Dropped hard drive onto floor.

[RezMN]

Heh, I just got a new hard drive and dropped it on the floor (hardwood floor covered by thing carpet). It was only a 3 ft. drop, but I just wonder if there are any long term effects (kinda like a baby being dropped on its head when its a kid, is it gonna be dumb in the future?)? I haven't tried it out yet since I haven't gotten all my parts, but I'm going ot assume it will work...

-Jason

 

[Accipiter22]

it may display a limited ability to learn, and may not say you or your wife's name till much later than would be normal. It'll probably always be socially akward as well. Just do what the greeks would, and leave it on the side of a mountain to die. It's the right move.

 

[Jeff7]

You don't know just how fragile those things are, do you. I wouldn't drop a hard drive one inch. I'd bet that it'll not only be dumb in the future, but also likely in the present, and recent past too.

Link - how hard drives work.
The read/write heads are incredibly close to the platters when they're spinning - a fingerprint is several times thicker than that distance.
Another link.

I wouldn't expect too much from this particular hard drive. Do a thorough scandisk, and also, get Everest; run and install it, and go to its Storage->SMART section, for a diagnosis of the drive. Even then, I still would be wary of the drive's capabilities. Hard drives don't do well with shock and vibration.

 

[corkyg]

One way to find out - connect it up and see. Run a diagnostic program such as IBM/Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test.

DFT

 

[airfoil]

Hard drives can be surprisingly resilient and are built to take non-operating shocks going to a high number of G's. If it was in operation, it would probably have been a different story though. I wouldnt worry too much - hook it up and check it out like Jeff says above.

 

[Brian48]

I dropped a HDD from about 2 ft onto a hardwood floor. Still worked fine afterwards. Depends on what angle it lands on I suppose. Anyway, plug it up and see if it still works. Run something that's HDD intensive like a defrag. If it chokes, you'll know.

 

[bfonnes]

I don't see anything wrong with you dropping it... Heck, throw it against the wall as hard as you can, and tell us if it works afterward. I am really curious. Post your results

really, I don't think dropping it should be that big of a deal. Can someone here throw your hard against the floor as hard as you can, and tell us if it works? I want to know how durable my HDD really is. Thanks,
BFonnes

 

[ohnnyj]

I'm game.

 

[ohnnyj]

OK, so I took an old 10GB Maxtor I had lying around and it had Win2k on it and would boot fine. I dropped it about 2.5-3 feet onto a hard countertop. I plugged it in and now it clicks, reminiscent of a Deathstar. So Hard Drive + 3 Foot Drop = Dead Hard Drive. (Of course yours had carpet, so there is still hope).

 

[DMonkey]

Hey, I tested my non-formatted Maxtor 300GB SATA drive, and it gave me a 0x71 error which means, drive not ready for operation. Is this normal with NON-FORMATTED drives?

 

[Reiniku]

format it and test again... if no error then you know

 

[LifeStealer]

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
it may display a limited ability to learn, and may not say you or your wife's name till much later than would be normal. It'll probably always be socially akward as well. Just do what the greeks would, and leave it on the side of a mountain to die. It's the right move.

/signed

 

[ribbon13]

Generally, if the heads are parked, a HDD can take 500+ Gs of shock. Without more details I can't say, but it ifts brand new and never been used, its probably fine if it landed on carpet.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Generally, if the heads are parked, a HDD can take 500+ Gs of shock. Without more details I can't say, but it ifts brand new and never been used, its probably fine if it landed on carpet.

I should research it - but 500G's isn't too much if you drop something on a hard surface. It decelerates over a tiny distance, which is a combination of how much the hard drive itself flexes, and how much the surface being impacted flexes. Either way, it isn't much - so the thing goes from maybe 4 meters per second to 0 in a fraction of a second. And unfortunately, sadly, I can't even dredge up enough memory of my phyiscs classes to figure out G forces. Hate when that happens.....
But it's a high number of Gs. At least this was dropped on a carpet, so that does increase the amount of time that the drive had to decelerate - but it still wasn't a lot.

 

[Mattd46612]

Eh try it out and if it doesnt work try to RMA it and be more careful next time. Does anyone know if a hard drive can short out your whole system? i got one that if i plug in my system wont even turn on.

 

[DreamerSpawn]

You know what? I might actually do that! I've got a couple of 1 giggers laying around that work perfectly....could format it in DOS, take it out....open the front door and throw it about 10 feet....see if it works, ey? LOL! Wouldn't put it in MY system to test it. Just an old P3 566 or something. hehehehehehe.

Any bets?

Originally posted by: bfonnes
I don't see anything wrong with you dropping it... Heck, throw it against the wall as hard as you can, and tell us if it works afterward. I am really curious. Post your results

really, I don't think dropping it should be that big of a deal. Can someone here throw your hard against the floor as hard as you can, and tell us if it works? I want to know how durable my HDD really is. Thanks,
BFonnes

 

[WW2Planes1]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Generally, if the heads are parked, a HDD can take 500+ Gs of shock. Without more details I can't say, but it ifts brand new and never been used, its probably fine if it landed on carpet.

I should research it - but 500G's isn't too much if you drop something on a hard surface. It decelerates over a tiny distance, which is a combination of how much the hard drive itself flexes, and how much the surface being impacted flexes. Either way, it isn't much - so the thing goes from maybe 4 meters per second to 0 in a fraction of a second. And unfortunately, sadly, I can't even dredge up enough memory of my phyiscs classes to figure out G forces. Hate when that happens.....
But it's a high number of Gs. At least this was dropped on a carpet, so that does increase the amount of time that the drive had to decelerate - but it still wasn't a lot.

Because it's better than doing homework:

Assume distance dropped: 1m (~3ft) (Assume dropped from rest, i.e. not thrown)
V{initial} = 4.9m/s (at point of impact with floor
V{final} = 0

x = 1cm (Assuming relatively thick carpet, distance over which stopping force is applied)
a = acceleration
use:
V{f}^2 - V{I}^2 = 2*a*x

0 - (4.9)^2 = 2*a*.01
((4.9)^2)/(2*.01) = 1200.5m/s^2
1200.5/9.6 =
125Gs

Note, that if we say x - 0.5cm, then our number increases to 300Gs
IIRC, Maxtor HDDs on newegg are advertising warranty protection up to 300Gs, Seagates up to 350Gs

depending on the thickness of the carpet and a bunch of other factor i'm not including in my quick-and-dirty calculation, your drive is probably OK, but then again, it all depends.

Edit: because AT forums interprets an I inside square brackets [] as italics, i changed to those squiggly ones {}

Edit2: hey, my 100th post! and it only took 2 years

 

[Raiden256]

Originally posted by: WW2Planes1

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Generally, if the heads are parked, a HDD can take 500+ Gs of shock. Without more details I can't say, but it ifts brand new and never been used, its probably fine if it landed on carpet.

I should research it - but 500G's isn't too much if you drop something on a hard surface. It decelerates over a tiny distance, which is a combination of how much the hard drive itself flexes, and how much the surface being impacted flexes. Either way, it isn't much - so the thing goes from maybe 4 meters per second to 0 in a fraction of a second. And unfortunately, sadly, I can't even dredge up enough memory of my phyiscs classes to figure out G forces. Hate when that happens.....
But it's a high number of Gs. At least this was dropped on a carpet, so that does increase the amount of time that the drive had to decelerate - but it still wasn't a lot.

Because it's better than doing homework:

Assume distance dropped: 1m (~3ft) (Assume dropped from rest, i.e. not thrown)
V{initial} = 4.9m/s (at point of impact with floor
V{final} = 0

x = 1cm (Assuming relatively thick carpet, distance over which stopping force is applied)
a = acceleration
use:
V{f}^2 - V{I}^2 = 2*a*x

0 - (4.9)^2 = 2*a*.01
((4.9)^2)/(2*.01) = 1200.5m/s^2
1200.5/9.6 =
125Gs

Note, that if we say x - 0.5cm, then our number increases to 300Gs
IIRC, Maxtor HDDs on newegg are advertising warranty protection up to 300Gs, Seagates up to 350Gs

depending on the thickness of the carpet and a bunch of other factor i'm not including in my quick-and-dirty calculation, your drive is probably OK, but then again, it all depends.

Edit: because AT forums interprets an I inside square brackets [] as italics, i changed to those squiggly ones {}

Edit2: hey, my 100th post! and it only took 2 years

wow

 

[DMonkey]

Originally posted by: WW2Planes1

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Generally, if the heads are parked, a HDD can take 500+ Gs of shock. Without more details I can't say, but it ifts brand new and never been used, its probably fine if it landed on carpet.

I should research it - but 500G's isn't too much if you drop something on a hard surface. It decelerates over a tiny distance, which is a combination of how much the hard drive itself flexes, and how much the surface being impacted flexes. Either way, it isn't much - so the thing goes from maybe 4 meters per second to 0 in a fraction of a second. And unfortunately, sadly, I can't even dredge up enough memory of my phyiscs classes to figure out G forces. Hate when that happens.....
But it's a high number of Gs. At least this was dropped on a carpet, so that does increase the amount of time that the drive had to decelerate - but it still wasn't a lot.

Because it's better than doing homework:

Assume distance dropped: 1m (~3ft) (Assume dropped from rest, i.e. not thrown)
V{initial} = 4.9m/s (at point of impact with floor
V{final} = 0

x = 1cm (Assuming relatively thick carpet, distance over which stopping force is applied)
a = acceleration
use:
V{f}^2 - V{I}^2 = 2*a*x

0 - (4.9)^2 = 2*a*.01
((4.9)^2)/(2*.01) = 1200.5m/s^2
1200.5/9.6 =
125Gs

Note, that if we say x - 0.5cm, then our number increases to 300Gs
IIRC, Maxtor HDDs on newegg are advertising warranty protection up to 300Gs, Seagates up to 350Gs

depending on the thickness of the carpet and a bunch of other factor i'm not including in my quick-and-dirty calculation, your drive is probably OK, but then again, it all depends.

Edit: because AT forums interprets an I inside square brackets [] as italics, i changed to those squiggly ones {}

Edit2: hey, my 100th post! and it only took 2 years

So how much would the value "x" be if the floor was hardwood?

 

[kparms82]

So how much would the value "x" be if the floor was hardwood?[/quote]


3....the answer is always 3

Hey, it got me through calc 1 and 2

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: DMonkey
So how much would the value "x" be if the floor was hardwood?

Well, take x to be 0.01 cm, or some ridiculously small distance and do the calculation. It will be much higher than carpet, that's for sure.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Originally posted by: DreamerSpawn
You know what? I might actually do that! I've got a couple of 1 giggers laying around that work perfectly....could format it in DOS, take it out....open the front door and throw it about 10 feet....see if it works, ey? LOL! Wouldn't put it in MY system to test it. Just an old P3 566 or something. hehehehehehe.

Any bets?

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! </peer pressure>

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: kparms82

So how much would the value "x" be if the floor was hardwood?

3....the answer is always 3

Hey, it got me through calc 1 and 2 [/quote]

I guess 3 didn't get you through calc 3?

 

[WW2Planes1]

Originally posted by: Raiden256

Originally posted by: WW2Planes1

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Generally, if the heads are parked, a HDD can take 500+ Gs of shock. Without more details I can't say, but it ifts brand new and never been used, its probably fine if it landed on carpet.

I should research it - but 500G's isn't too much if you drop something on a hard surface. It decelerates over a tiny distance, which is a combination of how much the hard drive itself flexes, and how much the surface being impacted flexes. Either way, it isn't much - so the thing goes from maybe 4 meters per second to 0 in a fraction of a second. And unfortunately, sadly, I can't even dredge up enough memory of my phyiscs classes to figure out G forces. Hate when that happens.....
But it's a high number of Gs. At least this was dropped on a carpet, so that does increase the amount of time that the drive had to decelerate - but it still wasn't a lot.

Because it's better than doing homework:

Assume distance dropped: 1m (~3ft) (Assume dropped from rest, i.e. not thrown)
V{initial} = 4.9m/s (at point of impact with floor
V{final} = 0

x = 1cm (Assuming relatively thick carpet, distance over which stopping force is applied)
a = acceleration
use:
V{f}^2 - V{I}^2 = 2*a*x

0 - (4.9)^2 = 2*a*.01
((4.9)^2)/(2*.01) = 1200.5m/s^2
1200.5/9.6 =
125Gs

Note, that if we say x - 0.5cm, then our number increases to 300Gs
IIRC, Maxtor HDDs on newegg are advertising warranty protection up to 300Gs, Seagates up to 350Gs

depending on the thickness of the carpet and a bunch of other factor i'm not including in my quick-and-dirty calculation, your drive is probably OK, but then again, it all depends.

Edit: because AT forums interprets an I inside square brackets [] as italics, i changed to those squiggly ones {}

Edit2: hey, my 100th post! and it only took 2 years

wow

Going back to look at this, I made several mistakes. For one, I used the wrong final velocity. That's the velocity after falling one second not one meter. Secondly, I used 9.6m/s/s for g, rather than 9.8. The difference isn't much, but see the corrected calculations:

use v{f}^2 = v{i}^2 + 2*a*d, where v{i} = 0, a = 9.8 and d = 1m
solving, v{f} = 4.43m/s

our v{f} is now our v{i} for the collision...

0 - (4.43)^2 = 2*a*.01
((4.9)^2)/(2*.01) = 1200.5m/s^2
1200.5/9.8 =
100Gs

Thus, if we change the number to .5cm, we would get 200Gs.
And as far hardwood floors go, that depends on the substance, for an Oak floor, yeah, some really small value (0.01cm would give about 10000Gs, if I'm doing my math right, which, as we've seen, is questionable ). In reality, there are alot more factors at work. And it's been a long time since I took physics, so my interpretation of this could be VERY wrong. But, if you look at it, drive makers aren't saying much when they say they cover 300Gs of shock damage.

I'd really like someone perhaps more knowledgable than me to check my math and my interpretation, because I'd be interested to know if I was right. but for now, it's late

-Tim

 

[00obrimw]

I onced dropped a brand new seagate hard drive onto a concrete path as I was walking away after just buying it. It still worked fine (I think, it's in a friends computer I built for him and it still goes) although the drive was still in it's packaging which saved it I think. I'm just hoping the drive doesnt die in later life.