I've had a frustrating experience with three external hard drives failing in just the last six months, including a 6 TB Seagate Desktop, an 8 TB Seagate Desktop, and a 5 TB Seagate Portable. AI suggests it could be an issue with bad power or the enclosures themselves, as I haven't heard the usual sounds of failure like clacking or clicking. I'm planning to try to salvage my desktop drives since they have a lot of important media on them. I've ordered a SATA to USB adapter with an external power supply to test them out. What are the chances they'll still be usable, and how should I handle these drives in the future? I've considered getting new enclosures for them.
1 Answer
It sounds like the enclosures might be the real problem here. I've had a couple of Seagate external cases fail too, but the drives themselves were fine when removed. If you need them to be external, just look for a quality replacement enclosure. It's usually cheaper than getting a new drive altogether!
What's a good enclosure you would recommend? Is it better to buy single enclosures or two or more at once?