Can sealing harddrives air tight do damage?

[jimarnold]

I have lost many electronics that I keep unused for a long time before due to the near sea (high humidity area) area that I live in. I learned this the hard way, so inorder to protect hard drives unused for long periods that I use as back up, I wraped them using a cling film to be air tight and prevent moist air or dust to the hard drives. Then I heard hard drives need access to normal air pressure. I have three WD hard drives one external (My Passport 1 TB) two internals one is SATA the other is IDE, which I sealed for more than a month now. Is there a problem with sealing the hard drive that way, should I worry about the drives?

 

[fzabkar]

The drive only needs to be vented to the atmosphere in normal operation, not in storage. In fact I have received HDDs from several manufacturers in sealed antistatic bags over the years, usually with a silica gel dessicant, IIRC.

BTW, Hitachi now has sealed helium filled drives:
http://www.hgst.com/press-room/2012/hgst-announces-radically-new-helium-filled-hard-disk-drive-platform

 

[jimarnold]

So no worries when covering the drive holes in storage??

 

[RealBeast]

Nope, no problem to seal them for storage.

 

[ronintexas]

You will want one of those silica gel desiccant packs in with the drive to ensure that moisture is absorbed by the pack...I would suggest putting them in an anti-static bag, put a silica gel desiccant pack on the outside of the static bag, and insert into a zip-loc bag - removing the air before sealing. This will keep out the elements for long-term storage.

If the drive is in operation - you need ventilation to prevent heat build up.

 

[jimarnold]

You mean I need ventilation that's why these holes are there ? Or I need ventilation afterwards because of this method of storage??

 

[ronintexas]

When in storage, no ventilation is needed. When you put it in use - do not keep it in "storage mode" (sealed in plastic), as you need ventilation when it is powered on.

 

[fzabkar]

The following article was written by a Seagate employee involved in data recovery:

http://hddscan.com/doc/HDD_from_inside.html

It shows the breather hole and the filter behind it.

"There is also small almost unnoticeable hole on HDA. This hole called Breath hole. You maybe heard old rumor which says that HDD has vacuum inside, well that is not true. HDD uses Breath hole to equalize pressure inside and outside HDA. From the inside Breath hole closed by Breath filter to make air clean and dry."

"Because air from outside definitely has dust the breath filter has several layers of filtration and it's much thicker than recirculation filter, it also may have some silica gel inside to reduce air moisture."

 

[jimarnold]

Best answer selected by jimarnold.