 16 TB Seagate Hub and 1x WD Book because I got them super cheap. :wink: In the meantime none of my 20 internal 18 TB drives died. Sure small sample size and so on but annoying.

What are your experiences with internal vs. external drives? Did one one your internal or external drives die as well?

Check power etc on the plug to see if there is 12v.

External drives are the drives that werenā€™t good enough to be sold as internals. This is fact. B grade products unfortunately.

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There is a silicon lottery for hdds?
How does that work?

Why do you say that? Even before Chia came along, I was shucking external hard drives to use in my NAS. Never had a problem with them. The only spinning hard disks Iā€™ve ever had that met an untimely demise or were bad immediately, were ones sold with the intention of them being internal drives.

I recomend you to use a ups with overtension protect and maintain the temperatures with a fan. You can automate the start and stop of the fan regarder to the hddā€™s temp.

If the ups is godd enought It can tell to the master system that the battery is going to off and the system can do a correct shutdown without danger for your hddā€™s. Iā€™ve used the ā€œnutā€ linux service to do It.

They are the same drives but running in an external enclosure 24/7 with insufficient ventilation can cause premature death :slight_smile:

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When my number of external drives started to grow, and I had them close to each other (I do not have a lot of physical space for them), they were somewhat hot. So I could imagine how much hotter the internal moving parts must have been, and how that heat must have been baking the controller and wires, etcā€¦

I set up a small fan to run on its lowest speed to blow the stagnant hot air away from the drives. Now the drives are, at most, warm. As I accumulated more drives, I set up another fan. I have no hot spots, and I expect the drives to last long after their warranties expire.

I also use an UPS with voltage regulation. So my external drives should be running on steady, non-dirty power, with good ventilation.

And although they are not NAS quality, Chia does not have them performing NAS level operations. They are not being pounding on the way they would be in a data center. So there is not too much wear and tear taking place.

By the way, long before Chia, I purchased a couple of external drives for backups, and I also periodically, manually copy over important files. They are 10 or so years old, and I leave them running 24/7/365. No issues.

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wd warranty is crap. I bought 3 internal drives from newegg. 1 of them broke within 3 weeks. I sent it to warranty with RMA and itā€™s been 3 months. I paid for it and never used it. Still waiting, no news. No RMA information update.

Thats why you need to check the prices on Amazon, their return process is greatā€¦

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Similar happened to me last year. I got so frustrated that I just gave up doing the stupid chat thing, having them deny one day, saying sure it will be shipped in a few days next chat, etc. Right. Figured it was a lost cause.

Then almost exactly 3 months after the horror show started, the replacement showed up at my door. Nice new, not refurb drive. I checked the warranty on it. Guess what? It only had the remaining warranty from the old drive, not afresh new drive full warranty.

Yeah, WD sucks pretty bad.

They used to be good in the 80ā€™s

External drives are drives that werenā€™t good enough to be internals. If you find for example, a ā€œredā€ drive? Itā€™s because itā€™s B grade quality. You donā€™t have to believe me. What you probably canā€™t explain is the cheaper price of external drives, which you must justify by saying, ā€œItā€™s just because. Thatā€™s why they are cheaper.ā€ All hard drives die but that isnā€™t the point. You can find anecdotal evidence in both camps and make excuses why some fail. At the end of the day, itā€™s only a question of why you found a so-called ā€œredā€ drive in an external drive at a cheaper price than the internal version. Again, if itā€™s just because dang, they want to give you a deal? Iā€™m glad you think that way and can refrain from digger deeper and avoiding the truth.

On behalf of us all at Elysium Pool, we are very sorry for your loss.

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Did you ever receive your replacement drive from Western Digital?

That was then, but this is now and Ext are more expensive than internal, by a bunch.

And to @hoca05 - My experience, bad beyond comprehension and w/WD, surprised me after I had frankly given up as a loss, but a new drive arrived just about exactly 3 months after Iā€™d sent in my RMA that they 1st accepted, then refused, then changed their mind a couple times. A true cluster intercourse.

That is exactly how long it took me a couple of years ago. Although, it was a constant open/close case and numerous email exchanges. Horrors.

And it used to be that you gave them CC# and they were shipping replacement drive the next day, so one could eventually copy stuff it it was still kind of working. Once they received the old one, case was closed (no charges to CC).

No receive replacement. I bought it from Newegg in September. broke down quickly. possibly a manufacturing defect. I sent it on December 1. No RMA information update yet. Drive is WD blue 6 TB internal.

EDIT: Sorry I have to update this. When I look now RMA seems to be updated.
Received / Processing 14-Apr-2022

Western Digital still offers that service, except that it is no long free.
Western Digital calls that service ā€œCustomer Convenienceā€, and charges $25 per drive.

I have read complaints about Western Digital denying warranty claims. But what if you paid the $25, and you took possession of the replacement drive? Now you send back your faulty drive, and Western Digital denies your claim. That $25 charge will be raised to become the full purchase price of the drive ā€“ and my guess is that it will be higher than what is on Amazon and elsewhere.

Seagate ships replacement drives ahead of receiving your failed drive (as long as you give them a credit card for security purposes), and they do not charge a fee. They also do not make up BS excuses to deny warranty claims.

Western Digital goes out of its way to deny claims, charge fees, and intentionally frustrates the customer to the point where many customers throw up their hands and give up.

Seagate goes out of its way to make their warranty process as painless as possible.

Like twins ā€“ one malevolent and one benevolent.

In my case, it was not denying RMA, as it was approved day one. It looks like they just donā€™t process it, and hope that a person will go away, or maybe for them it takes 3-6 months to fulfill it. Either way, that part really sucks.

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