RE: use of removable hard drive caddies in forensics lab

From: VICENTE CHRISTIAN (CHRISTIAN.VICENTEat_private)
Date: Tue Jul 17 2001 - 01:57:37 PDT

  • Next message: Cameron Farquhar: "Artifacts"

    Hi Dan,
    
    I've experienced the same kind of problem with caddy. After investigating
    the problem, I'm quite sure the problem is heat.
    The fan mounted at the back of the caddy is not prowerful enough, certainly
    if you are using 7200rpm drives.
    I'm still using caddy on machines running sometimes 24/7 without any problem
    doing this :
    - try to use metallic caddy. Plastic ones act as a hoven.
    - If you are still using plastic ones don't put the cover and place on the
    bay above the drive a fan (I found one from coolmaster, it has the size of a
    cdrom and fits in a standard bay) that extract the heat out of the case.
    - You can also find flat fan that can be screwed on top of the hard disk,
    the metalic frame acting as a heatsink.
    
    Remember : in computers, heat is one of your worst ennemy.
    
    Hope this will help you 
    Christian Vicente
    IS Officer
    Fortis Bank - End User Automation/1258
    Tel :+32 (0)2 228.4457
    E-mail : christian.vicenteat_private
    transmission index : 1GA4R
    
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From:	daniel heinonen [SMTP:d.heinonenat_private]
    > Sent:	Monday, July 16, 2001 12:59 AM
    > To:	forensicsat_private
    > Subject:	Re: use of removable hard drive caddies in forensics lab
    > 
    > Hi Pat,
    > 
    > I own 2 caddy and my old flat mates owned 6 caddy between them.  I do not 
    > know the brand but they were Normal IDE and ATA 66 caddies which had a fan
    > 
    > in the back.  I always turn my machine off then take out the caddy insert 
    > HDD then put it in the computer.  I have had these caddies for over a year
    > 
    > and recently one friend had 2 HDDs die, another had 3 and another had 1 
    > die.  Only one of these drives were not being used in a caddie but it was
    > old.
    > 
    > At my present work I use external Fire wire drives and I have never had a 
    > fault (being used on macs). We also have external scsi which also have not
    > 
    > faulted.  I am sure there are caddies that would not kill drives but I 
    > would ask for people to recommend a good one since it can be costly to 
    > replace HDD and evidence.  Luckily most HDD have 3 year warranty but that 
    > will not bring back evidence.  I like caddies so I would not give up 
    > hope.  Please let me know if you find a good one.
    > 
    > FYI - I have seen police keep their computer case open with an IDE cable 
    > and power cable hanging out.
    > 
    > -Daniel
    > 
    > At 03:57 PM 13/07/01 +0100, you wrote:
    > >We have recently installed removable caddies for our hard drives to make
    > us
    > >more flexible in the way we store our ENCASE image files. During the
    > first
    > >week we have had 2 drives go down with damaged clusters. I am considering
    > >the chance that the caddies  or their operation are causing the problem.
    > >Any ideas?,
    > >
    > >thanks,
    > >
    > >Pat Beardmore
    > 
    > 
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