does the fan kill the harddisk

[stinkyfinger]

I had a spare chassi FAN lying around and I connected that the plastic rack that fixes my primary disk to the cabinet. My harddisk doesn't get heated up but I did that as a "just in case" for the summer. Now the disk has crashed 3 times in 6 months under light loads. I just wanted to rule out if the FAN vibrations are to blame and I shouldn't be doing that before returning it to Samsung. The Seagate service center that know takes care of service of Samsung disk replaces with a refurbished disk in 15 days but I have to go through the pain of system restore.

 

[oczdude8]

I had a spare chassi FAN lying around and I connected that the plastic rack that fixes my primary disk to the cabinet. My harddisk doesn't get heated up but I did that as a "just in case" for the summer. Now the disk has crashed 3 times in 6 months under light loads. I just wanted to rule out if the FAN vibrations are to blame and I shouldn't be doing that before returning it to Samsung. The Seagate service center that know takes care of service of Samsung disk replaces with a refurbished disk in 15 days but I have to go through the pain of system restore.

no fan has nothing to do with it, unless the fan is broken and is vibrating like crazy. Also Samsung disks are unreliable.

 

[Amad102]

Maybe there is some type of electrical short..?

 

[Mattios]

It could be remotely possible that the fan vibrations are causing the spindle or something to fall off or get misaligned I guess...

But it is most likely your HDD is starting to fail 'naturally' and it was just a coincidence that you added a fan to it.

 

[dark_lord69]

Maybe there is some type of electrical short..?

That's possible....
but if you haven't already you should try running CHKDSK C: /R (google it)
That can fix disk errors and keep the computer from writing to those bad area's on the disk again.

If you've already done that then go to samsung's website. Most hard drive manufacturers create diagnostic boot disks you can download and burn to test your hard drive. Often they will require you do this before they will replace it anyway. (Depending on the manufacturer.)

 

[Amad102]

Maybe there is some type of electrical short..?

That's possible....
but if you haven't already you should try running CHKDSK C: /R (google it)
That can fix disk errors and keep the computer from writing to those bad area's on the disk again.

If you've already done that then go to samsung's website. Most hard drive manufacturers create diagnostic boot disks you can download and burn to test your hard drive. Often they will require you do this before they will replace it anyway. (Depending on the manufacturer.)

Yeah I would look into disk errors before checking if its an electrical short.

 

[stinkyfinger]

Maybe there is some type of electrical short..?

That's possible....
but if you haven't already you should try running CHKDSK C: /R (google it)
That can fix disk errors and keep the computer from writing to those bad area's on the disk again.

If you've already done that then go to samsung's website. Most hard drive manufacturers create diagnostic boot disks you can download and burn to test your hard drive. Often they will require you do this before they will replace it anyway. (Depending on the manufacturer.)

Yeah I would look into disk errors before checking if its an electrical short.

Thanks guyz for chipping in. I did run Seatools and Partition Wizard and both tell that that the disk is green (good) right now. Last time when it failed, it did all of a sudden and even BIOS would not detect it. But it still makes noises that unsettles me. I have tied up all the dangling wires neatly and I don't see any sparks or fireworks. So if there is an electrical short or something that happens once in a while how do I detect it?

 

[oczdude8]

If it is making a really noticeable noise, it is most likely failing. Hard drives do not generally have issues with short-circuits. Sometimes Seatools diagnostics are not accurate.

 

[Paperdoc]

Why is everybody convinced the fan is NOT vibrating the HDD? I don't think anyone should mount a fan solidly into the HDD support cage. Of course the fan will vibrate, and of course those vibrations will be transmitted through the short path of the cage frame to the HDD units!! The only way I've ever seen people mount cooling fans for HDD's is to mount the fan to the main case chassis, quite separate from the HDD cage. That provides much less transmission of fan vibration to the drives.

Constant vibration of the HDD would account for occasional apparent HDD faults. It may account for the "it still makes noises that unsettles me" comment from OP. If vibration is causing errors in read operations, the normal action would be to re-initialize the heads (swing them back to Track 0, then return to the target track) and re-read. Repeat as necessary until a good read can be obtained, OR it exceeds the limit of tries and reports a read failure to the OS. This is the most common cause of obvious "noise" from a HDD when it is used.

OP, can you relocate the fan someplace nearby to provide cooling air to your drive, but NOT mounted directly on the HDD support cage? In fact, sometimes you can get little plastic or rubber fan mounting pins to reduce transmission of fan vibration to the supporting frame members, but this is NOT necessary - just a nice touch.

 

[stinkyfinger]

Why is everybody convinced the fan is NOT vibrating the HDD?
The only way I've ever seen people mount cooling fans for HDD's is to mount the fan to the main case chassis, quite separate from the HDD cage.

This is much in line with my OP. Earlier, 3yrs ago when I built the system, I was not sure if my hard disk would be getting heated up and hence did that to increase the life. Adding a FAN brings down the temp 5-10 degree C. Now the dark ages have passed and I have discovered tools that gives me the FAN temp and they say that the disk is fine even with out the FAN. I don't think the disk is being reset to 0 or else the event logs will be complaining, right?

However I had expected the FAN trouble on the magnetic lines and not on the vibration lines. The FAN has a electromagnet and that might effect the magnetic material of the disk in the long run. However my reasoning is still clouded or may be I am delusional. What Paperdoc says is that he has never seen any one do what I have done. Does any one here who has opened lots of cabinets refute that? If not: it is better not to FAN it, if it really does not need it. P.S:The screeching is from the disk and not the FAN.

 

[Paperdoc]

First, the magnetic fields from the fan motor are not very strong, and I REALLY doubt they could penetrate the HDD case enough to affect either the magnetic signals on the disk surfaces or the signals generated in the read heads.

A fan to cool the HDD's is not a bad idea, although not required, either. In my case, there is a fan mounting position just inside the front of the case (120 mm fan) that then blows over the HDD mounting cage before the air enters the main part of the case over the mobo. I have a fan mounted there as an intake fan, and it does double duty as a HDD cooler and a general supply of air to the case. There's an intake foam filter to keep out dust. I can't really claim much credit for giving the HDD's cool air - this is really part of the design of the case I bought. But I figure it's a good idea to reduce the HDD temps and maybe prolong their lifetimes. So far they appear flawless after 6 years of moderate use.