External Hard Drive

[amyjo415]

Brian, what are your current recommendations in external hard drives?  Very quick power outage yesterday morning, APC (less than 3 months old and will be calling them later today) seemed to have failed and I spent several hours this morning just trying ot get one of my Macs to recognize the drive again.  It was a G-Technologies and they will replace it but wondering if I should go with something else.  Thoughts?  I have a Mac Studio you previously helped me with specs on.  Secondary is an older MacBook Air , which is the one that finally detected the drive. 

[Brian]

3 hours ago, amyjo415 said:

It was a G-Technologies and they will replace it but wondering if I should go with something else. 

Nope. I still use G-Drives and recommend them. Power Blips will kill HDs, regardless of brand. Are you using a APC UPS? Did it fail? If so, I have two questions:

Did you connect the battery when you 1st opened it up?

1. Did you plug the Computer AND any External HDs into the "Battery Backup" Side and NOT the "Surge Only" Side? Because if you had a quick blip, the APC UPS should have handled things.
2. Any wiring / ground issues? Have you ever tested the UPS' "Battery Side?" Simply plug in something simple, like a Lamp or a Fan, something that draws a little current, at least 25 watts or more. Then pull the power cord from the APC, the light / fan / whatever should remain on with no issues. (I'd have your computer either disconnected / powered off for this test.)
3. Now I have three questions... Which Make/Model/VA is your UPS? Since you are running a Mac Studio, if you UPS is under-powered, that will also cause issues. You want at least a 1500VA APC UPS. This is the model that I have hooked up to my 2017 iMac. As you can see from this photo, the left side is labeled "Battery + Surge," Along with the VERY TOP Outlet on the right. Then the ones from Outlet #2 to the bottom on the right side are Surge Only, meaning things you can afford to lose power, (like speakers or a desk lamp,) OR high wattage things such as a Laser Printer. (BTW: If you have a Laser Printer hooked up to the "Battery + Surge" side, the battery will prematurely wear out. It's all a balancing act with a UPS, too much current draw is just as bad as too little current draw. I'm not insulting your intelligence, but you would be surprised on just how many devices are plugged into the wrong port on UPS units that I see on a almost monthly basis. Yes, these devices are hooked up by IT staff and they have things put in the wrong outlet.
   
   

[amyjo415]

OK, this may be my problem.  It was under-powered.  Mine is only 850VA APC. It is the same I previously used on my iMac.  I didn't stop to think of the additional power of the Mac Studio and Display.  APC still thinks failure and should have powered it so they are sending a replacement.  I can use it elsewhere in my office.  I will get a 1500VA ordered. 

To answer your other questions, all were in the surge+battery outlets.  But, and again, this sounds like a huge contributing factor, I had the Studio, display, external hard drive, a Brother MFC, and an Apple Home Pod all plugged into it. (Printer and Homepod in the surge only side). 

No wiring issues or problems with it prior to this.  I have had other aspect of true power loss and it held long enough for me to properly shut everything down.  I have only had it since March, though.

For the Hard Drive, do you have any concern as to using the replacement one they send me?  Or should I by a new one to ensure no issues?

Thank you!

[Brian]

Yeah, 850VA and lose power with all that current draw? It’s not going to work very well.   Also, the batteries do wear out over time and I found that 3-5 years is average lifespan for them. I also recommend replacing them with Genuine APC OEM Batteries as the 3rd party ones from say…a store like Batteries + Bulbs, only last 1-2 years at the most, before you need to replace them again. 

Any replacement product that is sent should be fine, but it’s not “new.” That goes for ANY replacement part; I’ve been a Computer Tech for 31 years and I can tell you, it’s rare to be sent a “brand new” part of some sort. Even fancy computers from Apple, you get refurbished parts. Period. Yes, even if it’s brand new and you spent all sorts of money. 

Anyway, to answer your question, it should be fine AND you should have your important backups on multiple devices anyways…with one being off-site. A Data Crash should be a PITA and a inconvenience, NOT an Earth-Shattering-Business-Killing-I’m-Gonna-Get-Sued-Event. Shit happens, and you need backups for your backups, at least for the important stuff. Remember, practically everything electronic-wise is all made in China, with the lowest cost “Chineseium” Parts. Regardless of brand. 

[Brian]

I just checked, a 850VA UPS works out to be around 510 Watts current draw. So let's round down to 500 Watts. Your old iMac was probably around 145 Watts, and external HD and other devices probably drew about 300 Watts or so total power draw, conversationally speaking. So with your Mac Studio and Studio Display by itself, you are at 350 to 370-ish Watts for the Computer and about 45 Watts or so depending on brightness for the Display. So let's call it 50 Watts for the Studio Display as I always over estimate. So that's about 420 Watts and lets add 5 to it to keep things easy to work with. 425 Watts Power Draw on a UPS that is rated for 500 Watts. With a brand new battery, on a 850VA UPS, you have a 1 minute and 30 second-ish run-time on that UPS. If you had spinning HDs drawing more current, that will take you over the 500 (510 Watts) what it's rated for and you will have a whole 1-2 seconds of run-time on that UPS with all of your stuff. That's more than likely what happened with your UPS. Add the weak batteries to the mix due to the larger power draw and age, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Yes, please buy that APC 1500VA UPS. Not only does it have a battery, which gives you a good 5 minutes of run-time, (or a little more,) that model also does current filtering, more-so than a "Surge Only" model. That's what the "Sine Wave" means in the labeling. Often when my power is going to "blip," I hear my UPS on my computer and home theater system kick over to battery well before my lights blink. That's the Sine Wave Technology working. It's actively monitoring things instead of reacting.

Keep in mind, while that 1500VA UPS is awesome and it will keep you running with power blips, it's not meant to last forever. So if the power does go out, be sure to save what you are doing and power down everything within 5-7 minutes or so. Yes, things will last a little longer than 5-7 minutes, but I don't fuck around when the power goes wonky and save/shut things down immediately.

[Brian]

Oh, for what it's worth, the same exact thing happened to me with my 850VA UPS, and my iMac died. Fortunately, my external drives were powered off at the time, but I learned a valuable lesson about current draw and VA ratings.

Not doing that again.

One more thing...

If your Hard Drives use Power Bricks that don't line up next to each other, feel free to use Short Extension Cords such as these. You plug into the Battery+Surge side into the UPS and then the Power Bricks into each of the 8" cables. Makes things easy to configure.