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?

4 comments

4 Comments

kai_burns7324d ago

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

flores.emma24d ago

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

thomas_price24d 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.

morgan.jason7d ago

Funny you say that, @kai_burns73. People always wanna pick one fix over another instead of covering their bases. It's like that everywhere, not just with computers. @flores.emma, this reminds me of guys who think a new roof means they can ignore their gutters. Or folks who buy a good lock for their front door but leave a window open. The real mistake is thinking any single thing is bulletproof. Backups and canned air are two different tools for two different problems, not one being better than the other.