Hard drive shock problems.

Mikesz · 03-24-2002, 11:45 AM

I ran my western digital 30 gig hard drive horizontally mounted for 2 years with out any major problems. I got some bad sectors and fromatting takes an unusually long time but it still works. When i built my new case i mounted the hard drive vertically. I started having problems with the system. It would lock, then after a short while i would get the blue screen of death saying "cannot write to disk in drive c:" uh oh.

I eventually found out that any kind of bump across the drives vertical axis (long or short way) makes the drive "reboot". It makes a single click sound (I think the head returning to its rest position) and you can hear power cut to the platter motor and then the drive spins back up. That all happens in about a second. I can pound on the top or bottom of the drive with no problems. BTW i though this was caused by the hard drive dying, so i got a new one (exact same model) through the RMA warranty. The brand new drive does the exact same thing. The arm mechanism in hard drives look pretty sturdy, do we really have to worry about head crashes? BTW i thought this was caused by the hard drive dying, so i got a new one (exact same model) through the RMA warranty. The brand new drive does the exact same thing.

What have you guys done to isolate your drives?? I have heard talk about springs, but if you use the wrong spring rate you can actually cause more damage to the drive at certain vibration frequencies.

I was thinking of using that egg carton foam rubber stuff, but thats going to get big and ugly.

I have pictures of my setup here. The case is bolted directly to the strut tower on the left side of the trunk.

http://photos.yahoo.com/mikeszl57

Thanks for your help
mike

bgoodman · 03-24-2002, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael Szilagyi
I have pictures of my setup here. The case is bolted directly to the strut tower on the left side of the trunk.

http://photos.yahoo.com/mikeszl57

Thanks for your help
mike

This album is currently empty. ?

comeon I wanted to see your setup!

Mikesz · 03-24-2002, 12:39 PM

If forgot to make the album public, sorry. This my first time posting pics online. It should work now.

mike

MP3DUB · 03-24-2002, 02:05 PM

Is everything bolted together in the case itself securely? I mean so that no to components could bump eachother on impact? (ie shorting out). And all the connections are secure? (hot glue works wonders

) I've got a 60GB 5400RPM WD that ive been using vertically mounted in a matx desktop case for 5 or 6 months now without any real incidents (no bad sectors, knocks on wood). Also, I dont have my case bolted to anything, it floats freely on a number of bungee cords on top of the lining of my trunk, so I wonder if its being bolted to the strut tower thats passing to much shock to it.

Aaron Cake · 03-24-2002, 02:53 PM

If you drive doesn't work vertically, you may just want to go horizontal, or choose another model of drive.

It is entirely possible that this particular model of drive resets itself when it looses closed loop control of the head. This may be the problem you are experiencing.

Mikesz · 03-24-2002, 05:06 PM

Aaron, I think your right. By loosing closed loop control you mean that the head has been bumped out of its intended position long enough to cause an error.

It really dosent take to much of a jolt at all to make the hard drive reboot.

I am going to put 4" of foam rubber under the case and hold it down with a bungee cord. Not the best security wise but atleast it will funcion properly. Maybe a steel cable and padlock, but that would probabbly just be a Pain.

Mike

PatO · 03-24-2002, 07:29 PM

What brand/model drive do you have? It's possible that certain brands are more suseptible to shock than others...

I've used a WD 4GB and a Maxtor 12GB without any problems. But then again, all I'm doing is playing MP3's through Winamp so the system caches everything and only reads from the drive for a split second during song changes.

Mikesz · 03-24-2002, 07:35 PM

I was playing Mp3's using cobraIII (uses winamp) and watching a divx movie (not at the same time) when i got these errors.

The drive is a Western Digital WD Caviar 307AA

I guess the drive is farley new since the warrenty is good untill december 2003

Mike

reddeath30 · 03-21-2005, 04:37 PM

I intend on building a speaker box into my back seat putting 3 x 12 inch woofers along the back, then my computer will sit next to the 2 x 2400 watt amps that will sit in a custom box where the back seat used to be. I am afraid that the intense vibration that my subs will be making will totally Annihilate my hard drive. Anyone have any thoughts?

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