Beware of putting WD Caviar 250GB HDs into external enclosures - high current at spinup

[Jeffrey Morse]

I found this out the hard way recently with a WD 2500PB Caviar drive
and an Addlogix/Compucable FireExpress 525DX enclosure. Last night I
installed a re-certified (a euphemism for used) Caviar 250GB drive into
it, and proceeded to format it in Windows. Well I knew something was
wrong when the format took 3-4 times longer than normal. But the drive
was running, so I transferred movie files from a backup drive onto it.
It got about halfway through that when I got a Windows error message about
an invalid parameter in a file, and repeatedly got delayed write failures
in the Event Log. After trying to restart the drive, I found it had
totally failed, making what sounded like a clicking sound, except it was
quite faint. The drive motor had stopped spinning, and the enclosure fan
had also stopped, making it very hot. After removing the cables, I smelled
burnt silicon at the rear panel.

Well, I wish I had looked up the specs. on this drive before doing this,
but hindsight is 20/20. According to WD, this drive can consume up to
2.4A on the 12V line at spinup, which is more than what most enclosures
can handle. (This one was rated at 1.25A). It and perhaps the non-SE
Caviar 250GB (no V/A/W ratings for it were listed) are the only drives in
the entire Caviar line that consume this much power at spinup: all the
others pull a maximum of 1.3A at spinup on 12V. An expensive lesson
learned for me: one which I'm not likely to forget anytime soon. Hopefully
by posting this, I can prevent someone else from making the same mistake
with this combination.

 

[~misfit~]

I found this out the hard way recently with a WD 2500PB Caviar drive
and an Addlogix/Compucable FireExpress 525DX enclosure. Last night I
installed a re-certified (a euphemism for used) Caviar 250GB drive
into it, and proceeded to format it in Windows. Well I knew something
was wrong when the format took 3-4 times longer than normal. But the
drive was running, so I transferred movie files from a backup drive
onto it.
It got about halfway through that when I got a Windows error message
about an invalid parameter in a file, and repeatedly got delayed
write failures in the Event Log. After trying to restart the drive, I
found it had totally failed, making what sounded like a clicking
sound, except it was quite faint. The drive motor had stopped
spinning, and the enclosure fan had also stopped, making it very hot.
After removing the cables, I smelled burnt silicon at the rear panel.

Well, I wish I had looked up the specs. on this drive before doing
this, but hindsight is 20/20. According to WD, this drive can consume
up to
2.4A on the 12V line at spinup, which is more than what most
enclosures can handle. (This one was rated at 1.25A). It and perhaps
the non-SE Caviar 250GB (no V/A/W ratings for it were listed) are the
only drives in the entire Caviar line that consume this much power at
spinup: all the others pull a maximum of 1.3A at spinup on 12V. An
expensive lesson learned for me: one which I'm not likely to forget
anytime soon. Hopefully by posting this, I can prevent someone else
from making the same mistake with this combination.

Thanks for the heads-up Jeffrey. That's one big current-pull at start-up.
Sorry to hear about your drive.

 

[Bennett Price]

I found this out the hard way recently with a WD 2500PB Caviar drive
and an Addlogix/Compucable FireExpress 525DX enclosure. Last night I
installed a re-certified (a euphemism for used) Caviar 250GB drive into
it, and proceeded to format it in Windows. Well I knew something was
wrong when the format took 3-4 times longer than normal. But the drive
was running, so I transferred movie files from a backup drive onto it.
It got about halfway through that when I got a Windows error message about
an invalid parameter in a file, and repeatedly got delayed write failures
in the Event Log. After trying to restart the drive, I found it had
totally failed, making what sounded like a clicking sound, except it was
quite faint. The drive motor had stopped spinning, and the enclosure fan
had also stopped, making it very hot. After removing the cables, I smelled
burnt silicon at the rear panel.

Well, I wish I had looked up the specs. on this drive before doing this,
but hindsight is 20/20. According to WD, this drive can consume up to
2.4A on the 12V line at spinup, which is more than what most enclosures
can handle. (This one was rated at 1.25A). It and perhaps the non-SE
Caviar 250GB (no V/A/W ratings for it were listed) are the only drives in
the entire Caviar line that consume this much power at spinup: all the
others pull a maximum of 1.3A at spinup on 12V. An expensive lesson
learned for me: one which I'm not likely to forget anytime soon. Hopefully
by posting this, I can prevent someone else from making the same mistake
with this combination.

I wonder whether you've correctly identified the problem. Spinup lasts
a few seconds - more if the voltage drops below nominal, but still
seconds. Is the external power supply sufficient to supply continuous
run current? While undersized as you suggest, the external box might
also have been defective.

 

[half_pint]

I found this out the hard way recently with a WD 2500PB Caviar drive
and an Addlogix/Compucable FireExpress 525DX enclosure. Last night I
installed a re-certified (a euphemism for used)

Or failed, burnt out parts replaced, but still containg its original
fault, then sold on.

Caviar 250GB drive into
it, and proceeded to format it in Windows. Well I knew something was
wrong when the format took 3-4 times longer than normal. But the drive
was running, so I transferred movie files from a backup drive onto it.
It got about halfway through that when I got a Windows error message about
an invalid parameter in a file, and repeatedly got delayed write failures
in the Event Log. After trying to restart the drive, I found it had
totally failed, making what sounded like a clicking sound, except it was
quite faint. The drive motor had stopped spinning, and the enclosure fan
had also stopped, making it very hot. After removing the cables, I smelled
burnt silicon at the rear panel.

Well, I wish I had looked up the specs. on this drive before doing this,
but hindsight is 20/20. According to WD, this drive can consume up to
2.4A on the 12V line at spinup, which is more than what most enclosures
can handle. (This one was rated at 1.25A).

Are you sure 2.4 A at 12V is 30 watts.
Some power supplies are 400W

It and perhaps the non-SE
Caviar 250GB (no V/A/W ratings for it were listed) are the only drives in
the entire Caviar line that consume this much power at spinup: all the
others pull a maximum of 1.3A at spinup on 12V. An expensive lesson
learned for me: one which I'm not likely to forget anytime soon. Hopefully
by posting this, I can prevent someone else from making the same mistake
with this combination.

I am not sure what you are saying, sounds like you bought a duff drive to
me.
Obviously these drive work within their spec when they have no
underlying fault.

 

[Jeffrey Morse]

Thanks for the heads-up Jeffrey. That's one big current-pull at start-up.
Sorry to hear about your drive.

It is a big pull, but I rechecked everything tonight. Seems
my original post about this is only partially valid. Yes,
you do have to watch out for their largest drive pulling
excessive power (if in doubt, use it on the internal IDE),
but what happened in my case was that I had accidentally
unplugged the fan connector when I installed it into the
FireExpress, and the WD went into thermal shutdown mode.
I connected it, utrned it on, the drive spun up normally,
and Windows detected it a few seconds later. I don't
think the data on it is corrupted, so I shut it off again
and plan to use it as a backup drive. The 2.4A is a maximum
figure, but I suspect that it was somewhat less than that on
mine.