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The original was posted on /r/datahoarder by /u/HunterDude54 on 2024-06-28 05:54:11+00:00.

My second-worst nightmare just happened*. I have been using Startech 4-bay USB docking stations for about 8 years (actually I now have 3 of them). I cannot afford raid systems, and this has been good till now. I have over 16 external 3.5" HDDs, currently ranging from 4 to 16Tb. They all have a backup copy which I keep in a sealed case/box. I back them up after a few months collecting. Mostly movies, 1 drive of music and 1 of TV series. This is the 4-bay drive: Startech 4-Bay Hard Drive Docking Station Cat SDOCK4U33E. (Today’s website specs are current, but are not the same as when I purchased them years ago).

This week I upgraded a number of 8Tb drives to 12s, and 4 of my 12Tbs to spanking new 16Tbs Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB NAS, then I cloned each to a backup HDD - all good. But after that, I moved (not copied) many new files to some of the drives with the intention of backing them up a bit later in my usual fashion. Yesterday all was perfect.

Today, all 4 drives on the one 4-bay dock are simply dead. Chkdsk /f (Windows 10 Pro) seemed to run fine, but found 16k or so errors which it claimed to fix, but now the drives are each empty except one or two primary folders (empty) and one or two text files in the root. I’ve lost a drive or two before of course, but never before on a scale anything like this massive slaughter.

I would love advice on what may have happened! To reduce my future damage risk a bit. All I can imagine is that maybe the 4 x 16 Tb load was too much for the docking station, tho I can’t figure why, as it seemed fine for a week. However, I do note that this happened after I installed the last 16Tb drive into the dock - which I only did yesterday. Yesterday all was fine, today 4 dead drives. Have I hit some limit on the Startech station? Was that last 16Tb drive somehow the straw that broke the camels’ back? Could it be a bad batch of drives (although they were purchased at different time in 2 batches 4 months apart)? It certainly does not ‘feel’ like a regular HDD failure.

I would welcome suggestions on ways of moving forward. Noting that likely I won’t go raid, since both the cost and the scale do not suit me. Would these Orico 5-bay docks be better, as they state they support 16Tb drives? ORICO 5-Bay Hard Drive Docking Station with Offline Cloning - SATA to USB 3 up to 90TB cat 6558US3-C

Meanwhile I can re-clone the lost 64Tb on those 4 HDDs, but I am afraid to take them out of their Aluminium Protection Box now! A lot was lost, maybe 4Tb of new stuff, but at least not most…

Advice and/or sympathy are welcome. Oh the life of a Data Hoarder can be a stressful one.

* [PS: my actual worst nightmare is a fire and losing the lot! Only about half of this archive is currently offsite. I think I might do something about that. For the backup drives I store them in 2 x Orico Aluminium 10 Bay Hard Drive Protection Box, but I have no idea how long those may last in a fire…]