What causes simultaneous drive failures and stops my watch?

[Xfujinon]

Today at 11:12 PM I had two hard drives fail simultaneously. I opened up the enclosure to see what was going on, and I heard the drives clicking.

Absent mindedly, I looked at my watch a few minutes later and found out that it had stopped. Completely stopped. It is a Victoronix Swiss Army Titanium Chrono, so not a cheap watch (and very robust throughout its history).

I am very creeped out and disturbed that 1000 dollars worth of hardware just stopped with no explanation.

What can cause this?

 

[r.j.s]

A very strong magnetic field ...

Do you happen to have a klystron nearby?

 

[Xfujinon]

no Klystron. No communications facilities of any kind.

My iMac, iPod, mobile phone, alarm clock, and a desk lamp nearby were unaffected.

I was not in physical contact with the drives when they failed. I was, however, wearing my wrist watch.


The more I think about it, the more bizarre it gets.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

A bad coincidence? Those have been going around lately.

 

[r.j.s]

no Klystron. No communications facilities of any kind.

My iMac, iPod, mobile phone, alarm clock, and a desk lamp nearby were unaffected.

I was not in physical contact with the drives when they failed. I was, however, wearing my wrist watch.


The more I think about it, the more bizarre it gets.

Weird.


Must be a solar flare.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Weird.


Must be a solar flare.

That's the only logical explanation.

 

[ziggyonice]

That's the only logical explanation.

That's what THEY want you to think.

 

[r.j.s]

That's what THEY want you to think.

How would you know? You must be one of THEM.

 

[joe.pelayo]

Don't now about the watch (coincidence?, battery?) but, does the enclosure have proper ventilation?

Thanks,
Joe.

 

[Xfujinon]

This is without a doubt the single most bizarre happenstance I have ever happened upon. This is also, unceremoniously, my first drive failure, and as a bonus it occurred as a twin!

Very, very bummed. My entire iTunes library was on that drive. Mercifully, I had just backed up my 1.1 TB photo archive, so nothing was lost on that regard.

Still, what are the statistical odds? I have a master's in statistics and it still blows my mind.

Just wow.

 

[Xfujinon]

yeah, enclosure fan was working properly with fine air thoroughput. Inside of the enclosure was not hot, nor was there evidence of electrical damage. Both drives were clicking, were not recognizable despite multiple reboots, nor were recognizable to Disk Utility. They are, near as I can tell, completely toasted.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Still, what are the statistical odds? I have a master's in statistics and it still blows my mind.

The odds of this occurrence are low. I'd say less than one in twenty.