Hard Drive Storage

[Grandcheapskate]

Hi Guys,
I have been storing a lot of computers in an unheated detached garage for many years. Here in the northeast we go through all four seasons so the equipment goes through some temperature differences during the year. Although the garage never gets hot (it is basically in the shade in the summer) it does get cold.

Recently I experienced excess rain water getting into the garage (detailed in a post in the Off Topic forum) and into 8 computers. While seven of the computers have booted up it seems the hard drives did not fair well. When I go to start the PCs, some hard drives squeal and I get random results, anything from the PC not doing anything to getting controller failures.

Based on what I can see post flood, it does not look like the water rose high enough to get to the hard drives on some of the computers with issues. When I detach the existing hard drives and hook in a known good hard drive the PC will start normally.

So my question becomes...assuming no water damage occurs to a hard drive, does the storage in an temperature uncontrolled garage cause damage to hard drives which sit for years?

Thanks...Joe

 

[krebizfan]

What type of drives? Drives that lack servo tracks (like most MFM drives) can be thrown off just by the expansion/contraction due to temperature changes. With many drives, humidity could lead to rust and stiction.

I remember reading recommendations that when moving a drive from an area with different temperature or humidity to wait a day or two for the drive to acclimate before powering the drive.

 

[Grandcheapskate]

All the computers are using IDE drives, most of which are around 15-20 years old. All the hard drives were working when the computers were stored. Most have probably not been started since 2014 or before.

The testing was done while the computers were still outside on the driveway after being removed from the garage and cleaned, so temperature adjustment should not be an issue. Disconnecting the hard drives and plugging in a known good drive (I am using an old WD 345mb HD as the test drive) allows the PCs to start. On a side note, I had the time today to test the CD drive on one of the PCs with bad HDs and the CD drive worked fine. On this particular PC I think it booted one time with the bad HDs connected and the PC booted off the floppy but did not see either of the two HDs.

Thanks...Joe

 

[SomeGuy]

Sigh. Never store hard drives in a garage or attic. They don't like heat and humidity. Drives stored that way over 30 years are almost certain to be dead. Hard drives are not necessarily absolutely waterproof or absolutely air tight. Over time, moisture can get in them. Moisture can also get in to the motors, which usually have externally exposed parts, and corrode them. Heat can damage lubricants. Extreme cold can damage some kinds of electrical components. If there was any air moisture inside the drive, that can condense and leave residue on the platters.

Recently, I opened a 1GB SCSI drive that I had acquired with a few others that looked to have been poorly stored. As I expected, the heads had scratched up the platters, but there was also a white residue visible on the platters. Something in the air had gotten in there.

 

[compaqportableplus]

Sigh. Never store hard drives in a garage or attic. They don't like heat and humidity. Drives stored that way over 30 years are almost certain to be dead. Hard drives are not necessarily absolutely waterproof or absolutely air tight. Over time, moisture can get in them. Moisture can also get in to the motors, which usually have externally exposed parts, and corrode them. Heat can damage lubricants. Extreme cold can damage some kinds of electrical components. If there was any air moisture inside the drive, that can condense and leave residue on the platters.

Recently, I opened a 1GB SCSI drive that I had acquired with a few others that looked to have been poorly stored. As I expected, the heads had scratched up the platters, but there was also a white residue visible on the platters. Something in the air had gotten in there.

Yes, proper storage is crucial to a drive lasting. Properly stored drives can go and go and go.

I’ve got old drives I’ve been using for years that still work great. I always laugh when people tell me “those old drives could fail any minute, you should go with CF.” Please, I’ve never had an old drive that didn’t already have some kind of issue fail on me. I’ve actually had far more issues out of newer drives. In fact, I would would trust crucial data to my old drives than to newer ones any day of the week.

 

[Malc]

I have a couple of boxes full of 2.5" and 3.5" IDE drives and they spent many years 15+ living in my shed thru hot summers and freezing cold winters, I've found the older drives that i have tested and now using from the 80s/90s have suffered no ill effects, The newer drives 10Gb > from the noughties either died in their sleep or drop dead during a stress test.

 

[Grandcheapskate]

Based on the comments above, is the prevailing wisdom that if there is a need to store PCs in a temperature uncontrolled garage then they should be stored without hard drives?

It is possible water did get high enough to touch the hard drives in which case I would expect the drives to fail. Since I have many, many PCs stored in the garage, all with hard drives installed, I was hoping the drives would survive.

Joe

 

[Malc]

Motherboards can suffer and die in temperature Uncontrolled storage as well as hard drives and CD ROM drives etc, I have a box of NOS OEM motherboards about a dozen of them that have been in my shed for many years, Last year i pulled them out and found all of them had 1 or more vented electrolytic caps even though they were NOS, I had to repair one before i could use it.

I'm going from my own experience over many years of storing this gear but i found the older faired better than the newer circa 2000 gear, I still have a couple of complete PC's in the shed but i'm not expecting them to be in working condition now and to be honest i don't care, The few systems i use and care about i keep in house, I've gotten rid of most of my hoard over the past few years.

The best defence is not to keep any that you care about in outside storage with no temp control, It's a big risk you take.

 

[Grandcheapskate]

Unfortunately I have far more PCs than I could ever keep in the house. Plus lots of pulled motherboards, controllers, video cards, etc..

The garage never gets hot in the summer as the garage is always in the shade. The garage is made from concrete blocks so it does not have quick temperature swings. The humidity is under control as evidenced by a lot of cardboard boxes and after many years they look in perfect condition. It does get cold in the winter but probably does not get too cold, maybe into the 20s at it's lowest..

I think the last time I took a lot of the PCs out was in 2018 when I wanted to work on them. At that time they were in the garage for about 4 years and I don't remember having even one issue with any of them.

However it is very possible the storm water, no matter how temporarily, did rise high enough to touch the hard drives on all 8 PCs which were on the bottom shelf. Or perhaps there was enough humidity in the garage once the water receded to cause damage. I will not know the true extent of the damage until I do a complete tear down and rebuild of each PC. And that will take weeks if not months.

Thanks...Joe