How to crash and burn your hard drive

[thesurge]

Not that I want to try it out. But I've always been paranoid about downloading excessively on my laptop hard drive. Are they built with less quality as a desktop hard drive? As in, can I download umm...a number of files from a number of people at a total of about 400kb/sec continuously just like I would on my normal desktop without worrying about eventually causing it to fail?

 

[Bassyhead]

I looked at some Western Digital drives (for example) and between their desktop and mobile drives they generally list about the same MTBF ratings. That being said, hard drives for desktops and mobile applications are designed for completely different environments, so I don't know about real world ratings as to longevity. As mobile drives are built for more abuse physically, I would guess that a mobile drive may stand up better physically.

 

[jakalsucks]

This isn't really highly technical. A hard drive can handle as much data as you want to send it's way without being damaged. As I understand it laptop hard drives tend to last longer because the platters are smaller (something about stability), and they put off less heat.

 

[harrkev]

The bearings on the arms will eventually wear out, but the bearings in the spindle will wear out much faster. The deciding factor is likely how many hours it is powered on, not how much data you transfer. This assumes that your drive does not run too terribly hot, though.

 

[thesurge]

after a good 4 hrs of operation my drive (40gb hitachi travelstar) it runs at 46 degrees C which is entirely hot. Dells (at least my dell) arent known for their cooling as displayed by my pentium M 2.0 sitting idly at 43 degrees C. oh well. So basically I'll just run this puppy into the ground and then replace it. backing up data of course.

edit*: how eventually...are we talking like 2 years? 2 months?

 

[patentman]

The MTBF's for hard draives are pretty accurate. Barring a head failure or crash your laptop drive will be fine. Best bet if you are worried is to backup your data regularly, which is something you should be doing anyways.

My educated guess is that it would take several years for a hard drive under constant operation to crap out.

Also, check out this link:

http://www.samsung.com/au/products/harddiskdrive/whitepapers/whitepaper_05.htm

 

[thescreensavers]

the only easy why to crash or burn your Hard drive is wiht a sluge hammer ,and Matches and lighter fluid

 

[lyssword]

haven't you seen Lord of the Rings? You go up a mountain and drop your hd into fiery lava. That is the only way