Broken disk drive but don't want to return

chrisp030271

bris wrote: »

You are being unrealistic, you cant expect them to just refund you without getting back the faulty disc and if you smash it they will not replace it because of customer damage.

If you are really that concerened then bite the bullet and buy a new one, but you have no rights to keep it.

Exactly!
And to be honest, my expectations of a "magic answer" were low, to say the least.
Per my original post, I see their point of view. But then I have mine.
And the two do not offer an obvious resolution, other than I have to write off the expense.
As said elsewhere, encrypting the drives in future is a good idea, but not an ideal solution for joe public. This is, perhaps, something retailers/manufacturers should try to address.

custardy

chrisp030271 wrote: »

Yes tinkerbell, it is making a kind of repeated "whizz-and-click" on power on, about 4 or 5 times, then goes quiet. The power is on but the drive is inaccessible over the network.

Now, it could be that the drive is completely knackered, in which case there would be little or no problem.

However (and I work in IT but not a hard drive specialist) what if it is something failed on a controller chip external to the actual drive, the power supply not giving it enough juice to spin up, etc.. For all I know, the drive might work properly if transferred into another NAS chassis or PC.

Anyway, this post was mostly about a theoretical debate - I know there is no solution with the retailer. My point is, there probably should be. To reference an earlier comment, I will in future look at encrypting all my home drives, but this is way beyond most people.

oh come on!
Its not exactly high end hacking we are talking about
it can be bought in hardware
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-DriveStation-Velocity-External-Encryption/dp/B006D9DBPS

or software form
or within the OS

tinkerbell28

Encrypting isn't really hard. All our stuff is. But you're right there is every chance the data could all be intact.

forgotmyname

Surely if you work in IT you know how to erase the data before returning it.

I would have whipped the drive out and installed it into my PC in an instant to see if the drive was OK.

I had a brand new drive fail after copying all my music and photo's to it.

I was gutted. Then doing a raw scan on the old drives to recover as many pictures as i could.

tinkerbell28

forgotmyname wrote: »

Surely if you work in IT you know how to erase the data before returning it.

I would have whipped the drive out and installed it into my PC in an instant to see if the drive was OK.

I had a brand new drive fail after copying all my music and photo's to it.

I was gutted. Then doing a raw scan on the old drives to recover as many pictures as i could.

But EVERYONE works in IT.....

chrisp030271

custardy wrote: »

oh come on!
Its not exactly high end hacking we are talking about
it can be bought in hardware
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-DriveStation-Velocity-External-Encryption/dp/B006D9DBPS

or software form
or within the OS

Well custardy you obviously move in far more tech-savvy circles than me. Most of the people I know (intelligent enough, just not that interested in IT) have trouble printing an email, never mind even thinking that they NEED to encrypt their home drives, never mind be able to DO it.

chrisp030271

forgotmyname wrote: »

Surely if you work in IT you know how to erase the data before returning it.

I would have whipped the drive out and installed it into my PC in an instant to see if the drive was OK.

I had a brand new drive fail after copying all my music and photo's to it.

I was gutted. Then doing a raw scan on the old drives to recover as many pictures as i could.

I assume it's a 3.5" drive within the chassis.
My laptop takes 2.5" drive and doesn't have a spare slot.
Not everyone has the capability to "have whipped the drive out and installed it into my PC in an instant". Nor should they.

wealdroam

chrisp030271 wrote: »

Not everyone has the capability to "have whipped the drive out and installed it into my PC in an instant".

Anyone who works in IT should be able to manage it.

Do you know anyone who works in IT?

Fosterdog

chrisp030271 wrote: »

I assume it's a 3.5" drive within the chassis.
My laptop takes 2.5" drive and doesn't have a spare slot.
Not everyone has the capability to "have whipped the drive out and installed it into my PC in an instant". Nor should they.

All you need is a caddy or another external drive to act as a caddy, you can pick them up for £5, I keep one in the cupboard for when I need it.

For someone who works in IT you really don't seem to have any clue at all about these things. You don't need to be a hard dive specialist to know this stuff it is the most basic IT hardware knowledge. If I were your employer I'd have serious concerns over your ability to do your job if you find such simple and basic tasks to be above your level of expertise.

neilmcl

Fosterdog wrote: »

All you need is a caddy or another external drive to act as a caddy, you can pick them up for £5, I keep one in the cupboard for when I need it.

For someone who works in IT you really don't seem to have any clue at all about these things. You don't need to be a hard dive specialist to know this stuff it is the most basic IT hardware knowledge. If I were your employer I'd have serious concerns over your ability to do your job if you find such simple and basic tasks to be above your level of expertise.

What a ridiculous thing to say.

"Working in IT" encompasses a wide spectrum of specialities, he could be an analyst, project manager etc, the fact that he doesn't much know about hardware probably has absolutely zero impact on whether he's competent at his job or not.