The thing that confuses me is hard drives are hermetically sealed. There should have literally no way ants got inside that unit, they are air tight and filled with nitrogen for crimmies sake!

How about the breathing hole? Maybe if it that plastic membrane that covers it is ruptured, there's a way in.

 

The thing that confuses me is hard drives are hermetically sealed. There should have literally no way ants got inside that unit, they are air tight and filled with nitrogen for crimmies sake! The fact it was not sealed suggests you got this drive from a less than reputable source, and it would have died anyhow pretty soon. The nitrogen filler inside is not an accident, it keeps moisture and oxygen away from pretty sensitive areas. When they build these units it is in a clean room environment.

This isn't true - at least for modern HDDs. They have a recirculating filter which removes dust. Air is allowed into the chamber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiy_eHdj8kg

The air is crucial to the operation of a modern HDD.

 

The ant in you monitor should have triggered "where did you come from, I'll kill you all" - gen...

 

Too bad you didn't take some photos to show us.
I have a photo somewhere of the mouse nest in an IBM PC.
A mouse made a nest on top of the math co-processor, the warmest spot in the PC.
There were some tiny squirmy baby mice in the nest.

And this was the days before the PC mouse was even invented!

 

Too bad you didn't take some photos to show us.
I have a photo somewhere of the mouse nest in an IBM PC.
A mouse made a nest on top of the math co-processor, the warmest spot in the PC.
There were some tiny squirmy baby mice in the nest.

And this was the days before the PC mouse was even invented!

You must have been an old customer of mine! I remember finding this very thing on a service call from long ago.

 

I doubt I can find the picture, but there were some showing a large dead snake inside a PC power supply unit before it found the electrical portion. Very uncomfortable that, I don't like snakes.

http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2010/09/real-living-snake-found-hiding-inside.html

 

Hi Bill,

Do you mean this story:
http://mozey.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/help-there-is-a-snake-in-my-computer-funny-pics/

Bertus

 

I checked Snoops, there is some doubt about the story, but I don't think it has been disproved.

 

I can replace a PSU anyday, but my good old HDD's.

 

I do understand.

Heartbreaking.

Many ants are attracted to anything electrical. I'm not sure why.

There is a new invader species in Florida, soon to be the rest of the USA, called crazy ants. They will build on electric devices, but if disturbed they will bug out. This makes them very difficult to control (another word for kill).

 

So I'm still a bit confused... had the computer been in regular use, or was it left sitting unused for awhile??
I can't imagine how a harddrive could function for an extended period of time with ants inside of it!!
Could it be that they're cleverer than you give them credit for, and decided the spinning harddisk was annoying, and decided to disable it?


and regarding the crazy ants and ants being attracted to electrical things, its quite possible that some species of bugs could "feel" the electronics via the created electric or magnetic fields or electromagnetic radiation
plenty of species feel the earths magnetic field lines, so this isn't TOO much of a stretch

I doubt I can find the picture, but there were some showing a large dead snake inside a PC power supply unit before it found the electrical portion. Very uncomfortable that, I don't like snakes.

sounds like texas is the wrong state for you

and R!f@@, have you considered going solid state?
(at least for a boot drive with the important stuff on it?)
at least then you wont have to worry about- "ant slushy, puréed, not stirred"

 

Could it be that they're cleverer than you give them credit for, and decided the spinning harddisk was annoying, and decided to disable it?

The ants have a malicious plan. To day take over R!f@@ PC. Tomorrow the world.
By the way R!f@@. This had never happened if you have used a proper OS. Like LINUX instead of that buggy Windows OS you are using

 

The ants have a malicious plan. To day take over R!f@@ PC. Tomorrow the world.
By the way R!f@@. This had never happened if you have used a proper OS. Like LINUX instead of that buggy Windows OS you are using

I am installing OS to a new 500GB..and later will run the backup I created within windows. Lesse what happens.

U know T06, OS has nothing to do with ants . The HDD just won't spin. I went was all over the HDD, but it just won't spin. I am going to take out the plates next.

@Magnet

Going SS is something I am thinking abt. For a SS drive I need a lotta money u know

{ed}
Buggy windows ....now I get it...Hmmm...funny.

By the way, any one care to throw an SS down here.

 

Of course T06 is just poking fun at Windows.

Yes, it would be nice to move over to Linux on a SS drive. I did it once on a 16GB CF card which is a far cry from a 500GB HD. I never got around to actually using it.

Also my netbook runs Linux on 16GB SSD. I use this on the road.

 

@Magnet

Going SS is something I am thinking abt. For a SS drive I need a lotta money u know

you can get a couple hundred gig SATA II's for not too much

 

you can get a couple hundred gig SATA II's for not too much

Where ? .

 

OK..So I Manage to find a 500Gb 2.5" drive for now.
Now I am running Win7 Restore from my backup.....

Lessee how it turns out !!

 

Have you tried RAID yet?

 

Money..money..money...!

No..Sir.

 

sounds like texas is the wrong state for you

You have it backwards, the reason I don't like snakes is I grew up around snakes.

The part of Oklahoma I grew up in had 3 types of rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and copperheads in abundant quantity. Water moccasins are especially aggressive and territorial, the others would just as soon run away if you let them.