Noobish question on hard disks

[digitaloracle]

My computer sits on a second story directly over our washing machine, wich can vibrate quite violently while running. Could those vibrations, when transferred through the house then up my case, cause any damage to the data on my hard disk (which was running at the time) that a scan disk would not reveal? I am not particurally knowledgeable about the inner composition of hard disks, hence my question. My instinct is no, the vibrations I can feel through my floor are not insanly high frequency, the type of vibration that would be most dangerous to a drive.

 

[horris1st]

Erm.... well if you were recording data it might cause the heads to jump slightly resulting in data being recorded in the wrong place. Have you had any problems? gd Q nether the less....

To be quite honest the magnets are pretty strong to hold the heads in place, so my bet is that it should be fine.

The vibrations cant be that strong to lose your data... i think....

 

[digitaloracle]

No, the PC was sitting idle. I have actually been using the disk during this time in the past, but so far have had no extreme problems. I am principaly worried about the coating on the disk itself being damaged/dislocated. It defrags without any errors (I mention this because this would physically read and move data about the drive, so might be a good way to expose corruptions).

 

[horris1st]

Ah rite. No it wouldnt harm the drive. If its in operation then i still think it would,nt. Just think of a laptop in a car, or even on your lap, its being moved and jerked around all the time... It would cause any harm to your hard drive.

 

[deadweight]

your hard drive is the most susceptible device when it is on, and moving your case is not recommended for any reason when your computer is on. if you were able to run the utilities (scandisk and defrag) without any problems, i highly doubt there has been any data corruption. i do suggest you move either your tower or washing machine if youre paranoid enough but i dont think you'll have any problems. Have you been seeing anything that might be signs of hard drive failure?

 

[digitaloracle]

No, no loud clicks, random crashes, read/write errors or anything like that (that have been reported anyway). Paranoid would be a good word for me when it comes to data.
LOL laptops. A friend once had his brick of a pentuim (yes pentium) laptop booting while he shook it violently to see if a part was loose. I guess they probably don't make 'em like they used too when it comes to that!

 

[horris1st]

LOL... hehe, i own an IBM t20, old thing, and i ve droped that one two or three times from my lap when the cats flipin knocked somthing over, and ive rushed to stand up not realising i have a laptop on my lap. lol. Still works fine, on the other hand id not recomend dropping your laptop down the stairs, not a gd idea at all......

 

[TheMajor]

I think those vibrations are pretty dangerous.

 

[horris1st]

lol, the vibrations from chucking it down the stairs maybe...... lol, didnt seem to mind being droped though.

Although the screen did turn blue for a while...... hum...