Seagate 8TB Archive HDD

Hardware HDD's & SSD's
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So I was doing a copy session to this drive overnight and then noticed the next day that the HDD was missing.

In this case I kept getting an I/O error message when trying to open any directory or even the root.

Running on Windows 10 Pro and had the HDD installed into a DAS USB device so I pulled the drive and installed into an external USB enclosure for further testing.

I got the drive to detect and start a scandisk session but after about 5 ~ 10 minutes the HDD went offline again.

Could this be the logic board or the internal mechanics or both ?

I think I have another of this same model so if need be I could swap the logic board and test.

It is out of warranty, these came with a 3 year and it was made in November of 2016.

Not like I can’t grab the same data once more if need be.

Any tips or tricks would be helpful.

I can also confirm when it was offline I rebooted the machine and went into the BIOS to see if it was detected there, it was not.

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I’m not saying it is your case, but I do not trust any USB enclosures of any kind. For following reasons:

  • some have issues with sustained usage (both, in term of coping files for hours and longevity).
  • USB hubs always can cause issues (most common is lack of sufficient power).
  • it could be even a bit loose USB port

So my recommendation would be:

  • connect drive directly and see how it works.
  • check SMART stats if they show something.

If you have laptop only, then check if enclosure exposes some SMART stats from disk (I do not remember if that is possible).

1 Like
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Yeah, my experience with external drives is that the controller board dies well before the actual hard drive. I suggest popping it open and having a look inside - if there’s a normal SATA connection, it’s easy-breezy (if not, then it just depends what’s inside).

@jak_ub nailed any other advice I’d give above, and in way less words.

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note to that, shucking drives and connecting them through sata might require a molex to sata cable or a 3.3 pin hack, so in case it doesn’t work after being shucked (removed from external enclosure and used as normal drive), then find a molex to sata adapter and try with that one.
also avoid the firecracker molex to sata adapters:
video about which adapters are bad:

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So if all the other 4 HDD’s are working fine in any of the slots this still means that this DAS unit doesn’t have enough power ?

Using only the affected HDD by itself in the DAS unit or a separate USB enclosure causes the same issue.

As for getting inside the computer case and trying it there this is the reaosn I went with an external unit for archival storage.

But I can always try it at some point but it looks like the HDD has probably gone bye-bye :frowning:

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It is just about eliminating unnecessary variables from the equation. In the end the cause could be something that you did not expect.

The question, is if you want to investigate any further?

If so, the recommended way is to connect directly via SATA and at least read those SMART statistics. And, directly, because USB is not the best medium for doing diagnostic on the disk.

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Thanks for the tips, so yes I will probably swap it into one of my machines directly to get an idea on if the HDD is dead or not.

I will also look for the other identical model HDD and pull it and test out swapping the logic boards.

Should be easy to confirm the same firmware, pretty sure it is on the label along with the S/N info.

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You do this usually only when you want to recover the data.Not for diagnostics.

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Thanks again :slight_smile:

I will post my findings when I get the HDD tested further.

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