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Dead enclosures?

eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
30,038
29,181
Anyone know why two brand new HD enclosures for 3.5" SATA drives would up and die within the first three to four hours of being powered on?

I bought these brand new to replace the two previous enclosures. They are SATA to USB 2.0. Had both of them working just fine and plugged in to a powered hub.

The power supplys appear to work fine, but the power lights on the drives are now off. Plugging them in to USB simply results in the enclosure trying to draw power from the USB port instead of the power supply.

I have plugged both supplys directly into a socket, the lights on the supplys themselves are on, but nothing.

The two previous drive enclosures lasted eight years so I don't think I have hard drives that are eating enclosures. When they were working earlier tonight they seemed just fine.

It took me a week and a half to get these enclosures so I'd rather not have to send them back, but I find it hard (and I know the seller will find it hard) to believe that two enclosures were defective at the same time.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
I think they are obviously defective...

But what enclosures are they?
Maybe there was a short-circuit and it burned up.
Or maybe the power jack solder joint broke.
 
Do you have a Kill-A-Watt or similar energy usage meter? I'd bet something went wonky with the line power and fried a cheap component in the enclosure.

Depending on the quality of the power adapter, AC ripple could've been passed along to the drive controller, and poof- there it goes.
 
If they were the cheap no-name enclosures, it's possible that the controller chips or other parts were counterfeit or factory rejects that would be more prone to failure. I'd recommend just sending them back, seeing as they are defective and you've done nothing wrong.
 
Yeah, they were cheapies. Sigh.

I'll have to message the seller today. Not looking forward to paying to ship them back, but oh well.

Thanks guys.
 
Altemose said:
So make them pay for it... :D
Click to expand...
They have a 30 day return policy. Unfortunately, they don't pay shipping back to them.

I've learned my lesson here. Keep trying to buy cheap and it costs me. :(
 
eyoungren said:
They have a 30 day return policy. Unfortunately, they don't pay shipping back to them.

I've learned my lesson here. Keep trying to buy cheap and it costs me. :(
Click to expand...

What enclosure did you get? Can you post the link or you want to keep it a secret? Was it something like this?
 
eyoungren said:
Anyone know why two brand new HD enclosures for 3.5" SATA drives would up and die within the first three to four hours of being powered on?

I bought these brand new to replace the two previous enclosures. They are SATA to USB 2.0. Had both of them working just fine and plugged in to a powered hub.

The power supplys appear to work fine, but the power lights on the drives are now off. Plugging them in to USB simply results in the enclosure trying to draw power from the USB port instead of the power supply.

I have plugged both supplys directly into a socket, the lights on the supplys themselves are on, but nothing.

The two previous drive enclosures lasted eight years so I don't think I have hard drives that are eating enclosures. When they were working earlier tonight they seemed just fine.

It took me a week and a half to get these enclosures so I'd rather not have to send them back, but I find it hard (and I know the seller will find it hard) to believe that two enclosures were defective at the same time.

Anyone got any ideas?
Click to expand...

Sorry but they are totally defective. Just get a couple of thermal take HDD docking stations and be done with it! That's what I use and it has worked with every Mac that I own or have ever owned.
 
Look at the circuit board for any blown components. If the circuit board is bad then just get a new USB SATA controller/converter board and hack it in.
 
RedCroissant said:
Sorry but they are totally defective. Just get a couple of thermal take HDD docking stations and be done with it! That's what I use and it has worked with every Mac that I own or have ever owned.
Click to expand...
Sent the drives back on Saturday, got my refund last night. Kills me that I'm out essentially the cost of one of these enclosures, but the auction deal had the buyer paying to ship back.

Anyway…Took your advice. But I got a Thermaltake BlacX Duet instead of two singles.

Thermaltake's site says the BlacX Duet can use read/write both drives simultaneously.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141338385377?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

MODS! Not my auction!
 
Last edited:
eyoungren said:
Sent the drives back on Saturday, got my refund last night. Kills me that I'm out essentially the cost of one of these enclosures, but the auction deal had the seller paying to ship back.

Anyway…Took your advice. But I got a Thermaltake BlacX Duet instead of two singles.

Thermaltake's site says the BlacX Duet can use read/write both drives simultaneously.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141338385377?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

MODS! Not my auction!
Click to expand...

How did you lose the money?
 
Altemose said:
How did you lose the money?
Click to expand...
Oops!

I looked back at what I posted and it's supposed to say BUYER, not seller!

Returns are paid by the buyer.

I paid $12 and change to ship it back. Each enclosure was around $14, so that's how I ended up losing money on the deal.

I gave the seller positive feedback though simply because they kept their end of the bargain and refunded my money promptly.

However, I won't buy from them again.
 
eyoungren said:
Oops!

I looked back at what I posted and it's supposed to say BUYER, not seller!

Returns are paid by the buyer.

I paid $12 and change to ship it back. Each enclosure was around $14, so that's how I ended up losing money on the deal.

I gave the seller positive feedback though simply because they kept their end of the bargain and refunded my money promptly.

However, I won't buy from them again.
Click to expand...

I hope your new enclosures work well...
 
Altemose said:
I hope your new enclosures work well...
Click to expand...
Me too. But this time around, it's actually a dock, not an enclosure. And it's a dual dock. So, only one powercord and one USB cable for simultaneous read/write to both drives.
 
eyoungren said:
Me too. But this time around, it's actually a dock, not an enclosure. And it's a dual dock. So, only one powercord and one USB cable for simultaneous read/write to both drives.
Click to expand...

Sounds nice! The only issue I see with those is that if you leave drives connected for long periods of time they can get dusty or knocked around accidentally.
 
I would've gotten USB 3 docks at least because USB 2 bottlenecks the speed and USB 3 can be used with newer computers.
 
Altemose said:
Sounds nice! The only issue I see with those is that if you leave drives connected for long periods of time they can get dusty or knocked around accidentally.
Click to expand...
Yeah, dust might be an issue. Probably have to pull them out occasionally. It's going to sit on a shelf right next to my firewire HD enclosure so it should be fairly safe though.
 
I too have dealt with my share of cheap enclosures.

I bought a pair of Macally FW800/eSATA/USB 3.0 enclosures off the Marketplace forum last weekend. These are the ones that look sort of like a mini G5/Mac Pro tower. They haven't arrived yet, but for what the things cost(I paid half the new price, but even that wasn't exactly cheap) I hope they will last plenty of time.

The only problem is that I'm going to have to finally break down and buy a FW800 to FW400 cable, as I have a LOT of computers(including a couple of Intel Macs) that don't have FW800.
 
bunnspecial said:
I too have dealt with my share of cheap enclosures.

I bought a pair of Macally FW800/eSATA/USB 3.0 enclosures off the Marketplace forum last weekend. These are the ones that look sort of like a mini G5/Mac Pro tower. They haven't arrived yet, but for what the things cost(I paid half the new price, but even that wasn't exactly cheap) I hope they will last plenty of time.

The only problem is that I'm going to have to finally break down and buy a FW800 to FW400 cable, as I have a LOT of computers(including a couple of Intel Macs) that don't have FW800.
Click to expand...

My local RadioShack had a FireWire 800 to 400 cable for ~$3.00 not too long ago.
 
Altemose said:
I should look about ordering one with SATA ports.
Click to expand...
Well, the one I bought has eSATA. The other docks I saw seem to be devices to clone drives, not like an enclosure allowing you to read/write.

That said, I didn't check very far. I trust redcroissant's recommendation.

----------
bunnspecial said:
I too have dealt with my share of cheap enclosures.

I bought a pair of Macally FW800/eSATA/USB 3.0 enclosures off the Marketplace forum last weekend. These are the ones that look sort of like a mini G5/Mac Pro tower. They haven't arrived yet, but for what the things cost(I paid half the new price, but even that wasn't exactly cheap) I hope they will last plenty of time.

The only problem is that I'm going to have to finally break down and buy a FW800 to FW400 cable, as I have a LOT of computers(including a couple of Intel Macs) that don't have FW800.
Click to expand...
I have an Adaptec (yep, the makers of Toast) FW400/USB 2.0 enclosure for my IDE drives. But going since 2005. Unfortunately, Adaptec is out of business so these aren't made any more. But it's a real nice aluminum case. No fans, but the aluminum handles heat dispersion very well.
 
Altemose said:
My local RadioShack had a FireWire 800 to 400 cable for ~$3.00 not too long ago.
Click to expand...

When I checked with Radio Shack(a few months back, admittedly) they told me that all they were no longer going to carry any Firewire cables and the ones they had were on clearance. Unfortunately, they didn't have any 9 pin to 6 pin, and the others were still on the high side at the time. I'm not surprised that the price has dropped that low if they truly are trying to clear them out.

I should probably check some other Radio Shacks-I might find one with the 9 to 6 still in stock.

Otherwise, I'll probably pick one up the next time I'm in the Apple store. When I was researching them, I don't recall it beingoverly expensive, at least for an Apple store product.
 
bunnspecial said:
When I checked with Radio Shack(a few months back, admittedly) they told me that all they were no longer going to carry any Firewire cables and the ones they had were on clearance. Unfortunately, they didn't have any 9 pin to 6 pin, and the others were still on the high side at the time. I'm not surprised that the price has dropped that low if they truly are trying to clear them out.

I should probably check some other Radio Shacks-I might find one with the 9 to 6 still in stock.

Otherwise, I'll probably pick one up the next time I'm in the Apple store. When I was researching them, I don't recall it beingoverly expensive, at least for an Apple store product.
Click to expand...

You can get them online rather cheaply. I was happy I got mine for as cheap as I did, but it is definitely not a quality cable. The port portion is only a plastic of some sort rather than the metal end I prefer. It works fine, but I wouldn't pay more than I did for that cable.
 
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