beads inside hard drive

[RIPSTER]

i opened up my old hd it was totalyfried so i thought i might aswell have a gander at it i unscrewed it and continued to wodge it open i hit soemthing inside and these small black and white beads came out???

im kinda scared about what they could be is there any health hazard from them or are they dangerous in any way? :eek:

[RIPSTER]

someone

[fabulouscoops]

Don't eat any.
Seriously, I can't imagine they are harmful or there would need to be a warning. Maybe they are ball bearings for the drive motor.

[hafa]

Ah! Be careful, they're radioactive neptunian mind control slug eggs! :D

On a serious note, I think that fabulouscoops is correct; the reason your drive fried is because the bearings self-destructed and you're seeing the gruesome remains...

[Nebuchadnazzar]

it may be a silica gel pack to absorb moisture that was placed inside the drive, some older drives i have taken apart have them fairly loosely placed. It might have come loose and hit the platter cutting the packet open and spilling it's guts throughout the hdd. To be safe, don't eat them. is there a small white bag, or alot of fluff in there as well :D?

[dark_15]

I think it sounds like a silica packet tore open, which caused the death of your hard drive...
Does it look like any of these pics?

http://www.wecalit.ch/images/Strukturen/Silica-Gel-lump.JPG
http://www.csminchem.co.uk/HTML_site/desiccantassets/indicating_silica_gel.jpg
http://astro.df.unipi.it/CITD/1997/RobertaVangelisti/immagini/gel.jpg
http://www.ohe-chem.co.jp/silicagel_p.jpg

[RIPSTER]

yah thats probably it it was in a little white dome on top of hd and i split it open with my screwdriver when i was wedging it open the hd was kinda working but when it ws picked up in bios its name came up as a load of scrambled letters and it wasnt picked up by the windows xp installation. so i thought i might aswell take a look at it

[hafa]

yah thats probably it it was in a little white dome on top of hd...

Hmmph! Still sounds like radioactive neptunian mind control slug eggs to me
:p .