Do not cover this hole

On my hard drive there is a small hole that says "DO NOT COVER THIS HOLE". Does anyone know what this hole is and what would happen if I covered this hole?

Reason why I'm asking is because there are some elastic levers underneath my HDD designed to prop the it up so there is free space underneath to let it breathe, I guess. Only thing is that the bottom left lever completely and directly covers the hole. My computer is P-7801u.

 

Every time I think about that label, I think Death Star... lol (this one small hole that if shot leads directly to the core, destroying it)

 

The hole is there so that their is equal pressure within the drive as the air surrounding the drive. Underneath that hole is usually a thick filter, which filters out any particulate matter in the air. The drive has a filter because any specs of dirt in the air subject to the spinning platters will cause bad sectors to generate and the surface of the disc can be destroyed. You should not tape over the hole because very small amounts of air transfer between the inside and outside of the drive.

When you install a harddrive into a laptop 90% of the time the drive is placed in a caddy, where their is no direct airflow. That is okay because the drive does not need a lot of air. Just do not tape over the whole or purposely block it as pressure can build up inside the drive from the spinning platters.

K-TRON

 

I believe that it acts to equalize internal and external air pressure. From what I remember reading a while ago the heads that read the HDD data "float" on a cushion of air, and this equalization is important for this. This also has something to do with altitude limitations of HDDs to as well. Covering the hole could lead to premature failure.

 

That is an excellent answer...not that you need it, but +REP for you

 

So if the hole is covered, would it produce more heat?

 

I don't think it will necessarily do so however, for sure it will not last as long as it should if it's not covered. Anyway, why do we always want to do something if we're told not to do that? haha... To sin is indeed human...

 

It would cause a change in pressure which would affect the spinning platters.

 

Google BERNOULLI'S PRINCIPLE--while primarily about fluid, it also applies to air.

Inside your harddrive are magnetic platters and magnetic heads that extend on arms that rest above and platters. The magnetic heads never actually touch the platters--when they do, this is known as a head crash (very bad).

Under normal pressure, the heads float a hairs width over the platters, but covering the whole will result in increased air pressure, which would cause the heads to behave differently. Lower pressure would likely result in the head riding higher than normal, meaning bad data transfers at high speed....higher pressure would result in, I expect, increased disk crashes.

 

This is interesting. I thought the platters are revolving in a very high vacuum environment to decrease the air friction (and the temperature, of course).

Did anybody open up a HDD? Was there any vacuum inside?

--

 

Nope, no vacuum in any HDD that I have opened.

 

There is no vacuum inside current drives. On some of the older MFM/RLL drives there were.
If you open up a current generation harddrive you will feel a lot of turbulence inside of the drive generated by the spinning platters. There are seals on harddrives to keep dirt and debris out but that is very different from a vacuum.

gerryf19 has it pretty right about the relationship between the platter/head

K-TRON

 

hey k-tron, that sounds something like bernoulli's principle (or something like that)! The faster the drive spins, the more air it attracts into it (like a tornado). Because of this, it needs the filter to keep the dirt out because there's .1 micron of space or so between the head and the platter. Now my question is this. What would the use of that hole be for a SSD?

 

Perhaps that one of the selling points for SSDs is that you can use them in more "extreme" environments. I can't imagine that they are sealed so tightly that a high altitude environment would be an issue, but that's the only reason I can think of.

 

the use of that hole would be the same like if you'd take a yoghurt up into the mountains: it would be close to explotion, completely bent due to too much pressure in it.

now obviously, the ssd would not have such a bending, but there could be a pressure difference with the air in the ssd (if it has enclosing). this could lead to issues. but i don't think it's a big problem (as big as it is for all other system components, then, i'd say).