Lead shot in hard drives? Why??

G

Greysky

Guest
I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost. To my
surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections visible.
Anyone have an idea??
 
ive opend a drive with them
inside, i think there for air filltering.

"Greysky" <greyskynospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:4ApGd.12149$5R.11151@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost. To
my
surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections visible.
Anyone have an idea??
Click to expand...
 
Greysky wrote:

I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost. To my
surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections visible.
Click to expand...
Those are to absorb any moisure in the air inside the drive.
 
Greysky wrote:
I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost. To my
surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections visible.
Anyone have an idea??
Click to expand...
Silica Gel, to absorb moisture.
 
"Greysky" <greyskynospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:4ApGd.12149$5R.11151@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost. To
my
surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections visible.
Anyone have an idea??
Click to expand...
Desiccant to suck up any moisture. The container was likely over the vent
hole, which is usually covered with a fiber paper material to act as a
filter.
 
Jeff wrote:
"Greysky" <greyskynospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:4ApGd.12149$5R.11151@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...

I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost. To

my

surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections visible.
Anyone have an idea??




Desiccant to suck up any moisture. The container was likely over the vent
hole, which is usually covered with a fiber paper material to act as a
filter.
Click to expand...
The lube on the disc surface tends to turn into mayonnaise, leading to lots
of stiction problems in tropical climates. Leaving disc drives in a
warehouse in Singapore for a few months is an excellent lube torture test.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs
 
In article <5BPGd.8882$pZ4.7557@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
no_one@earthlink.net says...
on the disk spindles, not the heads.
Click to expand...
Where on the spindles? "Stiction" was cause by the heads dragging/stuck
on the platter. Since heads no longer touch the platter stiction
shouldn't be a problem.

Top-posting sucks.

--
Keith
 
Keith Williams <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

AIUI, at least the last few generations of drives have parked their
heads off the platter.
Click to expand...
They don't. Maxtor's latest Maxline III and Diamondmax 10 don't. Seagate's
latest Barracuda 7200.8 doesn't. Some of the high end Hitachi drives do.
 
In article <i18ou09v0q0ioircv6krqah2f1l0c7f03o@4ax.com>,
nospam@nospam.invalid says...
Keith Williams <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

AIUI, at least the last few generations of drives have parked their
heads off the platter.

They don't. Maxtor's latest Maxline III and Diamondmax 10 don't. Seagate's
latest Barracuda 7200.8 doesn't. Some of the high end Hitachi drives do.

Interesting. I know the last few generations of IBMs (with the glass
Click to expand...
platters) did. I (wrongly) assumed it was the norm these days.
Thanks.

--
Keith
 
Keith Williams wrote...
nospam@nospam.invalid says...
Keith Williams <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

AIUI, at least the last few generations of drives have parked their
heads off the platter.

They don't. Maxtor's latest Maxline III and Diamondmax 10 don't. Seagate's
latest Barracuda 7200.8 doesn't. Some of the high end Hitachi drives do.

Interesting. I know the last few generations of IBMs (with the glass
platters) did. I (wrongly) assumed it was the norm these days.
Click to expand...
They park off the active data-writing area, IIUC. BTW, Hitachi bought
IBM's hard-drive division, so "IBM drives" are sold as Hitachi drives.


--
Thanks,
- Win
 
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:18:21 -0800, Winfield Hill wrote:

Keith Williams wrote...

nospam@nospam.invalid says...
Keith Williams <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

AIUI, at least the last few generations of drives have parked their
heads off the platter.

They don't. Maxtor's latest Maxline III and Diamondmax 10 don't. Seagate's
latest Barracuda 7200.8 doesn't. Some of the high end Hitachi drives do.

Interesting. I know the last few generations of IBMs (with the glass
platters) did. I (wrongly) assumed it was the norm these days.

They park off the active data-writing area, IIUC.
Click to expand...
No, that's parking the heads in the "landing-zone". The more recent IBM
drives retracted the heads so they never touched the platter.

BTW, Hitachi bought IBM's hard-drive division, so "IBM drives" are
sold as Hitachi drives.
Click to expand...
Sure.

--
Keith
 
on the disk spindles, not the heads.


"keith" <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.01.17.03.12.41.412156@att.bizzzz...
On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:42:59 -0500, Phil Hobbs wrote:

Jeff wrote:
"Greysky" <greyskynospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:4ApGd.12149$5R.11151@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...

I recently tore apart a 80Gb Maxtor hard drive that gave up the ghost.
To

my

surprise, inside the device, near the electronics, was a clear plastic
container with a glued on plastic lid. Inside this box was a lot of tiny
round pellets which looked like lead buckshot. Does anyone have any idea
what these are for? There were no obvious electrical connections
visible.
Anyone have an idea??




Desiccant to suck up any moisture. The container was likely over the
vent
hole, which is usually covered with a fiber paper material to act as a
filter.



The lube on the disc surface tends to turn into mayonnaise, leading to
lots
of stiction problems in tropical climates. Leaving disc drives in a
warehouse in Singapore for a few months is an excellent lube torture
test.

Hmm, last I knew they no longer put "lube" in the platters. AFAIK, the
current drives all have head retraction and don't use any gunk on the
drives. Stiction is a long solved problem (head design and parking).

--
Keith
Click to expand...
 
In article <pan.2005.01.19.03.37.48.292053@att.bizzzz>, keith wrote:
On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:18:21 -0800, Winfield Hill wrote:

Keith Williams wrote...

nospam@nospam.invalid says...
Keith Williams <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

AIUI, at least the last few generations of drives have parked their
heads off the platter.

They don't. Maxtor's latest Maxline III and Diamondmax 10 don't. Seagate's
latest Barracuda 7200.8 doesn't. Some of the high end Hitachi drives do.

Interesting. I know the last few generations of IBMs (with the glass
platters) did. I (wrongly) assumed it was the norm these days.

They park off the active data-writing area, IIUC.

No, that's parking the heads in the "landing-zone". The more recent IBM
drives retracted the heads so they never touched the platter.
Click to expand...
And if the head lands in a "landing zone", can the head suffer any
damage?

I am curious since I still do some things that make some use of a
roughly 260 MB drive of late 1993 vintage, although I mostly use drives a
lot more recent than that (80 and 120 GB)...

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)
 
keith wrote...
They park off the active data-writing area, IIUC.

No, that's parking the heads in the "landing-zone".
Click to expand...
Right, which is well off the active data-writing area.

The more recent IBM drives retracted the heads so they never
touched the platter.
Click to expand...
And IBM added the feature of parking the drive heads whenever a
slight motion of the laptop is detected, on the assumption it's
falling to the floor, etc. This new feature is so sensitive that
one soon learns not to even shift the laptop about on one's lap,
or at least to do so very gingerly, to avoid the safety shutoff.


--
Thanks,
- Win
 
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