does moving laptop (when on) around causes problem to HD?

hi, happy new year,
I move around (a few inches on the desk or around the house) my W3V when it is on, i dont turn off or hibernate. Is this harmful to HD ?
thanks.

 

As long as you aren't dropping it, I think you'll be OK.

 

Moving the laptop while it is on will mostly not harm it at all. Dropping your laptop will not only have a greater chance of ruining your hard drive but also other parts of the laptop.

Just in case you fear of loosing your data on your laptop hard drive, I suggest backing it up on DVDs, external hard drive, desktop hard drives, anything that is important to you.

I move the laptop a lot when it is on, even in a car.

Happy New Year!

 

As ZaZ and MilestonePC have mentioned, moving a notebook around while it is operating shouldn't cause asny damage to the hard disk. Hard disks of today can normally withstand around 200 to 300 G's of operating shock, so there is very very little chance of any damage, while moving a notebook around. Dropping it, however, may cause some damage.

 

200-300 G's lol?

we could launch a 2.5" HD on a patriot missile? AWSOME!! lmao

 

thanks a lot, now i feel better with lappy.

 

Ha ha. That or use the hd rotors on a mini race car as disk brakes. I am pretty sure the 200gs thing is all bs. I ve single handedly butter fingered 2 mobile drives that unfortunately had the misfortune of traveling 3 feet to the floor. 1 was doa te other died after an extened test. I was declined rma for one becuase the fall caused physical damage. Sustaining an equivalent fall while being on inside a laptop......well do th math.

 

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/7k100/7k100_ov.htm

I was very suprised to see such a high load of shock as well. It may be true or not, but that is what Hitachi say it is.

 

actually, 300g isn't that much. You have to considere the very short distance, where the disk is "slowing down" (hitting the floor). If you drop the disk from 1m (about 3 feet) on a concrete floor you maybe have 1mm where the disk can slow down because of deformation of the hd. That would already by a force of 1000g.

 

Yup, Sw00p the physicist said it all.

I've used my laptop for GPS navigation in the car many times and ran across huge potholes, jarring the laptop and my woman. Both remained fine but only one complained back at me.

 

Which one?

 

As long as all the screws are in place and the HDD is not bouncing around or jostling inside your laptop, you can move it all you like while it is on. If you're a klutz or a very violent individual with sudden and uncontrollable urges to subject your laptop's case to hundreds of times the gravitational force of Earth in less than a second, then no do not move your laptop around when it's on.

 

Dropping a hard drive on the floor is a lot of force. It practically stops accelerating in less than a millimetres distance, so the force in such a situation would be enormous, just like Sw00p has mentioned. However, if your just moving your notebook around in your hand, then the forces are way less than 300 G's.

 

As others mention you should be ok, just be carefull, at least when your laptop is off the heads are parked and are further away from the disc surface, so if anything does happen, you are less likely to damage. my last laptop I used to play music on it while it was in my bag (with earphones) walking around it was fine.

Although I was copying to an external drive and while it was copying and the drive fell to the floor, worked fine for another 2 months then started to fail. data recovery is expensive.

 

Only when the HDD led is blinking (reading or writing) ... then is best not to move ur w3v around. i don't think our w3v have the technology to sense motion changes which would stop the HDD from spinning, some other laptops do have such technology.

 

Gonna be hard to not move it when the HDD light is blinking - as it can be unpredictable. As said by others, dont worry about it, its not a problem, its built to withstand with not harm normal movements around, even slight drops or jolts. Just don't drop it hard!

 

Yup I know the feeling. Sometimes you just gotta put that GPS in its place.