SOLVED Hard Drive Took a High Dive

[Aldakoopa]

I was putting components into my Antec 300 to rebuild my Bulldozer rig and had my 500GB Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD) in hand. Before I could even get it to the case the boss-lady came home from work so I put it on the nearest flat surface - on top of the fridge - so I could go give her a hug and a kiss. Then I forgot about the hard drive up on top of the fridge, which happened to be half on the freezer door. After a while she went to grab something from the freezer and I heard a loud THUNK! and asked "what was that?" She hands me my hard drive and I nearly had a heart attack.

It fell about 6 feet from the top of the fridge to hard laminate flooring and bounced. I thought for sure the thing was dead. But I popped it in and it booted right up. I checked the disk for errors and it appears nothing is wrong with it.

Well I'll learn my lesson not to put any computer parts on top of the fridge anymore.

I messages Seagate about it and told them that I volunteer the hard drive for breeding purposes.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

No damage because the heads are parked and locked when the drive has no power.

 

[Automata]

Surprised it lived, but as ATM said, heads are parked on drives now, so most of the damage is mitigated.

 

[runningweird]

why the hell would you put it on the freezer! that's hilarious.

I tend to leave my stuff on the couch where the dogs can jump on it.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I've tried breaking 3.5" platters before on HDDs, those things are actually pretty tough.
2.5" though.... those shatter pretty easy.

 

[Aldakoopa]

ATM, This was a 2.5" drive.

And runningweird, I put it on top of the fridge because that was the nearest flat surface besides the floor where it might be stepped on.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

ATM, This was a 2.5" drive.

And runningweird, I put it on top of the fridge because that was the nearest flat surface besides the floor where it might be stepped on.

Okay NOW I'm surprised that lived

 

[BruceUSA]

I've dropped a 2.5 hd in a enclosure from the desk to the seramic floor about 2 1/2 heigh and it still working fine.

 

[runningweird]

as long as they aren't spinning dropping them isn't a death sentence, but jeeze what a risk.

 

[Aldakoopa]

My girlfriend dropped her WD external drive when she was in college. About 3 inches from her hand to the desk while it was off. It didn't survive = this is why I like Seagate.

 

[runningweird]

what happens if you drop an ssd?

 

[Aldakoopa]

Nothing. You can play basketball with an SSD.

EDIT: Funny you say that, when I got my first SSD the first thing that happened when I got my door unlocked was it slipped out of my hand and fell on the floor. I just laughed because... it's an SSD!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

SSDs have a momentary impact rating of 1000G+
If you can cause that, congratulations.

 

[runningweird]

SSDs have a momentary impact rating of 1000G+
If you can cause that, congratulations.

haha, what? really? that's pretty crazy - so you'd destroy the housing before your managed to damage the storage itself?

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

It fell about 6 feet from the top of the fridge to hard laminate flooring and bounced. I thought for sure the thing was dead.

I would have thought that there would 100 percent be a lot of bad sectors, if it even was accessible at all!

I dropped a Seagate U-series HDD by accident once, because it slipped out of my grip and hit the kitchen floor. Wouldn't even be as high of a drop as on top of a refrigerator. That probably would be at least close to 6-foot-6-inches! It was only about a 4-foot drop. MHDD showed at least a fair amount of bad sectors afterwards. At least enough for me to chuck it. It hit a corner and broke a chunk of plastic off the Molex power connector.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

haha, what? really? that's pretty crazy - so you'd destroy the housing before your managed to damage the storage itself?

Yep, unless you hit it in a way that causes the PCB to break you're not causing damage.

 

[runningweird]

if only my phone was built of similar stuff.

 

[Automata]

if only my phone was built of similar stuff.

If your phone was made of hard drives, it would not be a phone anymore.

 

[johan851]

Not super surprising. Most hard drives have a rating of around 350G while the heads are parked, so they're fairly durable.

I knew someone who had all their important stuff "backed up" to a single external drive, one of those tipsy arrangements that stand on the side. It feel over while it was running, and that was the end of that.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

If your phone was made of hard drives, it would not be a phone anymore.

I think a phone would have a better chance of surviving!
They seem to be tough cookies, especially Samsung Galaxy!