Drop Proofing A Hard Disk Drive

When was the last time you dropped your desktop PC? When it was running? Never you say? Well the hard disk drive in your desktop PC probably doesn't need drop protection while running. During shipment anything can happen and hard disk drives (HDDs) are designed to withstand the more common shock experienced during shipping. PCs are packaged with that in mind too and since most of today's PCs have a plastic case, they must protect the case as much as the HDD inside.

If I asked the same questions about your laptop, you, like most, probably have dropped your laptop at least once and perhaps even while running. The latest technology laptops today contain a drop sensor that permits the processor to detect a drop and shut down important parts of the machine, specifically the hard disk drive.

Now let's talk about your MP3 player or cell phone. How many times do you drop that device PER WEEK? Again, if you're like most folks, it's not if you dropped it but how many times or how recently. Designing a hand held device, like a PDA, cell phone or MP3 player with a hard disk drive requires designing in some kind of drop protection.

Until now, that protection usually consisted of some foam isolation, and/or some plastic suspension that "gives" when the unit hits a hard surface thus reducing the exterior shock force to a smaller value than is tolerated by the HDD.

Thanks to some new technology from Hitachi Metals, the drop sensor technology that is used in the laptop computers described above, has been reduced in size so that Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) can place that sensor in the new Microdrive® 3K8 as an optional feature called Extra Sensory Protection™ (ESP). This means that the hand held units can now have more storage in a smaller space and still have a high degree of shock tolerance.