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Just lost another HD. are docking stations to blame?

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boxer4:
ahh... Well, it's a while since the time I posted... Yes I'd say those kinds of docking stations where you stick bare disks into the device... Those mean you handle bare disks more.... Higher chance of jolting disks... And higher chance of damaging disks.  This I think is even more risky to disks than external enclosures.  I'm not sure why people even consider this as an offline storage solution, at most it's useable as redundant backup... Mostly best for formatting and testing drives.
For disk longevity, I'd still want a sturdy machine to place them in.  There are some large heavy hotswap cases that can be used, but sort of clashes against the idea of wanting small computers like laptops and tablets...
Knock on wood, but in recent times and probably all times, the disks I've owned, the ones that weren't kept in a sturdy enclosure all the time (namely, a desktop computer case) were the ones that failed first.

chubbysumo:

--- Quote from: boxer4 on June 03, 2012, 05:24:52 PM ---ahh... Well, it's a while since the time I posted... Yes I'd say those kinds of docking stations where you stick bare disks into the device... Those mean you handle bare disks more.... Higher chance of jolting disks... And higher chance of damaging disks.  This I think is even more risky to disks than external enclosures.  I'm not sure why people even consider this as an offline storage solution, at most it's useable as redundant backup... Mostly best for formatting and testing drives.
For disk longevity, I'd still want a sturdy machine to place them in.  There are some large heavy hotswap cases that can be used, but sort of clashes against the idea of wanting small computers like laptops and tablets...
Knock on wood, but in recent times and probably all times, the disks I've owned, the ones that weren't kept in a sturdy enclosure all the time (namely, a desktop computer case) were the ones that failed first.

--- End quote ---

I have never had an HDD fail outright if its in a case or enclosure.  The reason those docks are so bad for the drives is not because of knocking the HDD around(most consumer HDDs have good vibration and G resistance), but its actually the power management thats the bad thing.  They are designed to accept and work with every different brand of HDD, and run entirely off of 1 or 2 USB ports.  The problem, is that most 3.5in HDDs need at least 8w to spin up and maintain their speed, thus, if you reduce the wattage as those USB docks have only 5w(2.5w max per USB), they have to spin up slower, and the heads cannot operate like they should. 

IF you need an external HDD, go with a 2.5in laptop HDD, since they are much lower wattage requirements, and usually have protocols for spinning up slowly in place on their firmware, and running in low power states(whereas, most 3.5in HDDs do not because its assumed its going into a desktop, which should mean it always has full power). 

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