Hi, im thinking of making a car computer using the sony LCD mod and a micro ATX motherboard and other bits. My question is how well do hard drives work under the vibrations of a car? will general driving damage the hard drive and if so how could it be made safer? Also do dvd/cd drives work or do they skip also? Thanks Steven Richardson - Aka Veryevil.
vibrations can damge a hard drive big bumps can be especially harmful and driving off cliffs is certainly a no-go (for the hard drive). basically you would want to go with a 2.5" laptop hard drive since they are meant to withstand shock and further surround the HDD wth foam or some sort of shock absorbing enclosure. idk bout the cd/ dvd drive i would think it would skip.
Laptop drives are not as shockproof as many people think, damaged harddrives is very usual in laptops. If you just string the harddrive up in a rubber band cradle the vibrations should not be a problem, i would worry more about moisture, because that can really damage harddrives.
Might want to check out mp3car.com. Lot's of discussion and user experience about this problem. Also a lot of debate as to how to mount it (horizontal or vertical). I lucked out. I found a couple of Hitachi Endurastar J4K20 automotive grade drives on ebay for cheap. A little slow and they consume more power, but so far so good. To test the temp range, I put it in my Nomad Jukebox, stuck it in the freezer until it reached 0f degrees and recorded to it fine. (Though it's lcd didn't like it) There was also recently news of some new automotive hd drive. The specs were a little better than the Endurastar, but I can't recall who's making it.
Hey thanks Ive checked out mp3car.com and there are loads of different ways to do it. Now im just wondering which is the best. There is the silicon bed There is rubber bands http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=580430&postcount=11 There is rubber washer mounts such as http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29938&TabID=1&WorldID=&doy=22m7 Or does it not really matter i personally like the rubber band solution or the washers
Hard to say. There's a good (and complicated) guide here. A PRIMER FOR VIBRATION ISOLATION(pdf) After reading it and figuring that bad dampening is worse than no dampaning, and that it seemed like so hard to get right, I immediately decided to look for one of those Endurostars again. Luckily I happened on them instantly and unbelievable cheap. I thought for sure it was a scam. They were only $60 brand new & shipped a piece but it was legit I think most solutions will help with shock, it's the smaller vibrations that might be problematic over time. As I write this, I checked out that maplin link. They have a HD kit for cheap. Hard Drive Vibration Damper. I'd probably go for this.
I don't see those rubberbands helping anything, chances are it made it worse. I have a 2.5" drive in my dash and a 3.5" USB drive enclosure under my seat. The 2.5" has been daily driven for 2 years, and the 3.5" has been in about a year. I've had no problems at all. Both drives are firmly mounted. The rubber washers may be a good idea, since they wont rebound like the rubberbands. Or those gel bags they use in some laptops will help if your really worried about it
I haven't had any problems with two laptop drives being used in a car. Ones a new 60GB and the other one an old 2GB. I held the laptop that the 60GB is installed in throughout the trip (playing music during the trip). The laptop with the 2GB was simply left on the seat next to me (wardriving using a Mariah Carey wireless adapter and Netstumbler). It was working for several days and no problems. I'm not sure about desktop drives. Obviously, all the ones I dealt with survived car trips when not operating, but I'm not sure about operating. It has been suggested to pack the drives with clothing, but there may be thermal issues. Of course, you could mount a waterblock to the drive and water cool it, although that has problems of its own. As for moisture, you could put the drive into a sealed metal box along with silica gel packets. Just use hot glue or similar to seal the hole for the wiring.
