Used a compressed air duster backwards on a server rack - fried 3 drives instantly

I was cleaning out a client's rack in their office here in Austin last Tuesday and accidentally held the duster can upside down. Liquid shot out and shorted three SAS drives in their NAS before I could even react. Lost about 2TB of data but luckily they had a backup from the night before. Anyone else ever make this dumb mistake or have a story about using canned air wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_burns734d ago

Wasn't the real mistake trusting backups instead of just using canned air correctly?

flores.emma4d ago

Feel for you @kai_burns73. Backups are no replacement for avoiding the dust.

thomas_price4d ago

Yeah I gotta push back a little on that @flores.emma. Canned air can actually push dust deeper into components or leave residue if you don't use it right. In my experience a good backup routine catches things that physical cleaning just can't fix. You can blow out a case ten times and still have a failing drive that waits till the worst moment to die. Backups and cleaning work together, they're not really a trade off in my book. Just my two cents though.