Is it okay to leave a hard drive sitting out on a shelf somewhere? I mean, if there's dust around, will it be okay? Can the dust just be brushed off, and it will work fine? Or is it better to enclose it somewhere? Do they sell cheap enclosures for hard drives, just to keep them safe?
well i am not sure, but better not to take chances. just put it into an anti-static bag and put that on the shelf or in a box or something
Okay, that's what I figured. So is there anything more durable than an anti-static sleeve, that the drive comes in? These drives might be carried to a friend's house or something, so I'd prefer something that is more durable than...a sleeve. Not to say that they'll be dropped or anything, but even a thin plastic case would give it a little bit of protection if I banged it by accident or something... I might need a few of them for different hard drives, too... Plastic case, soft zipper case, whatever... Anyone know where I can get them?
If dust was a problem to HDDs we would all be having problems, most computers act like hoovers. HDDs are sealed units apart from a little hole used to compensate for atmospheric changes, though apart from a negligible amount of air (and water if you submerge it apparently) nothing can get in or out of it. When it comes to shock HDDs are able to put up with nearly 4 Gs when off as the head is docked (if you saw how postal services treated packages you would understand that they can take a lot of damage), the only real danger comes when they are running. The only real danger comes from, as mentioned, static to the PCB on the underside of the HDD, though many have this covered already. Therefore an anti static bag is fine, maybe then put inside a jiffy bag/box too. If this is too much hassle there are enclosures available (you could even get one that quientens and cools the drive - though these are quite expensive) or if you take the HDD about a lot a caddy - though unless you want to have to keep removing it from the tray your m8 would have to get on too. Bear in mind though that both of the last solutions mean the HDD would have to go in a 5 1/4" inch bay.
Well, I have access to a bunch of smaller hard drives, and I'd like to copy my entire DVD collection to them, and then get one of these (Link to review / in-depth look). Problem is, with these free smaller drives (40-ish GB), I will need a bunch of them. I'd just need a place to store the extra ones that are already full of movies / whatever else... And as they'd be moving around, I'd like a case of sort, but not an enclosure or anything. Anyone know of anyplace that sells like... $4.00 plastic hdd holders?
If you're carrying around lots of video it'll probably be worth you investing a few quid for a 250gig+ drive with enclosure. A cheaper WD or maxtor one should do as it won't be accessed as much as an internal drive. Not sure, but you could also get away with a 2mb cache drive if you're just transfering large files.
Well, why buy a 250GB, when I could have a FREE 250GB, just in 6 different drives? I don't mind switching them in that enclosure, I just want a way to protect them when they're outside of said enclosure.
