Thread: Hard drive shock / vibration thoughts

I think some of the specs that are given in this thread are a bit bogus. Here are the specs for an IBM 120GB 7200RPM DESKSTAR.

Environmental Parameters
Min Operating Temperature : 5 °C
Max Operating Temperature : 55 °C
Humidity Range Operating : 8 - 90%
Shock Tolerance : 55 g @ 2ms half-sine pulse (operating) / 350 g @ 2ms half-sine pulse (non-operating)
Vibration Tolerance : 0.67 g @ RMS (random) (operating) / 1.04 g @ RMS (random) (non-operating)
Sound Emission : 31 dB

http://www.memorysuppliers.com/ibm1272desid.html


So, 55g OPERATING 350g NON OPERATING for shock.

So, data shows orientation of the hard drive may not be a significant factor as it can take 60Gs of shock without failure presumably in any orientation. Getting a hard drive to experience 60Gs of shock when mounted to a 2500 pound car is a feat. The accident that caused Princess Diana's death was 70Gs. So, I eat my words, happy? However, it is only because of the weight of the car that the force was 70Gs. A hard drive which weighs say, one pound, dropped from one foot would experience far more force than this. Thus anchoring the hard drive to the car firmly is imperative.


Vibration tolerance is only 0.67g OPERATING and 1.04g NON OPERATING.

This shows that vibration IS a significant factor. Cases where people are mounting their hard drives rigidly to their car without failure may not be experiencing much vibration. However, this is definitely something the hard drives are prone to failure from.

So like I said before, mount your hard drives in a mount that is rigid enough to take on the mass of the car, but not so rigid that it transfers vibration. This gives the hard drive the greatest possible chance of survival in any condition.

This is not exactly what you are looking for, but It shows a dampening concept that I have found to work quite well. I use it in my motorhome, which is verry vibration prone going down the road.
I think with some creativity, this concept could be adapted for harddrive suspension.
Just need to build an appropriate frame work

Wow, oldschool. But if it works..!

I say buy an 1:10 scale rc car and mount the hard drive into the car. That way you can have 2 suspensions, your car's and the rc vehicle's. Crazy, but it should work .think about it.

Originally Posted by crazymadbastard

I say buy an 1:10 scale rc car and mount the hard drive into the car. That way you can have 2 suspensions, your car's and the rc vehicle's. Crazy, but it should work .think about it.

I agree, the shock, spring combination seems very adventagous to preventing vibration and shock. However, this would only dampen shock and vibration in the horizontal plane. . .

dont they sell vibration dampening gel that would be ideal for this?

Here is what I did.

Its kinda hard to tell but i made a cantilever support. The weight of the hard drive provided the cushion along with the elasticity of the bracket. I mounted the bracket to the case with rubber washers on both sides of the bolts.

My MR2 has next to no suspension and British roads are riddled with potholes, I drive over a bridge on the motorway that has a nasty dip in it five days a week, my drive is rigid mounted and has worked faultlessly, but I will eventually mount it in a cage using R/C suspension (as previously mentioned), angled to cover all axis, this is a similar setup to a lot of CD changers and should stop most of the vibration and jarring from reaching the drive.