Power Outage Hard Drive Failure

[HL117]

Gents,

We had a power outage couple days ago, due to weather, power went off came back on, lights went dim to bright and the power went off again, repeat cycle one more time and then back on.

One of our older PCs with a newer SATA drive crapped out the following morning, I installed an older IDE drive and all booted fine, was wondering if anyone has had an issue like this during power outages, or whether HDs are normally susceptible to this sort of thing.


Thanks


HL

[Pand]

Yes, anytime you have a change in voltage, especially repeatedly you can have issues like this. I would recommend a ups to provide consistent power.

[The Fugitive]

....or just remember to unplug your computers when the power goes out and only plug them back in once it is up and stable again.

[HL117]

Thanks fellas , just thought it funny how it only effected the hard drive...........



 

[Chalenge]

It might not have been the power outage, but just a mere coincidence. Audio anomalies, data loss, hard drive failure, followed by more device failures (perhaps finally the motherboard) is what happens when a PSU ages. Even the really good PSUs can end their days taking your system with them.

[zack1234]

UPS will protect a PC from voltage surges?

[rpm]

Yes, kinda. All good UPS have a built in surge protector. Not all UPS are good.

[zack1234]

I have a my pc etc plugged into a surged protector, just wondering if a USP is better

I just got £2000 pc so a safeguard would be good.

[Chalenge]

Unless the whole home is protected it is not likely that any surge protector can be completely successful. Electrical energy actually works under the principle of potential energy differences which we call voltage, which you can also look at as being voltage pressure if you are so inclined. All manner of things can cause brief increases in voltages which can be spikes (less than two milliseconds in length) or surges (more than three milliseconds). Your surge protector is supposed to redirect excesses back through the grounding wire and it does that by acting as a pressure relief valve of sorts, but it does it through measuring electrical resistance (normally). The better surge protectors will also offer a form of conditioner which passes a higher quality of current that is more stable and much easier on your system. The problem with surge protection is that they need to be monitored in some way to make sure that the resistance measuring abilities are still intact, because the first good surge can either diminish the ability to measure resistance or eliminate the safety check altogether. $5 power strips that you buy at Dollar General are useless, but even spending $25 might buy you one good save after a surge. If you aren't home when it happens then you won't know your surge protector was just rendered useless.

Meanwhile spikes will only erode the safety checks slowly over time. Eventually anything will have to be replaced, but it is usually cheaper than buying a new PC.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Gents,

We had a power outage couple days ago, due to weather, power went off came back on, lights went dim to bright and the power went off again, repeat cycle one more time and then back on.

One of our older PCs with a newer SATA drive crapped out the following morning, I installed an older IDE drive and all booted fine, was wondering if anyone has had an issue like this during power outages, or whether HDs are normally susceptible to this sort of thing.


Thanks


HL

'

One of the worst things you can do to an electric device is to cycle it on and off quickly and repeatedly. The electronics can't follow and power spikes occur which can kill the hardware. 20+ years ago I killed a new Amiga500 that was in a shop on display by power cycling it too quickly (finger slipped). Just once was enough in that case.

When the whole power goes out there may also be additional spiking in the whole electric network which amplifies the problem. I have surge protectors installed in all my computer sockets just in case even though the power grid is extremely stable in Finland.

[Skuzzy]

Surge protectors need to be replaced, periodically.  Over time they lose the ability to protect.  This is due to the nature of the device used to insulate attached devices from power surges.  It is called a MOV (metal-oxide varistor) device.

These devices are actually damaged each time they absorb a surge.  There are three failure modes for an MOV, all dependent on the design implementation.
1)  The MOV based device simply stops allowing power through.
2)  The MOV based device allows all power through, including spikes.
3)  The MOV based device goes into a thermal runaway condition resulting in a small explosion.

The reason MOV's are used is due to the response time, which is measured in nano-seconds.

There are a number of other types of power suppression devices, but the MOV is the most economical and fastest to respond, so it is used in virtually all devices.  On better suppression devices a combination of different types of devices is used to reduce the impact the MOV which increases its life span.


Never use a surge protector which does not have a "protected" indicator, as you will never know if your devices are actually being protected.

[rpm]

At least most reputable surge protectors have a protected device replacement warranty. Collecting on that may be a different story. I just look at them as an extra (and cheap) ounce of prevention.