OT- Sticktion? Anyone really had trouble?

vicmilt wrote on 7/23/2006, 10:00 AM
When I first started contributing to this forum, I advanced the then "different" concept of using individual drives to store media on, accessed by Firewire.

At the time, no one else seemed to be doing that particualar technique, but I was assailed by threats of "Sticktion" - where a hard drive will fail if it's not regularly accessed.

Now that a lot of you are clearly using a lot of drives, I wonder if anyone has had recent troubles with "sticktion"?

Again... I know all the theories - but I'm more interested in actual drive failures - manufacturers and length of time out of use or whatever other elements may have contributed to this problem.

v

Comments

mjroddy wrote on 7/23/2006, 12:27 PM
I don't know... This is a great question. It brings to mind something I remember from WAY back; parking your drive. I VAGUELY remember back before Windows was a Thing, you had to park your drive in shutting down.
I'm glad you brought this up because it was going to be the method of choice for me (backing up to hard drive). Now you have my - attention.
GlennChan wrote on 7/23/2006, 12:34 PM
Some of the drive manufacturers like IBM (before their drive division was sold to hitachi) would say/imply that hard drives are more reliable if they aren't used all the time.

I don't think the sticktion this is true. It might be that sometimes drives fail for this reason- in which case, dropping the drive can get the head unstuck and the drive temporarily working again.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6255-5029761-2.html

I personally have never seen a case of sticktion. I have seen drives that will get all these clicking noises, and then fail. Sometimes hard drives can overheat too... they start working again when they are at room temp.
farss wrote on 7/23/2006, 2:53 PM
I put a drive into service that'd been sitting on the shelf for over a year. Prior to that it had done service holding client video files.
At first the drive refused to format, it took two attempts to get it to come to life as a system drive.
Eventually I got it up and running however after only two weeks of being in service Win2K refused to boot due to a corrupted OS file. Replaced the drive with a new Samsung and imaged it.

I really cannot offer much explaination. I've got drives that have run for over a decade that are on 24/7. I've had drives sit for years without problems. The bearing system in modern drives must be very low friction, chances of striction problems seem hard to believe but.... Then perhaps the problem is migration of the chemicals inside the sealed box. We had that problem many years ago with old fixed head disks, even though the drives were pressurised with helium, one of the plastics used as insulation would migrate into the heads.

I'm starting to lean towards a SAN box with RAID 5, at least if a drive goes south I'll know about it. What I don't like is it's yet another thing sucking power 24/7.

Bob.
Kula Gabe wrote on 7/23/2006, 10:34 PM
Years ago I had 2- 20 gig IBMs sit for around 6 months, when I got around to using them, they no longer worked. They were under warranty, and I got 30 gig drives as replacements. Currenty, I backup old projects, and keep different projects on removable HDD w/out any problems. At one point I had a few drives which were formated differently (dynamic?) these were a pain if used w/ multiple computers. I have reformatted those drives, and things are much smoother now.
Steve Mann wrote on 7/24/2006, 4:02 PM
"Some of the drive manufacturers like IBM (before their drive division was sold to hitachi) would say/imply that hard drives are more reliable if they aren't used all the time."

Most of the drives that we buy for our PC's are consumer-grade, and speced for something like 20% duty cycle. You can buy 100% duty cycle drives, they are usually labeles for network use, but expect a 50-100% premium on the price.

Oh, on the original question, I have five year old drives that I jst plug into a USB box and they read & write just fine).

Steve M.
kkolbo wrote on 7/24/2006, 8:06 PM
I haven't had a drive fail to start after being stored for a long period of time.

I have had many drive failures. The number one culprit has been external enclosures without enough cooling for the demands of video streams. I will often put a drive into a situation where it will be accessed at 80% or more for 20-30 hours. Without enough cooling they tend to meltdown. (consumer drives) I cooked another one three days ago.

I have stopped using LaCie enclosures and several others, (tight fit and no air). I have sworn to using the dirt cheap off brand from Cheap Guys that is big and has lots of room around the drive and a fan to suck air. The top is removable by just two sliders. I have never cooked a drive that was in one of these. I have had other failures, but never a heat failure.

Just my 2 cents.