hard drive heads on a 2.5" drive

zyzzx · 03-01-2006, 12:27 PM

On my Toshiba Tecra that I just got, I get a popup from time to time that says, "your computer has detected vibrations -- the heads on your hard drive have been lifted from the cylinders momentarily." (or something like that).

I know hard drive discussions are crazy here, but I had a question that I wasn't very sure of and I've not seen any discussions about:
I'm going to use one of those 2.5" to 3.5" adapters to connect a 2.5" laptop drive to a desktop motherboard (the ide cable is 3.5"):

Does anyone know much about hard drive protections (that i assume a bios would manage) at the hardware level to protect a hard drive when a vibration is detected? Is there other hardware required? Can I add that hardware to a desktop-form-factor motherboard? I'm going to have a usb port in my ash tray and will be running most of my music off of non-mechanical devices.... In this case, when I have a gig of ram, I would assume that very little is being done on the hard drive and the bios could 'disable' it for when that BIG BUMP makes a head hit a HD Plate....
just a thought.

Thanks for any insight.

tom61 · 03-01-2006, 03:04 PM

Your laptop has a device called an accelerometer, which detects tilt, built into it which detects a sudden change in the degree the laptop is in relation to gravity. Intergrating one into a desktop/SFF system is possible, but I've not seen it done before.

Your best bet is securing the case to the car, and some mechanical vibration protection, such as rubber grommets or mounting the drive vertically.

zyzzx · 03-02-2006, 01:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by tom61

Your best bet is.....

which is sort of what I figured I'd end up doing. Just thought someone may have already attempted a similar solution?? When I'm dealing w/ a 120GB 2.5" drive at over $200, the last thing I want to deal with is a re-install after a HD failure.

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