Serious external harddrive question .....
 

This is a piece-of-mind question.

I would rather ask something stupid before doing something stupid.

I have a number of external harddrives on my desk .....

Other than spilling a beer or storing my magnet collection on them, what else should I be careful of?

monitors, small televisions, cell phones, anything?????


thanks ....

A power surge!

It's pretty safe with most household electronics around them,
but just to be safe:

Keep RF-emitting devices at armlengths distance from them...
Having, for example, a cellphone or WLAN-router on top of them
might not be that good of an idea.. better safe than sorry :thumbsup

Just treat them like any electronics, don't cook them or drop them and they should be fine.

Dubble Post Dubble Post

What MattO said. Also, if your case have bad ventilation, make sure they dont get to hot - they easily do during summer.

let women far away from them

I have everything important on HD's backed up on disk or tape. I just don't feel 100% comfortable with HD's only. Once they crash... UGH.

Thanks everyone ...

I have 11 seagate 300 gb that I transfer mini dv to, (I also have the original tapes)

I keep them unplugged unless needed ... Just want to make sure I'm not missing something simple that could cause damage.


thanks again

Watch the temperature. Make sure you have some CPU fans or something around them...

yea watch the temperature in the summer :)

absolutly! make sure your cases have fans in them or you might as well leave them in the oven.

i never keep mine plugged in, always put them away and take them out when i need them

Watch you don't drop them, even from a small height (less than a foot). I lost 180GB of data 2 weeks ago for dropping my drive about 30cm onto the floor. Thankfully i could download all stuff from server again. Backup your backups is the answer.