the powered usb 3.0 hub shorted internally and started smoking, then made a popping sound and was partially blackened. both drives had their own external power and were not usb powered. i haven’t pulled the drives from their enclosures yet so it is possible the drives themselves have survived. i’ve been meaning to get around to popping them from their enclosures and buying a spare enclosure to test them out, but they have just been sitting in a bin for a while now. these were both segate different model drives, i had an iomega drive on the same hub and it was fine. anyway, that is sort of the reverse direction we were originally discussing, the experience just let its mark.
I’d love to see a detailed photo/scan of the damaged circuitboard! These things deserve publishing.
It could’ve been the hub itself, it could’ve been its power supply going wonky with output voltage. Worth measuring its output on open-circuit and under-load conditions.
You have pretty decent chance the disks are intact.
Such things do.
darn, i wish i still had the dead hub, i’d be curious myself to find out what happened. you are right, it could have been the ac/dc converter/transformer for the hub…a lot of really cheap electronics these days have crap wall transformers that overheat and don’t always output what they claim. i don’t know why that part gets the cheapo treatment but it often does.
i do still have the drives, and am encouraged to get of my arse and try throwing them into a new enclosure now. newegg is having some sales today, maybe i’ll have to look into picking up an enclosure on the cheap. can’t hurt to try.
i now have a high-end usb 3.0 hub, and i love it, but the blue led indicator lights on each of the 10 slots on it are bright enough to land a plane by. i appreciate a visual indicators, but talk about overkill.
Do it. And/or get a generic USB-IDE-SATA adapter, without the box, for data rescue/forensics uses around the house. And as a temporary substitute for a boxed enclosure when needed.
Also, beware of the chipset. Some older ones cannot handle disks above 2 terabytes. Make sure the new one can. Don’t ask how I know. 
The easy way is to cover the LEDs with strips of paper tape. Enough layers to attenuate the light to more believable intensity.
The hard way is cracking it open and replacing the LEDs with more sane color (blue sucks[1], I’d suggest green if it is an indicator of power presence/activity/readiness) and lower brightness.
[1] Blue LEDs can shine pretty bright and can visibly light up from astonishingly low currents. This may validate their use in some applications. Though the “true green” ones are the same kind of semiconductor, with lower band gap set, and may have the same behavior without the blue annoyance.
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thanks for all the helpful tips!
I’d be more concerned that there are no regulations or standards for the components that make up e-cigs or the vape liquids.
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