Lightning damage to USB drives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Doe
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J

John Doe

Anybody know of a USB flash drive being damaged during a typical
electrical storm or whatever other common electricity surge? (I'm not
talking about a lightning strike close enough to destroy the whole
computer.)

I'm wondering about the possibility that a hard drive and a USB flash
drive could be destroyed at the same time, given the flash drive is
always attached to the USB port, and whether that has in fact ever
happened.

Thank you.
 
John Doe said:
Anybody know of a USB flash drive being damaged
during a typical electrical storm or whatever other
common electricity surge? (I'm not talking about a
lightning strike close enough to destroy the whole computer.)
Click to expand...
I'm wondering about the possibility that a hard drive and
a USB flash drive could be destroyed at the same time,
given the flash drive is always attached to the USB port,
Click to expand...

It can happen if the lightning strike kills the power
supply and massively over voltages the 5V rail.

It would be safer to put the flash drive on a powered USB hub.
 
It would be safer to put the flash drive on a powered USB hub.
Just wondering Rod, how'd you come to that conclusion? More than likely the
usb hub will be plugged into the same electrical source as the PC and
therefore also be effected by the by the power surge. Would it not?

- Mike
 
Michael Kennedy said:
Just wondering Rod, how'd you come to that conclusion? More than likely
the usb hub will be plugged into the same electrical source as the PC and
therefore also be effected by the by the power surge. Would it not?

- Mike
Click to expand...

Wall warts have pretty good safety measures.
 
I had a lightning strike near the house and it blew out several things in
four houses total, mine got the worse of it.

However, my computer was on a UPS and the network connection went to a
router then to the modem.

The UPS, cable modem, and router were fried (along with other things in the
house) but the computer itself was unaffected.

So, I doubt a normal electrical storm, etc. would blow out a drive or USB
drive.

-g
 
Michael Kennedy said:
Rod Speed wrote
Click to expand...
Just wondering Rod, how'd you come to that conclusion?
Click to expand...

For the reason I mentioned in the quoting you snipped and I have restored.
More than likely the usb hub will be plugged into the same electrical source as the PC
Yes.

and therefore also be effected by the by the power surge.
Click to expand...

Nope, not when its a simple wall wart plug pack for the powered hub.
Would it not?
Click to expand...

Fraid not.
 
And computer SMPS dont?
Click to expand...

Nope, quite a few of the cheap ones die very spectacularly
indeed, over voltaging what is powered from them.

Transformer based wall warts are much less likely to be
damaged by the sort of lightning damage he was asking about.
 
geoff said:
I had a lightning strike near the house and it blew out several
things in four houses total, mine got the worse of it.

However, my computer was on a UPS and the network connection went to a
router then to the modem.

The UPS, cable modem, and router were fried (along with other things
in the house) but the computer itself was unaffected.

So, I doubt a normal electrical storm, etc. would blow out a drive or
USB drive.
Click to expand...

Pity about those used without a UPS.
 
hmm.. I would have thought otherwise. I guess you learn something new every
day.

- Mike
 
That makes sense when I think about it... You're saying the SMPS will
essentially blow up and allow unregulated current through where as the
transformer will continue to reduce voltage although not all the way to 5v
it will still probably be in the safe range for the flash drive.
 
That makes sense when I think about it...
Click to expand...

Yeah, its more subtle than it looks initially.
You're saying the SMPS will essentially blow up and allow unregulated current through
Click to expand...

No, I am saying that that CAN happen. ATX power supplys are supposed
to be designed to not let that happen, but it does happen, particularly with
the cheapest power supplys that are pared bad component wise.
where as the transformer will continue to reduce voltage although not all the way to 5v it will
still probably be in the safe range for the flash drive.
Click to expand...

No, its more complicated than that too. A transformer based wall wart
wont usually get damaged by that sort of lightning strike he asked about,
essentially because the spike has to get thru the transformer to damage
the voltage regulator. That isnt likely because of the massive impedance
of the transformer to the spike. And even if the voltage regulator does get
zapped, the most that you can get on the output is the unregulated voltage
which wouldnt normaly be more than about 10V at most with a 5V plug pack.
Whereas with the ATX SMPS that has been killed by the lightning strike,
the unregulated over voltage would likely be a lot higher than that and
with much more current available too.
 
Rod said:
No, its more complicated than that too. A transformer based wall wart
Click to expand...

Well, but most wall warts are SMPS based too these days. On the other hand,
even SMPS use transformers. So I doubt there´s a difference.

Sebastian
 
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