Laptop vs. Desktop Drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Justin
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J

Justin

Are laptop drives any more durable than a desktop drive?
I'm not talking about solid state.
Everyone I know seems to be getting these 500GB portable drives. I just
have a hard time thinking a desktop drive will react well to being
transported constantly, even if they're turned off.
 
Justin said:
Are laptop drives any more durable than a desktop drive?
I'm not talking about solid state.
Everyone I know seems to be getting these 500GB portable drives. I just
have a hard time thinking a desktop drive will react well to being
transported constantly, even if they're turned off.
Click to expand...

A laptop drive has

1) Better shock spec (factor of 3)
2) Higher start/stop cycle spec (factor of 12)
3) Lower power (factor of 2 to 5)

The laptop drive may not match the performance level
of the desktop drive, but with the sluggish performance
of some backup software, that might not be an issue. For
performance numbers, this is one source (site uses popup
advertising).

http://www.storagereview.com/Testbed4Compare.sr

For enclosures that don't pay attention to proper cooling,
a 2.5" drive is likely to last longer.

With a proper enclosure, there is no reason to fear using
a 3.5" drive. The trick is finding a good enclosure. A
good enclosure is likely to be bigger than you planned on.

Dropping a steel ball bearing on a steel plate, has a
deceleration of around 1000G. (As demonstrated in my
Physics 100 class by our professor.) The 3.5" drive has a
shock spec of 350G (2 milliseconds) when in a non-operating
condition. All it takes, is some deformable material, to
afford sufficient protection (i.e. don't drop metal frame
of drive onto a metal plate).

You can see in this picture, how a retail hard drive is
packaged so it survives the trip to the consumer. The plastic
shell protects the product from a fall from the shelf to the
floor. As long as the plastic packaging is not "cut or bruised",
the product would be safe to buy. You want your enclosure to
have some attention to this as well (avoid solid metal
path from drive to environment, in the hope of staying
below the 350G shock spec for a non-operating drive).
It doesn't take much deformable material, so stay below
350G.

http://www.futureshop.ca/multimedia/products/large/10099566.jpg

Paul
 
Paul said:
A laptop drive has

1) Better shock spec (factor of 3)
2) Higher start/stop cycle spec (factor of 12)
3) Lower power (factor of 2 to 5)

The laptop drive may not match the performance level
of the desktop drive, but with the sluggish performance
of some backup software, that might not be an issue. For
performance numbers, this is one source (site uses popup
advertising).

http://www.storagereview.com/Testbed4Compare.sr

For enclosures that don't pay attention to proper cooling,
a 2.5" drive is likely to last longer.

With a proper enclosure, there is no reason to fear using
a 3.5" drive. The trick is finding a good enclosure. A
good enclosure is likely to be bigger than you planned on.

Dropping a steel ball bearing on a steel plate, has a
deceleration of around 1000G. (As demonstrated in my
Physics 100 class by our professor.) The 3.5" drive has a
shock spec of 350G (2 milliseconds) when in a non-operating
condition. All it takes, is some deformable material, to
afford sufficient protection (i.e. don't drop metal frame
of drive onto a metal plate).

You can see in this picture, how a retail hard drive is
packaged so it survives the trip to the consumer. The plastic
shell protects the product from a fall from the shelf to the
floor. As long as the plastic packaging is not "cut or bruised",
the product would be safe to buy. You want your enclosure to
have some attention to this as well (avoid solid metal
path from drive to environment, in the hope of staying
below the 350G shock spec for a non-operating drive).
It doesn't take much deformable material, so stay below
350G.

http://www.futureshop.ca/multimedia/products/large/10099566.jpg

Paul
Click to expand...


so that blister shit that people cut their fingers off opening actually
has a purpose.
 
Justin said:
so that blister shit that people cut their fingers off opening actually
has a purpose.
Click to expand...

You know, when I went to that shop recently, I walked right by
that rack and didn't even recognize the product as containing
a hard drive. I had to go over to the counter and ask where the
hard drives were, and one of the staff walked me over. I couldn't
believe what I was looking at - mainly because I normally buy raw
mechanisms in the antistatic bag, with no mechanical protection at all.

When I got it home, and struggled to get it all apart, I
was impressed with the cleverness of the package. The plastic
is two layers, shaped to provide some reinforcement, so in fact it
isn't a single bubble. That is what gives it the strength to be
dropped on the store floor. If it was just a single layer,
it might not be as resilient.

I'm actually impressed by it now, after having to cut through it :-)

Paul
 
Are laptop drives any more durable than a desktop drive?
I'm not talking about solid state.
Everyone I know seems to be getting these 500GB portable drives. I just
have a hard time thinking a desktop drive will react well to being
transported constantly, even if they're turned off.
Click to expand...

I've got a 20M MFM in an as-new working Toshiba 8088 laptop next to my
foot. Even will optionally boot up into a Toshiba-DOS ROM routine
thing. Least last it was I looked maybe a decade ago. (SS drives are
so kewl. Loving to death a new USB 16G Patriot stick I got from
Newegg this week $20 shipped. 3x faster than my re-writable x4-DVDs
and NERO. Great for a non-wireless way into the entertainment box
across the room.)

Portable's got to be as fine as you treat it. I distance HDs as much
as possible and/or set up fans for optimal heat dissipation latent to
any particular case. Expecting to leave them running well forever is
well within considerations, as, of course, is reasonable handling
without any undue roughness.

Never broken a laptop and mostly managed to salvage off old HDs into
budget system sells apt to last a buyer 5 or more years.

I wouldn't personally consider a portable setup until I'd researched
the construction for heat dissipation, and haven't much tow for
chinchy miniature fans, at all.
 
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