do hard drives work in a vacuum?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
For reference, YES the heads will crash and tear your disk apart if it is to run in a vacuum, because of the fact they rely solely on air to stay suspended just a few tenths of a millimeter above the surface (by the moving air buffer created by the spinning disks). Perhaps with a partial vacuum this could be accomplished, but because there is hardly any air left to hold the the heads up, the slightest jolt could send the whole apparatus crashing into your disk. This works under the same principle as an airplane - gain enough speed, to move enough air, to cause lift. The higher an altitude you go in an airplane, the less air there is, therefore the harder the engines must work to keep the speed necessary to stay the plane aloft. Of course, there are other variables such as air resistance that aren't taken into account, but that doesnt really have to do with hard drives anyway.
One way to dispense a drive while still conducting heat out of the enclosure is to use copper springs i guess?
Mount the drive with copper along sides, attach springs to copper, seal up in whatever soundproofs and hang it by the springs now sticking out of the thing. Could be that even copper is not up to the job unless the springs are too fat to eliminate the small vibrations? Might work if one adds weight to the package?
On second thought, it´ll probably not work too well, but wouldn´t it be great if someone here tried it out?
Concerning the vacuum thing, remember that the atmosphere at sea level has a pressure equivalent of about 10 meters of water. Thats 10 tons per square meter surface area. If anyone pulls this off with a potato chips bag it might be the next big thing for armoured vehicles.
Mount the drive with copper along sides, attach springs to copper, seal up in whatever soundproofs and hang it by the springs now sticking out of the thing. Could be that even copper is not up to the job unless the springs are too fat to eliminate the small vibrations? Might work if one adds weight to the package?
On second thought, it´ll probably not work too well, but wouldn´t it be great if someone here tried it out?
Concerning the vacuum thing, remember that the atmosphere at sea level has a pressure equivalent of about 10 meters of water. Thats 10 tons per square meter surface area. If anyone pulls this off with a potato chips bag it might be the next big thing for armoured vehicles.