Hard drives are hermetically sealed

[Manny]

That hole may not go through to the platter chamber
but merely ventilate the back of the circuit board.


I have no idea. It was merely a theory offerred by
a Maxtor support tech to explain such a hole which he
had seen in older hard drives (which Maxtor no longer
makes). His term was "ventilation" of the back of the
PCB. Perhaps it was to allow component cooling or
release of air heated by hot components on the board.

That makes no sense and shoots down his credibility,
especially with Maxtor PCBs, where the chips face
outward and any hole in the aluminum would give much
less cooling than a hole in the PCB. That Maxtor
"tech" obviously had no feel for his field.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

That makes no sense and shoots down his credibility,
especially with Maxtor PCBs, where the chips face
outward and any hole in the aluminum would give much
less cooling than a hole in the PCB. That Maxtor
"tech" obviously had no feel for his field.

Obviously, no one is willing to believe Maxtor's reps.
If you have a Maxtor hard drive of recent vintage, how
about opening it up for us and telling us what you see
and whether there's a hissing sound as you ease the
case open.

*TimDaniels*

 

[kony]

Obviously, no one is willing to believe Maxtor's reps.
If you have a Maxtor hard drive of recent vintage, how
about opening it up for us and telling us what you see
and whether there's a hissing sound as you ease the
case open.

*TimDaniels*

Next time I come across one I'll do that.

Hissing sound? Are you claiming the air is evacuated? I kinda doubt
that, it'd be a bit of a problem for heads that float on air while the
disc is spinning.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Hissing sound? Are you claiming the air is evacuated?

No, I'm not claiming anything of the sort. Did I ever
in this discussion even use the term "evacuated" or "pumped
out" or "reduced pressure" or anything similar? But if the
HD is hermetically sealed, there is a likelihood that the
pressure inside is not the same as the pressure outside,
and there *may* be a transfer of air either into or out of
the platter chamber as it's opened. Of course, the pressures
inside and outside might be happen to be equal, depending
on temperatures and altitude, in which case there would be
no hiss.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Trent©]

No, I'm not claiming anything of the sort. Did I ever
in this discussion even use the term "evacuated" or "pumped
out" or "reduced pressure" or anything similar? But if the
HD is hermetically sealed, there is a likelihood that the
pressure inside is not the same as the pressure outside,
and there *may* be a transfer of air either into or out of
the platter chamber as it's opened. Of course, the pressures
inside and outside might be happen to be equal, depending
on temperatures and altitude, in which case there would be
no hiss.

*TimDaniels*

lol


Have a nice week...

Trent

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

 

[Peter Smit]

The airpressure should allways be the same inside / outside.
Lost of harddisk have a special hole for it to be sure that the pressure is
the same.
Else you would have a big problem if you take youre laptop on top of a
mountain.

Peter Smit
(Yodata datarecovery)

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The airpressure should allways be the same inside / outside.
Lost of harddisk have a special hole for it to be sure that the pressure is
the same.
Else you would have a big problem if you take youre laptop on top of a
mountain.

Why must the air pressure be the same inside and outside?
All that keeps the read head from touching the platter is the wad
of air that gets wedged under it as the platter spins. If that air
were allowed to thin out by reduction in pressure, the read head
would touch the platter. To avoid that, the air density must be
maintained - which implies a sealed chamber in order to avoid
that mountain top problem you mention.

*TimDaniels*