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Heat doesn't kill hard drives. Here's what does (humidity)
zdnet.com ^ | March 8, 2016 | By Robin Harris for Storage Bits

Posted on 03/08/2016 8:34:18 AM PST by dennisw

click here to read article


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To: equaviator

[[If I bake my old Seagate and Samsung hard drives in the oven at 500+ degrees for four hours, will that make them safe enough for the landfill or would I still want to take a ball-peen hammer to them?]]

If you have access to a drill with metal bit, drill 3-5 holes through hte disks- and then as extra precaution take a sledge hammer to it- but really- people aren’t going through landfills looking for hard-drives to steal info from usually- the risk is very very small- You coudl also disassemble the whole thing and scatter the 4 disks *(after smashing them up) to the 4 winds-


21 posted on 03/08/2016 9:22:48 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Moonman62

[[The price wasn’t mentioned.]]

Likely out of courtesy to the readers lol


22 posted on 03/08/2016 9:23:43 AM PST by Bob434
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To: dhs12345
I recognize those laws of physics (humidity is typically lower at most western USA locations), so what might me the size of the effect on HD life?

I'm sure some Denver located organizations know.

23 posted on 03/08/2016 9:25:24 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: Paladin2

Thinking maybe that humidity might affect cooling — evaporation. Higher humidity means less evaporation. And the moisture takes on the temperature of the environment making cooling less efficient.

However, aren’t they referring to the change in humidity versus the nominal humidity?


24 posted on 03/08/2016 9:31:46 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: dennisw

I cannot imagine anyone putting 100% trust in “the cloud” for primary data storage

Secondary backup, OK... maybe even PRIMARY backup. But your whole life in some unknown location?

I just can’t see it


25 posted on 03/08/2016 9:34:22 AM PST by Mr. K (Trump/Cruz 2016)
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To: dennisw

I guess we’ll have to rethink entropy.


26 posted on 03/08/2016 9:36:23 AM PST by Fhios (Going Donald Trump is as close to going John Galt as we'll get.)
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To: Bob434

I did get the impression that they are intended for the commercial market.


27 posted on 03/08/2016 9:38:31 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: oh8eleven

I much prefer high speed penetration tests with a projectile running anywhere from 2,600 to 3,600 fps.


28 posted on 03/08/2016 9:41:34 AM PST by stylin_geek (Never underestimate the power of government to distort markets)
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To: dhs12345

It sounded like the proponderence of the failures were with the control board and the connections to the inside guts of the drives.


29 posted on 03/08/2016 9:42:01 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: dhs12345

It sounded like the preponderance of the failures were with the control board and the connections to the inside guts of the drives.


30 posted on 03/08/2016 9:42:10 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: stylin_geek

In the offhand position, @ 500 meters, iron sights.


31 posted on 03/08/2016 9:52:21 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: equaviator
will that make them safe enough for the landfill or would I still want to take a ball-peen hammer to them?

Drill through the case and destroy the platters or mix up some homemade thermite and melt it.

Never throw away a sealed HDD. If the platters are intact, something can be recovered.

32 posted on 03/08/2016 10:08:51 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: oh8eleven

Well, no, but I have an awesome picture of a drive with a nice hole dead center from about 80 yards using iron sights.

Stacking drives together is more fun, especially when shooting hollow points.


33 posted on 03/08/2016 10:09:00 AM PST by stylin_geek (Never underestimate the power of government to distort markets)
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To: oh8eleven

roger that! thanks.


34 posted on 03/08/2016 10:10:05 AM PST by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: Bob434

10-4!


35 posted on 03/08/2016 10:10:52 AM PST by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: Paladin2

Interesting.

Another aspect of disk drives is that they very cost sensitive (mostly because they are high volume) so engineers will spend a lot of effort saving pennies. They will make the circuit board as small as possible, use less gold flashing on connector pins.

This might impact drive reliability.

Still, it is the spinning media that produces a lot of heat mechanical vibrations and the platters and heads have to very close to operate reliability.

Also, a drive has an automatic/smart defect management system — when a defect is found on the media by the controller and software that area is reassigned to a known good location. So defects are not seen by the user. I think what they are referring to in this article to are gross, catastrophic failures.


36 posted on 03/08/2016 10:13:40 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: dennisw

M4L Hard Drive


37 posted on 03/08/2016 10:18:30 AM PST by Scrambler Bob (As always, /s is implicitly assumed. Unless explicitly labled /not s. Saves keystrokes.)
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To: equaviator
If I bake my old Seagate and Samsung hard drives in the oven at 500+ degrees for four hours, will that make them safe enough for the landfill or would I still want to take a ball-peen hammer to them?

I use a drill press.

38 posted on 03/08/2016 10:34:12 AM PST by snarkpup (I want a government small enough that my main concern in life doesn't need to be who's running it.)
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To: dennisw
Relative humidity, not higher or more variable temperatures, has a dominant impact on disk failures.

I thought the innards of a hard drive are in a vacuum. How can humidity play a factor in a vacuum?

39 posted on 03/08/2016 12:23:09 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (#BlackoLivesMatter)
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To: Larry Lucido
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.

As long it is a dry heat.

40 posted on 03/08/2016 12:23:48 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (#BlackoLivesMatter)
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