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Murphy hates me...
Mar. 9th, 2011 08:02 pmWay back when when I had money, I got an Mvix MX-760HD media server. Nivce box, played most of my audio and video fuiles without tying up the computer. Plus the picture and sound didn't get out of synch due to the computer being heavily loaded.
Some months later, it died. I sent it back to get worked on, and had major withdrawl symptoms. So I ordered a second, both as a backup in the sense of just being able to swap the drive over if the unit failed, and so that I could back up the media files to the drive in the new one.
Fast Forward thru a couple of drive upgrades to now.
The backup unit had died while I was synch files to it. I figured it was probably the Mvix failing. So today after I finished backing up the drives from Fay's old Dell, and copyying a buncjh media files over to her big external drive so we can burn them to DVD later, I decided to check out the drives from the two MVix units.
Y'see, when Fay took hers into the shop, they reported that her ancient hard drives were failing. Not a big surprise. I'd used the mobile rack on Ploor to test those and the other old HDs I had kicking around. In the process I'd discovered that drives in USB enclosures (at least the ones I have around) couldn't have their S.M.A.R.T. status checked.
With the mobile rack, I could just plug a drive into the carrier, slide it into the rack, power up and check it.
So, I had confoirmed some failing drives (and one failed) and found that a lot of others were in ok condition for at least a while longer.
Anyway, I tested the drives from the Mvix units. The one from the one that was still running was fine. The one from the one that had "died" apparently has a short in the electronics somewhere. It killed Ploor. Arggh.
Of course, when I tried another drive in the "dead" Mvix it turns out to be fine. It just has a power supply that handles shorts better. *sigh*
On the plus side, when I checked Western Digital's site, I founfd that while the drive was out of warranty, it's eligble for an upgrade (newer drive at reduced price). Fay's old drives are Maxtor, so they are no help but most of my old dead or questionable drives are WD. So Fay and I will get together and work out what we want to do about upgrades. Best to do them as a batch if she can afford it, that'll save on shipping.
But until I slap some of my old drives into the Dell, I'm down to *one* working PC.
ETA: I finally realized that at this point, there's no way I could make the drive worse, so I dug out my VOM and checked the power leads on the drive. O ohms resistance between any pair I tried. That's a dead short on *both* sets of power inputs. No idea how it happened, but a hell of a thing.
Even though the drive is out of warranty, I'm going to try to file a report with the manufacturer, simply because that sort of failure *should* be impossible.
Some months later, it died. I sent it back to get worked on, and had major withdrawl symptoms. So I ordered a second, both as a backup in the sense of just being able to swap the drive over if the unit failed, and so that I could back up the media files to the drive in the new one.
Fast Forward thru a couple of drive upgrades to now.
The backup unit had died while I was synch files to it. I figured it was probably the Mvix failing. So today after I finished backing up the drives from Fay's old Dell, and copyying a buncjh media files over to her big external drive so we can burn them to DVD later, I decided to check out the drives from the two MVix units.
Y'see, when Fay took hers into the shop, they reported that her ancient hard drives were failing. Not a big surprise. I'd used the mobile rack on Ploor to test those and the other old HDs I had kicking around. In the process I'd discovered that drives in USB enclosures (at least the ones I have around) couldn't have their S.M.A.R.T. status checked.
With the mobile rack, I could just plug a drive into the carrier, slide it into the rack, power up and check it.
So, I had confoirmed some failing drives (and one failed) and found that a lot of others were in ok condition for at least a while longer.
Anyway, I tested the drives from the Mvix units. The one from the one that was still running was fine. The one from the one that had "died" apparently has a short in the electronics somewhere. It killed Ploor. Arggh.
Of course, when I tried another drive in the "dead" Mvix it turns out to be fine. It just has a power supply that handles shorts better. *sigh*
On the plus side, when I checked Western Digital's site, I founfd that while the drive was out of warranty, it's eligble for an upgrade (newer drive at reduced price). Fay's old drives are Maxtor, so they are no help but most of my old dead or questionable drives are WD. So Fay and I will get together and work out what we want to do about upgrades. Best to do them as a batch if she can afford it, that'll save on shipping.
But until I slap some of my old drives into the Dell, I'm down to *one* working PC.
ETA: I finally realized that at this point, there's no way I could make the drive worse, so I dug out my VOM and checked the power leads on the drive. O ohms resistance between any pair I tried. That's a dead short on *both* sets of power inputs. No idea how it happened, but a hell of a thing.
Even though the drive is out of warranty, I'm going to try to file a report with the manufacturer, simply because that sort of failure *should* be impossible.
