Why does nobody talk about static discharge killing drives in caddies?

Pulled 3 HDDs from our office server last tuesday and tossed them into metal caddies without grounding myself first. Wiped two drives completely dead. Anyone else been burned by this or am I just unlucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_clark376d ago

Wait, you just tossed them into metal caddies without grounding first? Dude, that's exactly what got me last year. I lost two Seagate drives from my home NAS the same way, just slid them into those cheap metal trays and poof, dead on arrival. It's crazy how nobody warns you about this, everyone just talks about handling drives on carpet or whatever. Static discharge is no joke, it can zap the controller board even if the drives look fine. I learned the hard way, now I always touch the metal case of the server or use a grounding strap before touching anything. You're definitely not alone, this is a real thing that ruins perfectly good drives.

spencer_coleman6d ago

Yeah exactly, @joel_clark37 called it. What worked for me after I killed a couple drives was getting a cheap antistatic mat from Amazon and just putting the caddies on that before I even open the drive case. Also I started touching the metal frame of the server with one hand while sliding the drive in with the other, keeps you grounded the whole time. Never lost a drive since I started doing that, takes like 3 extra seconds.