WARNING! - Vantec "Hard Drive Dock."

[scottmcleod]

A warning to all!

I know these were discussed earlier here. (and I know this should probably be under computers, but there's no "general", and I didn't want to double-post.)

My Vantec HDD Dock went up in flames. Why? Who knows, but it was a result of the dock overheating and the plastic melting, revealing uninsulated wires (or melting the insulation on them), and shorting out on the drive.

Luckily the drive was not critical... but it could have been!

DO NOT BUY The Vantec unit, or the Thermaltake unit until they are proven to be more heat resistant. With faster drives (and bigger drives) comes more heat.

YOU NEED TO COOL THIS UNIT WITH A SMALL FAN. (Seriously. This ain't no joke).





Beware. It was a great idea, but they didn't consider all of the possibilities.

[Lunchbox]

ahhhhh that's awwful!

It could be a potential class lawsuit ...

[scottmcleod]

ahhhhh that's awwful!

It could be a potential class lawsuit ...

Depends if everyone else has the same issues I did I guess?

Sucks that the data's gone, but at least it was a copy of another HDD...

[David]

WOW!

[tcindie]

They are probably just fine for the average user, but if you're using one for video editing or any other high drive activity use it's not surprising that it would melt, being made of plastic.

Thrashing the drives creates an awful lot of heat.

[scottmcleod]

They are probably just fine for the average user, but if you're using one for video editing or any other high drive activity use it's not surprising that it would melt, being made of plastic.

Thrashing the drives creates an awful lot of heat.

Psst... we're on a ... v i d e o e d i t i n g ... forum ;-)



Still... lots of things thrash harddrives, such as copying 300GB of data, which is what I was doing at the time that it failed...

Not just video editing. Besides, this product was designed for power-users. Who else needs to swap out ridiculously large harddrives on a regular basis?

But that's just my $0.02

Hopefully I can help them make changes to the design to make it better...

[Rich]

Hum. About 20 minutes ago I received my Thermaltake dock, some hard drives and some other goodies. Being lazy, I decided to read on the computer rather than setting things up...

I will use the Thermaltake dock as it is intended for storage and not long time usage.

I had initially looked at a Vantec HDD Dock, but reviews/comments mentioned the flimsy plastic.



Rich

[scottmcleod]

Hum. About 20 minutes ago I received my Thermaltake dock, some hard drives and some other goodies. Being lazy, I decided to read on the computer rather than setting things up...

I will use the Thermaltake dock as it is intended for storage and not long time usage.

I had initially looked at a Vantec HDD Dock, but reviews/comments mentioned the flimsy plastic.



Rich

All you need is a small oscillating fan moving air across your desk.

(if I'd had mine running, this wouldn't have happened to me... I know this because I have another HDD in an aluminum case that gets pretty hot, and when the fan's going, it stays 100% cool.)

[Cybix]

a tad off topic, but still pisses me off. I bought two vantec nexstar 3 hard disk enclosures, they have USB/eSata ports. Then I bought an expresscard eSata device for my Macbook Pro so I could use two 500Gig drives on eSata as a scratch disk for video editing.

The vantec cases do NOT work with the card I bought (siliconimage 3132 chipset). mega pissed. USB sucks for scratch disks. Hoping other cases will work, so I can change them, either that or it's FW800 cases for me!

unlucky with your hdd dock!

[racer-x]

Thanks for posting your experience. I bought one of the Thermaltake units recently, so was very interested. As soon as it araived, I put a 500 GB HDD in it and copied over 350 GB of data. Although the HDD did get hot to the touch, it did not melt through the plastic or anything like what happened to yours. As soon as I read your post, I quickly checked the docking station for any signs of heat damage. Fortunately for me there was none.

I'm only using it for storage and not as an active drive, so I'm not too concerned. I will check it from time to time though. Thanks for the heads up!

[kitzj0]

Scott, I feel really bad. I mentioned this unit on another post in these forums (when the seagate drives were on sale). I have only used mine to transfer data. I have two internal drives in my computer and use one of those internal for my work in progress and then transfer everything through the vantec for long term storage. I did notice the drive got hot, and wondered if prolonged use would fry the unit. I have only transfered about 200 gigs of data so far. I just looked and mine does not show any burn marks.

Joe

[Beaker1024]

Humm.... I just returned to the forum looking for the name of this product.

I have 3-4 old (< 20 Gig) HDDs from circa 1999-2001 (90% sure they are all 5400rpm) that I don't want to fiddle with opening up a case and either putting a IDE in with my SATA (mobo likes to put IDE drives first wich is a mess) or into a IDE only mobo computer but already has 4 IDE devices connected inside.

My primary reason is just to "See and copy over" / salvage off these tiny old drives. I'm guessing I'll be fine with the thermaltake model for this purpose.

Actually was wondering if I could resell the docking unit once I'm done. I'd like the eSata if I was to use it with any new big drives, but that's not what I'll be needing it for. So USB2 only model for me.

EDIT: Ok just went looking for the product I want and well they don't make the "open" dock type system for IDE (which makes sense) only SATA. Looks like I'm in the market for a decent (easy to take apart) external enclosure for an IDE drive to USB2 connection. Going to go by the old NewEgg reviews if I don't get some suggestions from here. Thanks

[scottmcleod]

EDIT: Ok just went looking for the product I want and well they don't make the "open" dock type system for IDE (which makes sense) only SATA. Looks like I'm in the market for a decent (easy to take apart) external enclosure for an IDE drive to USB2 connection. Going to go by the old NewEgg reviews if I don't get some suggestions from here. Thanks

Seriously, here's my suggestion:

Take apart an old case, and get the drive "bay" out of it. (it's usually 4-6 bays).

Mount your drives in it, and make sure there's airflow.

Buy a cheap USB > IDE drive case, and take it apart, get the circuitboard, power supply, and IDE/Powr Cables.

Hook up to HDD1, power up, read data, eject in OS, power down. (Same technique as the SATA dock.)
Hook up HDD2, power up, read data, eject in OS, power down...

(rinse and repeat.)

That's how I used to do it with IDE drives. (and I still have a drive case guts that I use for that every once in a while.)

It's a bit messy, cable wise, but if you're crafty, you can mount it all together without making it too fugly.

Just my $0.02

[dkijc]

Sorry for the late discussion but I also burnt my pcb on my hd. (Not sure if it is the same case as yours, but) I called the company and asked if they can fix this and they said if the pcb is burnt, they can't do anything and the data is gone...(I was an art major so I had most of my school work in the hdd... 3-4yrs of stuff... ) I was desperate and I tried putting another hard drive's pcb board and whadda ya know? the disc actually spun in the hd! BUT, with a clicking sound.... bad sign.. so I kind of figured "maybe the pcb isn't compatible".
Long story short, I found the exact same pcb for about $20 and voila~ I got my data back!! I could have went to data recovery services but was costing 350+ so.... in my case 20 > 350 =)

hope this might if you run into a similar problem...

[edisonk]

It really sucked to have your Docking Station burned that like and most importantly your data is gone!!!
You should ask for money back man or possibly sue them!! ...
I've been using a HDD Docking Station, and its been on almost everyday but it seems to have great design to prevent that type of accident to happen...
HDD Docking Station You could probably find it somewhere for cheaper price. Good luck !