Laptops hard drive hard life

By definitiona laptops are portable computers subject to moving, jarring and banging. How can the hard drive, whose head glides over the platter on a very thin film of air, avoid coming in contact with the platter and get damaged?

 

I wonder if this thread should be posted elsewhere such as the hardware section. it might get a better response there.

 

lol CLOSE,

magnets.. very strong magnets

 

QFT.... sorcerers run the hard drive industry.

 

That would do a real number on your data, if your computer is not working that might be why?

HD heads are kept from contacting the platter surface by the air that is extremely close to the platter; that air moves at, or close to, the platter speed.

Wikki is your friend go vist and say high.

 

Actually, I have found in my experiences that laptop harddrives last anywhere from 3-6 years depending on usage. I would say that laptop harddrives are good to about 10,000 hours of use. I am a college student and I value my homework and projects which I work so hard on, so I upgrade my harddrives and replace them every year. So far in the past 8 months, I have put just under 1900 hours of use on my dell's harddrive. As always, a harddrive which is in a laptop which just sits on a desk will last much longer than a harddrive which is continually bumped around.
A harddrive with XP on it will last much longer than one with Vista. So far out of the 55 people in my architecture class, 7 of them had to replace their harddrives because Vista and defective units killed them.

Try to avoid shocks to your harddrive. Like do not use it when driving down a gravel or bumpy road. Do not carry it when running, just put it into sleep or standby.

K-TRON

 

I travel a lot with notebooks. IMHO laptops are a really hot hostile place for any spinning drive. Out of 4 notebooks, I have only lost one drive. Not a problem as I do regular back ups on external drives.

 

imo. laptop harddrives are the most sensitive part of the notebook

but while the laptop is off and being jolted around in a bumpy road or walking around there is no problem, i think the laptop hardrives park their heads so as to avoid damage.

but moving around while laptop is on and lots of shaking and stuff is highly discouraged. it can kill.

ive had 4 laptops.

the oldest is a dell 8200 5 years and the hard drive is super sensitive now to movement unlike before.

and the mac powerbook which died last week after 5 years of abusive use.

currently this gateway im using now is holding up pretty nicely, ive handled it pretty rough on and off but only time will tell how durable it really is

planning to get on a vostro 1500 for my gaming and asus eee pc unless the HP really sways me hehe

 

Indeed,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt_7VpYeoY0

But on topic, most business oriented notebooks have built-in gyroscopes that will park the head of the drive during a bump or drop.