What effect would shorting power and ground in a USB cable have on the HDD it's connected to?

[Involute]

I'm thinking of putting my system backup HDD in a weatherproof case and moving it outside my house via an active USB 3.0 extension cable. In the worst case scenario, my house burns down, melting the cable and allowing power and ground to short, before power to the house gets cut. Any idea what effect this would have on the drive? Would the data still be retrievable without resorting to forensic methods? Thanks.

 

[pierrerock]

There are fireproof backup drive in the market that would be more reliable i think

 

[pierrerock]

there are either safe equipped with usb for and external usb drive :
http://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-QA0121-Fire-Safe-Waterproof-Storage/dp/B00166187Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1461428625&sr=8-2&keywords=fireproof+backup+drive

Or fireproof/waterproof backup drive :
http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Fireproof-Waterproof-External-Drive/dp/B007YJX77S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461428625&sr=8-1&keywords=fireproof+backup+drive

But these are just examples of what exist on the market

And clouds, there are clouds to backup your data

 

[makkem]

Hi
If you are up to some DIY then you could fit an inline fuse of about 3A to the USB power wire so that any short would simply blow the fuse.

 

[sizzling]

Why not just have your backup drive sync with some form of cloud storage. You can keep the speed of using your USB drive in the knowledge the USB drive is backing itself up

 

[Involute]

Sorry for the delayed response. Tom's isn't notifying me of thread replies. The problem with clouds is that I'm backing up 1TB/day. Even if I do that incrementally, if I ever need to restore, it will take me forever. The problem with fireproof drives is you have to return them to the manufacturer to retrieve the data (in the event of fire) which takes awhile. Plus, you have to include a fresh drive for them to restore to (a hassle if your house has just burned down). The SentrySafe is a cool idea I hadn't seen, but it's only USB 2.0; I need 3.0. I like the fuse idea, but I'm not anxious to mess with the USB wiring.