Mayday! Ants in a sealed disk drive!
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Deepest Dark Afrika
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mayday! Ants in a sealed disk drive!
Elder son has Seagate 1Tb Free Agent External USB drive. Have just discovered that it is full of small black ants! And it's a sealed unit ... Just has some 1mm vents for air (and ant) circulation ...
Does anyone have any suggestions of how to get rid of the little b*ggers? Giving it a dose of Doom might not do the driver electronics a lot of good ...
Does anyone have any suggestions of how to get rid of the little b*ggers? Giving it a dose of Doom might not do the driver electronics a lot of good ...
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Sunny Sussex
Posts: 778
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Vapona?
If you're determined, then seal it with strong tape. They'll suffocate before long. If otoh you're more compassionate, then open the thing up, let the buggers out.
Are you sure they're not I.T. ants, defragging & cleaning the thing up?
If you're determined, then seal it with strong tape. They'll suffocate before long. If otoh you're more compassionate, then open the thing up, let the buggers out.
Are you sure they're not I.T. ants, defragging & cleaning the thing up?
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Orlando, Florida
Age: 68
Posts: 2,586
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Place it between two high powered magnets, give them headache, they'll run away.....or plunge it into a bucket of icy cold salt water - they don't like that, either.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: LONDON
Age: 51
Posts: 525
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It does depend on whether you want to kill them or not.
But if you dont mind killing them - switch off the drive and use a vacuum cleaner against the fan opening. This will not only get rid of the ants but will clean the drive of dust that could help prolong its life.
Incidently the term of a software fault being called a bug is from the days when a valve based computers occupied whole rooms - if an insect landed on the racks it would often cross contacts causing an error - hence the term debugging.
But if you dont mind killing them - switch off the drive and use a vacuum cleaner against the fan opening. This will not only get rid of the ants but will clean the drive of dust that could help prolong its life.
Incidently the term of a software fault being called a bug is from the days when a valve based computers occupied whole rooms - if an insect landed on the racks it would often cross contacts causing an error - hence the term debugging.
Last edited by Jofm5; 20th Feb 2009 at 20:07. Reason: Added bug info
I am going to read up about ants...and that magnet thing 
Psychophysiological entity
Living in Texas, I can affirm that ants can get anywhere. Anywhere whatsoever. The inside of bird-feeders - via the sticky liquid - into electronics, and of course in your pants.
These guys here cause subsidence, so a mere disc-drive would be an easy target.
Take a lesson from Richard Feynman. Observe them, and tempt them onto a different path. Use sugar, or a proprietary...erm, little plastic thing with nasty stuff in it. Wait until the dead of night, and if you can't wait for their slow demise, have a mallet at hand.
I spend a huge amount of time trying to save creatures...even cockroaches get put out carefully, but ants have made me their enemy.
These guys here cause subsidence, so a mere disc-drive would be an easy target.
Take a lesson from Richard Feynman. Observe them, and tempt them onto a different path. Use sugar, or a proprietary...erm, little plastic thing with nasty stuff in it. Wait until the dead of night, and if you can't wait for their slow demise, have a mallet at hand.
I spend a huge amount of time trying to save creatures...even cockroaches get put out carefully, but ants have made me their enemy.
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Posts: 504
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Place it between two high powered magnets.....or plunge it into a bucket of icy cold salt water
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Thinking about it, give me a minute.
Posts: 256
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Feline.
I have a Seagate and it gets incredibly HOT during use it even puts out a fair bit of heat on standby, they are sealed units no fan only a heat sink on base of unit. Put it under a heavy load and it'll heat up nicely, Ah! the aroma of roast ant
I have a Seagate and it gets incredibly HOT during use it even puts out a fair bit of heat on standby, they are sealed units no fan only a heat sink on base of unit. Put it under a heavy load and it'll heat up nicely, Ah! the aroma of roast ant
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Deepest Dark Afrika
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Feedback
Well, since aforementioned 1Tb drive holds elder son's collection of modern music (Boom! Boom! Boom!) I was sorely tempted to try the magnet and bucket of ice cold water approach ... But the vacuum cleaner idea did flush quite a few of the little b*ggers out. They don't actually seem to mind the heat of the unit when operational - maybe this is the same syndrome as frogs being quite happy in a bowl of water that is bought to the boil?
Quite a few of them did decamp (complete with eggs) to a sealed speaker unit - and others to an audio switch box.
But as far as I'm concerned, I've signed off on the original problem, and I'm not opening any new job tickets.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
Quite a few of them did decamp (complete with eggs) to a sealed speaker unit - and others to an audio switch box.
But as far as I'm concerned, I've signed off on the original problem, and I'm not opening any new job tickets.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
Last edited by Feline; 22nd Feb 2009 at 16:52. Reason: Must post before imbibing ...
I don't know that particular unit, but I think I can safely assume that it's a standard hard disk drive (HDD) in an external enclosure, and the ants have got in to the enclosure, but not in to the actual HDD, which should be sealed. Subject to the warranty, you might get away with opening up the enclosure, as long as you don't try to open up the internal hard drive.
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: London, UK
Age: 50
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
no vents in a hard drive
Are you confusing the whole computer with a hard drive? A hard drive is only one small component that stores data. It's a completely sealed unit and should never be opened as it will make it unusable.
If you have bugs in your computer do not use any sort of chemical or fluid to kill them as it will damage your computer. Open it up and use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of them. If you keep getting them then try putting the whole unit on a plinth surrounded with anti-bug tape
if this is an external usb hard drive then simply unplug it, unscrew the case, and clean using a vacuum. Make sure you don't lose the screws!
If you have bugs in your computer do not use any sort of chemical or fluid to kill them as it will damage your computer. Open it up and use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of them. If you keep getting them then try putting the whole unit on a plinth surrounded with anti-bug tape
if this is an external usb hard drive then simply unplug it, unscrew the case, and clean using a vacuum. Make sure you don't lose the screws!
