Why does my HD suspension fail?

Slosa · Post by **Slosa** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:26 pm

Ok first off Iâ€™m using an Antec Sonata 3 case and a Samsung Spinpoint T166 500gb. I've been keeping the HD suspended with non-elastic strings for a week or so without any noticeable problems, but those strings only reduced the vibrations slightly.

Yesterday I purchased elastic polyester/rubber strings from a sewing shop and first I tried suspending the HD with a few 1.5mm strings. All the vibrations disappeared but my system became non-responsive for short 1-2 sec intervals every now and then. So I removed the suspension, rebooted the comp, and the system returned to normal.

Photo of how I tried to suspend:
http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spa0432lr8.jpg

So perhaps the HD was moving up and down a bit too much when it hanged on those tiny strings? Instead I suspended the HDusing 3mm strings that I had also purchased, this worked fine for a couple of hours but now the same thing is happening but to a lesser extent. And unfortunately even with these thicker elastic strings I can feel some faint vibrations through the case, but I could live with those if just the system was stable.

I looked for some HD diagnostic tools but there seemed to be a risk of losing data and I have no way of backing-up 500gb. In the end I just did the S.M.A.R.T. test in Speedfan and that did however indicate that something is not right.

Without suspension:

With 1.5mm strings:

With 3mm strings:

So why is this happening? Havenâ€™t seen anyone else have these kinds of problems, especially not on this HD model, should I just give up on suspension now or what?

KlaymenDK · Post by **KlaymenDK** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:47 am

Well my guess is that the seek movements are causing the drive to wobble about, and that's causing issues.

Looking at your suspension, it seems possible that it's see-sawing and possibly also rotating. I don't know if you have room to do this:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/ima ... end_02.jpg
but you can see that, in spite of being suspended, the drive is still fairly limited in its movement.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:54 am

Yeah, the idea is to hold the drive in place as firmly as possible with the suspension method without making the suspension material break from the stress.

viewtopic.php?t=19147 shows how some of the other folks have done it. About page 9 in that thread gets you to the 2007 posts.

Maybe you should check your AAM settings. If the seeks are violent enough the drive will move. Setting AAM to a more conservative setting might help.

Worst case scenario you may have a drive that has seeks that are too strong for your suspension options and you buy another hard drive that you know has good characteristics.

Keep in mind some people use foam blocks on the bottom of the PC as an alternative mounting point for drives when suspension isn't a good option. Of course this option isn't good if you move the PC around.

Slosa · Post by **Slosa** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:15 am

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try to suspend the HD more firmly.

I have in fact looked a bit at that photo thread, the pictures on the first pages used setups similar to mine I'd say, I guess the mounting methods got a bit more refined over the years however.

A lot of people on the final pages make use of those plastic p-clips but I haven't been able to find those.

I will try the something similar to what KlaymenDK suggested even though it will be a finger exercise of highest order.

blackworx · Post by **blackworx** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:45 am

A lot of people on the final pages make use of those plastic p-clips but I haven't been able to find those.

I had real difficulty finding them in the UK until I randomly went to a giant DIY store and found them alongside the more common "hammer-in" cable clips - the ones with the nail sticking out the side.[/quote]

Tez · Post by **Tez** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:03 am

blackworx wrote: I had real difficulty finding them in the UK until I randomly went to a giant DIY store and found them alongside the more common "hammer-in" cable clips - the ones with the nail sticking out the side.

Got mine in Maplin

blackworx · Post by **blackworx** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:57 am

Tez wrote:Got mine in Maplin

Our local Maplin sucks fat ones. If you're Ravey Davey Mobile Disco Man you can get all the crap PA gear and flashing traffic lights you want, but go in for something as outlandish as cable clips or heatshrink and the shelves are bare

Tez · Post by **Tez** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:21 am

blackworx wrote: Our local Maplin sucks fat ones. If you're Ravey Davey Mobile Disco Man you can get all the crap PA gear and flashing traffic lights you want, but go in for something as outlandish as cable clips or heatshrink and the shelves are bare

Lmao so true! I was very surprised they had the P-clips, its a terrible store.

Tez · Post by **Tez** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:16 am

I have a WD 6400AAKS and 5000AAKS and my comp has been behaving strange for the last few days. When i was browsing the net Opera would become unresponsive and then other things started to do the same. I rebooted and whilst trying to load Vista it was unable to communicate with the bootloader so it wouldn't load.

I then booted into XP which is on my second hard drive and it worked. BUT it kept showing errors about not being able to locate MFT files on my other drive and that data had been lost

. I was worried to say the least lol, checked the connectors and booted up again and all was fine.

I keep hearing strange noises from my main drive though, it sounds like an really loud vibration but I don't see how if they are both elastically suspended. Speedfan indicates both drives are fine and healthy but I'm started to think again about suspending the drives

.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:25 am

Currently got my HDD's on a cheap suspension using that tape like white elastic designed for clothing manafacture. I've been browsing the elastic suspension pics in one of the stickied threads and really want to do something more along the lines of the rounded thick elastic with p-clamps and hooks at the ends.

Trouble is I can't for the life of me get hold of the p-clamps or hooks. Not sure what the hooks are properly called but in the photos people have them at the ends of the elastic cord with the cord threaded through and knotted to hold it in place (most of them appear to be brass in colour).

The vast majority of the recommendations seem to be for US stores and I'm in the UK, made a trip to Maplin and found nothing of use confirming the above conmments. The bloke at the counter hadn't heard of hard disk suspension and offered me over-priced generic sata disks and those nasty small cable clips with the nail. Basically I'm asking where I can find these clamps and what the hooks are supposed to be called. I'm going to make a trip to Wickes tomorrow, is that a likely place to find these things?

Oh, and in huge hardware stores I assume I'm looking under electrical fittings for the p-clamps but I'm not so sure for the hooks. Thanks in advance for any replies!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:53 am

This suspension set-up shows both the things I was trying to explain:

viewtopic.php?p=427910#427910

The copper/brass coloured hooks and the plastic p-clamp type things.

blackworx · Post by **blackworx** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:29 pm

Hi Adam,

The brass/copper coloured hooks you mentioned are actually pre-fastened to the elastic by machine and the whole strap is known as a bungee cord. B&Q sell them next to the ropes and chains - sometimes they're in a plastic tub.

I've also seen P-clips in my local uber-B&Q, and that's exactly what the packet said "P-Clips" - so if you can't see them I guess they'll probably be able to do a search one of those paint-stained Dells they tend to have dotted around the place.

Good luck!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:38 pm

Ok, thanks blackworx! I'll be off to B&Q tomorrow morning then. Can't wait to get this set up. With the bungee cords is it easy to adjust the length? I guess it's just a case of undoing the knot at the end, cutting the cord, moving the hook and re-tieing it all.

Despite what my not so helpful maplin representative told me I've since found these on the website:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=6236

Despite the somewhat brassy metallic look in the picture the description confirms them as nylon so I guess they are an alternative source for p-clamps/clips.

blackworx · Post by **blackworx** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:00 pm

No worries

To the best of my knowledge, bungee cords can't be adjusted - they just come in a variety of sizes to suit. The tubs I mentioned usually have a decent selection, and you'll find the leftover ones are handy. They're not far behind the wheel in terms of usefulness!