Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
(OP)
I hope this is in the right forum -
We are having an unusual problem with a piece of equipment that uses a 2.5" fixed hard disk drive housed in a small, water and airtight sealed enclosure. Prior to sealing, we purge the entire enclosure of air using tetrafluoroethane. (Commonly available in 'canned air' electronics dusting products). This is a common process on our other equipment, but the first time we have done this for a device housing a disk drive. A problem has just emerged where we are seeing a number of failures for the hard drive and I was wondering if this may have to do with the "air bearing" that the read/write head on the disk platter rides on during operation. Could there not be enough gas density (or perhaps too much), which is causing the air bearing to fail?
Thanks,
We are having an unusual problem with a piece of equipment that uses a 2.5" fixed hard disk drive housed in a small, water and airtight sealed enclosure. Prior to sealing, we purge the entire enclosure of air using tetrafluoroethane. (Commonly available in 'canned air' electronics dusting products). This is a common process on our other equipment, but the first time we have done this for a device housing a disk drive. A problem has just emerged where we are seeing a number of failures for the hard drive and I was wondering if this may have to do with the "air bearing" that the read/write head on the disk platter rides on during operation. Could there not be enough gas density (or perhaps too much), which is causing the air bearing to fail?
Thanks,





RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
Try purging with nitrogen.
Or using flash drives.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
TTFN
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
We know that hard drives don't work in a vacuum, hence the filtered vent ports you find on all of them. Given that, a little information about the unusual environment, and (okay, dangerously little) knowledge about how air bearings and magnetic recording work, the posted hypothesis seemed plausible.
So I proposed a simple test that can be executed at little cost, to test the hypothesis. If recovered drives work in air, than a more air-like purge gas is indicated.
Perhaps it was arrogant to go further and propose a possible strategy for restoring production, if the test supports the hypothesis, and a strategy for making an end-run around the problem, whatever its root cause may be. For that, I apologize.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
http://www.mt-optech.com/
Also, it's a minor point, but I think the problem with the other gas (if it is the problem) is the viscosity difference with air, not density difference.
Tom
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
Now the question is... was there any permanent damage done to the drives that ran with the denser gas? Did the read/write head fail because it was spinning above the platter or because it was making contact with the platter? On booting the defective unit, I heard the 'click of death' from the hard drive. I suppose more long term testing is in order.
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
TTFN
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
The most likely scenario is head crash, so there's probably some latent damage. You should run CHKDSK and see how many bad sectors there are now.
TTFN
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure
RE: Somewhat unusual question - Hard Disk "Air Bearing" failure