Last week as I walked up the stairs, I heard a really bad slapping/knocking noise coming from my office. When I went to investigate, I discovered my external FireWire hard drive causing the commotion. I removed the other external drive sitting on top of it to get to the noisy one and it was warm. Very warm. When I got to the noise maker, it was hot. I quickly unplugged both and left them so for the rest of the evening. I plugged them both back in, but the noisy one seemed to be history as it started up it’s ruckus again. Fortunately, it was the back-up drive, not the primary.

I ordered a new Western Digital 250MB drive to replace the noisy Maxtor and figured the external drive that had no fan in it (smart move, Maxtor!) wasn’t going to cut it. All my hand made external drives have fans in them so I was going to make this case myself, too. But I knew that they were now making double bay externals and I went searching for them. When I discovered the four bay version, I was in heaven! So that’s what I got and that’s what my Western Digital is now sitting in. I also had a removable drive bay in my walk-in closet and I used that. This will work perfect because it not only has two small fans in the front to push air into the bay, but it is quickly removable so if there is a fire, one quick pull and I have all my data!

I have to get another removable drive bay, actually two, tomorrow. I’m going to put the other Maxtor (the warm drive one from that night) in their, too. I want much air circulation and no repeat of what happen to the other drive. I back up it’s contents to the back-up drive, but it’s nice to have easy access so if I need it, I got it. Besides, I’m paranoid and need the extra assurance that I can grab both drives during a fire if needed.

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