johnny_chronic

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Aug 25, 2011
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I was moving around to talk to my cat (had to make a moment (new kitty)) and my knee smashed into the hard wood desk that contains 13 HDDs (external, stacked).

The force was kind of large, I could have hit a kick ball around 20-30 feet.

Is it possible that I damaged my HDDs? (I think I know the answer)

Thanks.
 
Solution
Tape drives are far less reliable than hdds. The tape is run across rubber wheels, which invariably will pickup some of the coating from the tape itself, gets impregnated with it, and will guaranteed over any amount of time, corrupt the data or even chew up the tape. The tapes themselves have a very finite lifespan as that coating is lost.

johnny_chronic

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Aug 25, 2011
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That's the thing. I am afraid to test them.

Thanks.

I use HD Sentinel and so far they are all at 100% health (with out any tests).

I know that backing them up first would probably be the best solution :/

Thanks.

Can't wait for the world to start storing data on more reliable devices.

This is why tape drives still rock in 2021.
 
Since they are external drives they have rubber isolators between the drives and the case. Hard drives are rated to endure 30 Gs of shock when writing (saving), and 60 Gs when reading, if the drive was not powered on and the heads are parked they are rated at 250Gs.

Unless you knocked the entire stack of drives off the desk and onto a hard floor they will be fine.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
That's the thing. I am afraid to test them.

Thanks.

I use HD Sentinel and so far they are all at 100% health (with out any tests).

I know that backing them up first would probably be the best solution :/

Thanks.

Can't wait for the world to start storing data on more reliable devices.

This is why tape drives still rock in 2021.
  1. Only way to know if they are OK is to power up and try to read/write
  2. You should ALWAYS have a backup of any data you do not wish to lose. 3-2-1.
  3. Tape drives aren't magical. They fail as well.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Tape drives are far less reliable than hdds. The tape is run across rubber wheels, which invariably will pickup some of the coating from the tape itself, gets impregnated with it, and will guaranteed over any amount of time, corrupt the data or even chew up the tape. The tapes themselves have a very finite lifespan as that coating is lost.
 
Solution

Exploding PSU

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Jul 17, 2018
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I've had a hard drive dropped from the literal ceiling into hard ceramic floor two stories below that still works properly. And I had one that goes bad despite never even being touched. Both drives were same brand and model, bought at the same date at the exact same store. While HDD can withstand crazy amount of abuse, you'll never know until you try to power it up.

Unfortunately, Sentinel sometimes doesn't tell the entire story. Both drives above were rated 100% with 0 problems despite one of them already failing.
 

johnny_chronic

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Aug 25, 2011
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Just curious ...
What model drives were they?
Did you have all of 13 drives stacked in a single large stack?
Did they fall over to the ground?

Doesn't seem very safe, since you have cats running around.
They are Toshiba and WD.

Here's a breakdown from HD Sentinel: View: https://imgur.com/a/kWNNQoR

The drives are stacked, laying flat, straight up...

They did not fall to the ground.

The cats are usually pretty good (though, I let the one go wild).

Thanks!