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Old 01-12-2017, 07:20 AM
 
186 posts, read 128,802 times
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how can I make sure my external hard drive is protected from an outage, once there is one it will turn off

Also do cases for 8tb external drives exist cause best buy and other stores I been to don't have any
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Old 01-12-2017, 07:43 AM
 
Location: Florida & Cebu, Philippines
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Uninterruptible power supply, AKA UPS, I use one on my router, modem, cordless phones and computer, so it can easily also be used on a backup drive.
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Old 01-12-2017, 07:58 AM
 
14,780 posts, read 43,697,549 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KillerInstinct View Post
how can I make sure my external hard drive is protected from an outage, once there is one it will turn off

Also do cases for 8tb external drives exist cause best buy and other stores I been to don't have any
Like Mr. Lee said, an UPS is the only real solution to make sure it remains powered. If you are going the "protected from a power surge" angle, than as long as your gear is plugged into a good surge protector it will be fine.

As for cases, just google. I found these on Seagate's site and there are tons of them on Amazon:

Accessories | Seagate)
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Old 01-12-2017, 08:47 AM
 
186 posts, read 128,802 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT View Post
Like Mr. Lee said, an UPS is the only real solution to make sure it remains powered. If you are going the "protected from a power surge" angle, than as long as your gear is plugged into a good surge protector it will be fine.

As for cases, just google. I found these on Seagate's site and there are tons of them on Amazon:

Accessories | Seagate)

does this mean it cant be connected to the wall at the same time and nothing pops up on that site when I click it, how long does a ups last with power supply and how long to recharge it? looks too big to be using on your bed
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Old 01-12-2017, 09:44 AM
 
14,780 posts, read 43,697,549 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KillerInstinct View Post
does this mean it cant be connected to the wall at the same time and nothing pops up on that site when I click it, how long does a ups last with power supply and how long to recharge it? looks too big to be using on your bed
The link worked for me. Just google external drive cases and you will see plenty of options. How long an UPS lasts depends on what size you are using and how much is plugged into it. They aren't designed to power things for hours and hours. They are designed to give you enough time to save your work and properly shut things down. Yes, they are too big to place on a bed or travel with. Most home user UPS systems weigh 25+ pounds.
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Old 01-12-2017, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
2,743 posts, read 4,828,538 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KillerInstinct View Post
... how long does a ups last with power supply and how long to recharge it? looks too big to be using on your bed
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT View Post
... How long an UPS lasts depends on what size you are using and how much is plugged into it. They aren't designed to power things for hours and hours. They are designed to give you enough time to save your work and properly shut things down. Yes, they are too big to place on a bed or travel with. Most home user UPS systems weigh 25+ pounds.
There is a big choice of sizes (and corresponding power capacities). The medium and large ones use sealed lead-acid batteries just like your car, and for the same reasons, reliability and cost. But that makes them predictably heavy.

I have a fulls sized PC, flat-screen monitor, a bunch of external USB drives, & my modem all plugged into it. I got a big UPS for all that, and just had to replace the battery (stated good for 3 years, actually lasted 6). It's by APC and the replacement battery was about 20 lbs. (Yay free shipping from Amazon!!!!), about the 1/2 size of box of tissues, and rated at 7 amp/hours.

The provided software tells me that I'm (right this minute) using a bit under 200 watts, and with this big battery, it gives me 28 minutes of current usage. So on power outage, I can take my time and finish what I'm doing before I shut down.
Also, the UPS connects to my PC via USB cord so if my power fails, my UPS, (and say, I'm not home), it will tell my PC to do a controlled shut-down, rather than just chopping off the power.

PLUG: I strongly recommend APC (American Power Corp) UPSs as I've had them for decades, never had problems with them, and once had to replace one when it got blasted by a lightning strike. I phoned to start the warranty-replacement process, and the Cust Svc guy casually told me that since my PC was connected and fried, it was covered by the warranty and APC would replace my PC as well as the UPS. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary as the UPS has died protecting my PC. But it really impressed me that they were so casual and open about honoring the PC replacement part of the warranty.

was super-impressed when I
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Old 01-13-2017, 08:41 PM
 
186 posts, read 128,802 times
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what are the chances of an external hard drive getting damage just by an outage? the computers usually still work when they that happens and so do other electronic devices even if they are being used while it happens
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Old 01-14-2017, 09:32 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
2,743 posts, read 4,828,538 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KillerInstinct View Post
what are the chances of an external hard drive getting damage just by an outage? the computers usually still work when they that happens and so do other electronic devices even if they are being used while it happens
"What are the chances" has an answer like so many others, ... "It Depends"

One way for there to be a chance of data loss is if the xHDD (external Hard Disk Drive) is actually in the process of writing the data, and is interrupted mid-write. So the data on the drive is incomplete, and also, there's a possibility that the xHDD gets 'confused' about what is written where, so more than the immediate data being written gets inaccessible.

If it's just sitting there, or if it's reading data back out, then a power failure won't hurt the data, and probably won't hurt the xHDD.
HOWEVER: until the power is restored, it might be a LOT more susceptible to physical jostling, resulting in mechanical damage and probable data loss. The read-write head/arm needs to retract back to it's resting area (home). If the power stops and the head isn't retracted, and the unit is bumped, the head would almost certainly bang against the platter, causing damage to one or both.
But: I don't know for sure about this as some or all units might be designed so that the arm automatically goes back 'home' on power loss. IE: spring return or such, in which case, no worries.

Another thing to consider, is that xHDDs consume a pretty small amount of power, so they wouldn't tax a UPS system that much. IE: Connecting them to the UPS wouldn't reduce by much the time the UPS could power the system.

Bottom line, it's a no-brainer to have all xHDDs powered by your systems UPS.
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Old 01-15-2017, 06:07 AM
 
Location: Log "cabin" west of Bangor
7,057 posts, read 9,082,573 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed_RDNC View Post
...The read-write head/arm needs to retract back to it's resting area (home). If the power stops and the head isn't retracted, and the unit is bumped, the head would almost certainly bang against the platter, causing damage to one or both.
But: I don't know for sure about this as some or all units might be designed so that the arm automatically goes back 'home' on power loss. IE: spring return or such, in which case, no worries.

Another thing to consider, is that xHDDs consume a pretty small amount of power, so they wouldn't tax a UPS system that much. IE: Connecting them to the UPS wouldn't reduce by much the time the UPS could power the system.

Bottom line, it's a no-brainer to have all xHDDs powered by your systems UPS.
The worst problems arise when the power flickers rapidly and/or you have a 'brown-out'. In these cases, the heads may lose enough speed to bounce off the platters without auto-parking, and damage will occur. If you live somewhere where this occurs frequently (as I do), repeated occurrences will result in an increasing number of bad sectors, data corruption, and eventually the drive will run out of 'spare' sectors to swap with the damaged ones.

Prior to modern IDE hard drives, it was necessary to scan a drive for bad sectors and mark them as 'unusable' (and try to recover the data if it had already been in use). With the advent of Integrated Drive Electronics, most of this became transparent to the users.

Power issues are one of the biggest killers of hard drives. Put it on a UPS.
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Old 01-15-2017, 07:29 AM
 
186 posts, read 128,802 times
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How do I know which one to buy for my seagate external drive? Like how power will accept my hard drive, dont know how many volts or watts it uses. Need one from bestbuy

Seagate Backup Plus Hub 8TB External USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive Black STEL8000100 - Best Buy
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