How to prevent HD failure above 14,000 feet

[Peter]

Other than that, as you have very specific requirements,
you could actually contact an OEM/manufacturer and see
if they have a solutions for you, or can build a solution for you.

They aren't very interested. I did phone them. They (Motion) do offer
a flash solution on the LS1600 model, but would not give any details.
(National Minimum Wage kind of issue).

Hardisk is probably only your first problem, next one will be cooling,
as the airpressure is lower, you might want to take that into account as
well.
just to ensure your components (cpu/bridge/graphics/etc) are not
overheating.

That's a good point. Howeever, the LS800 does handle overheating
(which *is* a major problem with it, but that's another story) by
first reducing display brightness and then shutting down. It pops up a
message when it does the first one, and I don't get that when it
fails.

Normally I deal with the heat issue by positioning it against an
incoming air vent (which can be quite powerful) and that works
perfectly. The altitude-correlated failure happens even with the unit
being cool.

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

Peter,

from a search on Google:

have a look here http://www.formation.com/specs.html

Manual, page 8 states that it will operate upto 30,000ft:
http://www.formation.com/images/ToughDisk 3500 ATA User and Installation Manual Rev 002.pdf


good luck !
edwin.

 

[John John]

http://www.mt-optech.com/
http://mae.pennnet.com/Articles/Art...Articles&Subsection=Display&Article_ID=217739
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/18/samsung_hybrid_hdd_flashon/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/18/tdk_flash_drive/

John

 

[E. Barry Bruyea]

Peter,

as others already have posted that an alternative could be solid state, e.g.
flash.

Other than that, as you have very specific requirements,
you could actually contact an OEM/manufacturer and see
if they have a solutions for you, or can build a solution for you.

Hardisk is probably only your first problem, next one will be cooling,
as the airpressure is lower, you might want to take that into account as
well.
just to ensure your components (cpu/bridge/graphics/etc) are not
overheating.

I lived at just under 10K feet for three years and wound up putting an
larger (extra) fan on my computer to avoid the constant problems with
the computer.

 

[Peter]

have a look here http://www.formation.com/specs.html

Manual, page 8 states that it will operate upto 30,000ft:
http://www.formation.com/images/ToughDisk 3500 ATA User and Installation Manual Rev 002.pdf


good luck !
edwin.

Thank you, but that is a 3.5" drive, not 1.8". Interesting though they
achieve the altitude by simply sealing it.

 

[Peter]

http://www.mt-optech.com/
http://mae.pennnet.com/Articles/Art...Articles&Subsection=Display&Article_ID=217739
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/18/samsung_hybrid_hdd_flashon/
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/18/tdk_flash_drive/

All 2.5" or bigger.

 

[Peter]

This sort of thing is a start... very pricey though

http://www.dpie.com/storage/at1830.html

 

[alanglloyd]

I am a PPL/IR private pilot, running various GPS apps (notably
Jeppesen Flitedeck) on a Motion LS800 tablet PC.

The hard drive packs up at around 14,000 feet, crashing the unit.

Flash alternatives (I believe it is a 1.8" HD inside) are extremely
costly, around USD 1000 for 8GB, and I wonder how successful it would
be to put in a 4GB SD card (for which there is a slot), put all maps
on that, etc.

The problem is that Windoze itself accesses various bits of the HD
anyway, and does anyone know which bits, and can they be moved to the
SD card?

Has anyone tried this?

Any suggestions for solutions?

A removable HD mounted in a pressure cooker with a sealed connector
mounted in the skin of the pressure cooker.

Do _you_ still function at 14000 ft ?

I just wonder if the thin air is causing the head to hit the disk
because the air density will not generate pressure to fly above the
disk, of if the head flies too high because there is no bernoulli
effect to pull the head towards the disk.

Alan Lloyd

 

[Lem]

A removable HD mounted in a pressure cooker with a sealed connector
mounted in the skin of the pressure cooker.

Do _you_ still function at 14000 ft ?

I just wonder if the thin air is causing the head to hit the disk
because the air density will not generate pressure to fly above the
disk, of if the head flies too high because there is no bernoulli
effect to pull the head towards the disk.

Alan Lloyd

I assume the "pressure cooker" idea was somewhat facetious, but it's not
so far out. I wonder if you could get a camera case designed for
underwater photography that would fit a usable hard drive. You'd have
to make some sort of seal for the interface cable, but that might be
do-able with some kind of silicone or other gunk. Going down, the
change in pressure comes much faster. IIRC, 30 feet = one atmosphere.

 

[alanglloyd]

I assume the "pressure cooker" idea was somewhat facetious, but it's not
so far out. I wonder if you could get a camera case designed for
underwater photography that would fit a usable hard drive. You'd have
to make some sort of seal for the interface cable, but that might be
do-able with some kind of silicone or other gunk. Going down, the
change in pressure comes much faster. IIRC, 30 feet = one atmosphere.

A presure cooker would be much cheaper than a camera case, but not so
good an appearance. Sealing a cable might be somewhat difficult, it may
leak along the length of the multi-core - that's why I suggested a
Mil-Spec type sealed connector. OTOH a ribbon type cable could well be
sealed around a small slot with bath-tub sealant. A better bet would be
to carefully cut off 0.25 inch of the insulation down to the wires and
use Araldite (2-part epoxy) to seal it in the middle of a slot.

Alan Lloyd

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

pressure cooker... interesting

how would you cool your storage HD would be a question ?