HGST 2.5" laptop drive died. Why...

[tvmaster2]

about 18 months ago I put a 1TB, 2.5" HGST drive into a sage TV server. It has a three year warranty, but died this week running as one of three, SageTV recording drives.
My two other drives, 3.5" Seagates, are still running.
Is it just a fluke this drive gave up earlier, or have Sage users found that
2.5" laptop drives don't fare well in a SageTV server?
The drive will be replaced under warranty, but I'd be nervous to put it back in again if another, early failure is the likely outcome.
Anyone else using 2.5 inch drives with longevity?

[Skirge01]

The cause of failure is a nearly impossible question to answer. 2.5" drives are generally more robust than 3.5" drives because they're built to better withstand the abuse laptops receive. One of the big features mechanical 2.5" drives have are head parking and fall/impact detection to avoid damaging the read heads. I doubt anything happening in a server would cause more severe physical damage than what it would receive in a laptop. So, unless the drive was being absolutely hammered by reads and writes, I'd be leaning towards it having gotten damaged in the laptop and it just died when placed in the server, due to heavier usage.

Before any drive goes into my server, it gets thoroughly tested by HD Sentinel: health check, short test, long test. If I suspect there could be a problem with the drive due to where it came from, then I'll even run a stress test on it using Anvil Pro to try and force it to fail.

[stanger89]

Yeah, it's pretty hard to tell why it died. Odds are it was just a bad drive.

That said, I think "most" of my drive failures that could be attributed to anything, are attributable to heat. That would be my first thing to check, make sure you've got good airflow/cooling. Other than that, just replace it and don't worry about it.

[tvmaster2]

The drive was only in the server, bought for that purpose. So in most people's minds, a 2.5" drive isn't a bad idea for a Sage server?
I like that it's quieter, cooler and uses less power. It records, three or four shows a day and is on 24/7. Maybe this particular drive can't handle that? Guess I'll send in for the refurbished one I'll likely get in return and see what happens

[Skirge01]

I see no reason to avoid laptop drives in a server. I'd strongly suggest using HD Sentinel's basic tests to check out the replacement drive when it arrives. Plus, while I'd recommend doing this on any brand of drive, if it's a Seagate, I'd even more strongly recommend running Anvil Pro on the drive for a week or more before putting it into service. Most drives with a mechanical issue to be found will expose it within a month or so of service, so running it non-stop 24/7 for a week or so should do the same. Just keep HD Sentinel monitoring it while doing the stress test, so you know if/when it fails.