Using a thin, clear, plastic film over the hard drive

The hard drive that came with my notebook had a thin, clear, plastic film over the bottom part of the drive (the circuit side). It's kind of an adhesive that's stuck to the drive itself. Now, I recently upgraded to the 7200.4 Seagate HDD and I didn't know if I should use this same film and stick it on the 7200.4 HDD. I ended up doing this, but I'm a little worried because the new drive seems like there's a lot more circuitry involved on the side that I stuck the film on. Should I remove the film?

 

Probably safer to keep it on, as it may be there to prevent a short circuit if it otherwise would connect with a metal part of the case. It shouldn't matter if there is more circuitry then the last one, although I'd check with others first.

 

dont try forcing the other plastic sheet off the other harddrive. All you need is some ESD film. You can tape it to the bottom of your drive, or use a few small drops of non conductive glue and that will be fine.

The plastic is probably their because their may be a conductive material facing the circuitry of the harddrive, when the harddrive is installed

K-TRON

 

Well, I didn't force the film onto the new drive. It's like a sticker, so I basically just removed it from the old drive and stuck it on the new one.

Is it fine if I leave it on then K-tron?

 

yeah thats fine. A non conductive plastic cannot do any harm to the drive.

K-TRON

 

What about heat? Can the heat of the drive melt the plastic? Or hurt the drives dissipation of heat?

 

Thanks K! Always so helpful

I'd give you rep but I can't give you any more lol

 

Plastic melts at a very high temperature (I think 260F). The hard drive should never be running over 60C (~140F) anyways, which is much lower than the spec rating for plastics.
You should worry at all. The plastic may retain a very small percentage of heat, but it pretty negligible since the drive disperses pretty much the same heat on all sides.

K-TRON

 

Thanks K-TRON was curious about that.