just curious about hd's

[dud2k]

hey
i just read some posts about hard drives, and about not moving it while its still on...

but the reason i have this post is because my sister keeps knocking over my computer when it's still on. is that bad for the hard drive?..like serious damage?

 

[AndyHui]

Yup...that's bad. Knocking over the computer can cause the head to hit the platters inside the drive and scratch them, resulting in data loss and damaged drives. Hit it hard enough and you cause what is known as a real crash, where the read/write head just slams into the platter and doesn't get back up again.

 

[rc5]

Ouch, Guess what, I can feel the case is shaking when the computer is on. That's caused by the movement of 2 fans inside the case. Granted, the shaking isn't very violent. But since I can feel the shake, it should be still many times larger than the distance between hard drive head and platte. Will that hurt?

 

[SCSIRAID]

RC5 - Dont worry about small vibrations like fans causing head crashes. It takes quite a knock to get a crash. Vibration can lead to slight mispositionings which can yield 'soft error' which are usually recoverable when the drive/driver retries.

 

[MichaelD]

Good advice so far. You say your fans shake; do they shake b/c they're not mounted securely or do they shake b/c the fan blades are unbalanced? Fans should be securely mounted; you don't want them coming loose and cutting up any wires or smashing any cards.

 

[rc5]

That's tiny vibration which is invisible by bare eyes. You can feel that by puting your hands on the case.

 

[Helznicht]

You have either got a fan thats missing a blade or VERY sensitive hands 😀

Slight vibrations over long periods of time can loosen screws and unseat chips/boards. Id look into it.