[H]ard Drive Disaster of the Day

It turned into crumbly chocolate?!
What the hell happened to it? :eek:
 
Any actual information on what happened to it? That would be kind helpful...
 
I know of nothing in nature that could turn an aluminum hard drive frame into something like that. What the heck happened?
 
Certainly the electronics are gone, but I'm curious about the state of the platters inside.
 
Wow did not figure a drive could burn that much, figured it would just darken and the pcb and platter coating would melt off but that's it.

That almost looks like it sat in hydrochloric acid for a couple days. That must have been one hell of a fire.

This reminds me, I need to make some thermite. I have a bunch of drives I need to destroy.
 
Almost happened to me last Friday (the 13th). SATA power connector in my ML110 G5 apparently shorted itself, caught on fire and only stopped when the connector finally shorted to ground cutting off the power. The drives, memory and cables above it all were singed with soot.

Amazingly, after replacing the connector (it was a molex to 2xSATA power) everything still works.
 
Almost happened to me last Friday (the 13th). SATA power connector in my ML110 G5 apparently shorted itself, caught on fire and only stopped when the connector finally shorted to ground cutting off the power. The drives, memory and cables above it all were singed with soot.

Amazingly, after replacing the connector (it was a molex to 2xSATA power) everything still works.
 
Controller board looks alright, (I would expect it to be ash if it was in a fire), I'm seeing more dirt and corrosion than fire damage, platters might be okay for data retrieval.
 
Outamyhead said:
Controller board looks alright, (I would expect it to be ash if it was in a fire), I'm seeing more dirt and corrosion than fire damage, platters might be okay for data retrieval.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. It looks like water/mud damage. I've cleaned drives like that, and was able to get the data off before it completely gave up the ghost.
 
Drive is definitely toasted. Anyone have any butter? :p

Yeah, I know, that was terrible. :D
 
Red Squirrel said:
Wow did not figure a drive could burn that much, figured it would just darken and the pcb and platter coating would melt off but that's it.

That almost looks like it sat in hydrochloric acid for a couple days. That must have been one hell of a fire.

This reminds me, I need to make some thermite. I have a bunch of drives I need to destroy.
Click to expand...

External hd would have had a plastic shell
 
malingjc said:
Almost happened to me last Friday (the 13th). SATA power connector in my ML110 G5 apparently shorted itself, caught on fire and only stopped when the connector finally shorted to ground cutting off the power. The drives, memory and cables above it all were singed with soot.

Amazingly, after replacing the connector (it was a molex to 2xSATA power) everything still works.
Click to expand...

Almost the same thing happened to a friends PC that I had just built.
Powered it up and a whole load of smoke issued from the case.
The hard drive power connector from the PSU melted at the power contact points!
Used another power connector and it was great.
 
Heat destroys magnetism. Without insulation, the platters are probably unreadable.

But consider the lowly Flight Recorder. It saves data at 1000°C for 30 minutes. Long after all the aluminum is gone.
 
Keep data backed up offsite.. Great for businesses I guess.. Home users... How would I do that? Bank deposit box? =D
 
Looks like its been buried and then dug up a year later.
 
Exavior said:
External hd would have had a plastic shell
Click to expand...

I know that, but it's pretty much an obvious assumption the plastic would melt 100% in a fire so all that's left is the drive itself.


UrielDagda said:
Keep data backed up offsite.. Great for businesses I guess.. Home users... How would I do that? Bank deposit box? =D
Click to expand...

Yep. I have a PO box I got specifically for offsite backups. I also have a server about 800km from here (probably the closest data centre) that I backup some stuff to. Though online disk space is a premium and cost's a lot, so I have to be more selective. The PO box I backup my entire environment. I go swap the drives maybe once a month.
 
I put my home backups in a fire-rated safe. Not quite as good as a safety deposit box at the bank, but good enough for my personal stuff. I put all my important legal documents in there as well.
 
Qinsp said:
Heat destroys magnetism. Without insulation, the platters are probably unreadable.

But consider the lowly Flight Recorder. It saves data at 1000°C for 30 minutes. Long after all the aluminum is gone.
Click to expand...

That is built specific for crashes and fires though.
 
As mentioned before, that is not fire damage. The one thing on that drive that "Would" burn the PCB is intact and it wouldn't be. That is water/corrosion damage. It looks like that thing sat in a very moist environment if not completely submerged for a long period of time.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
As mentioned before, that is not fire damage. The one thing on that drive that "Would" burn the PCB is intact and it wouldn't be. That is water/corrosion damage. It looks like that thing sat in a very moist environment if not completely submerged for a long period of time.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what caused the damage, but when I saw those pictures yesterday my first thought was saltwater.... Ive picked up a lot of things off the ocean floor, and that corrosion looks pretty similar
 
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