I opened up the old harddrive to see what high-tech stuff is in there.

[watdahel]

I just replaced the harddrive on one of my computers. I opened up the old harddrive to see what high-tech stuff is in there. The platters sure are shiny is what I got to say. Despite common belief, the heads(perhaps they are just paddings) are touching the platters. I'm happy to say that I won't be as paranoid whenever I knock my pc and think I scratched my harddrive. I used to think that the heads were like the heads of a turntable. If the metal head were to touch the disk surface it would leave a big scratch.

Whatever it is that's making the noise(we all know what that noise is) it isn't the heads touching the platters; it's actually the swivelling arm that makes the noise. It vibrates whenever it reads between cylinders. What bogs me is that it didn't use to make this sound.

 

[erikiksaz]

I think you found the head to be resting on the platter because the disk was not spinning. Had the drive been spinning, and still enclosed, the head should ride on a air pocket. It only rests on the platter when stopped.

 

[LongCoolMother]

doesnt the head like...not touch it? I remember from somewhere that the head like rides above the disk...leaving a very very small space, practically now visible

 

[CStroman]

Be sure to extract those powerful magnets from the motor. It's fun to bet jocks that they can't pull them off of metal objects, because it's really hard to do. I had magnets from a hard drive that could hold up a 10 pound stage weight.

I'd also like to add the fact that I have an opened hard drive hanging on my wall, and I completely gutted the case of an old 5-14" scsi hard drive and filled it with water.

 

[erikiksaz]

You're just the angry, little hard drive case-wrecker aren't cha CStroman? 🙂

 

[watdahel]

The arm does not move up and down like that of a turntable when the disk spins. I ran the harddrive, without the cover, out of curiosity to see how it worked. I'm not sure if the head is the black square-thing that's in contact with the platters or if the head is actually imbeded in the center of this square-thing; so in that case it would be floating just above the disk surface.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

the head is like a micron away from the platter. it looks like its touching but trust me its not

 

[watdahel]

So it's not the r/w head, but the fact remains, it's touching the platters because I can feel the friction when I move the arm manually. The arm glides smoothly across the disk if it's spinning.

 

[metallibloke]

Everybody knows that the head or anything else doesnt touch the platters. If it did, you'd have rings all around your disk where its been scratched.

 

[watdahel]

"Everybody knows" or are you just assuming because you read it somewhere. Experience is the key my dear Watson.