Totally bare hard drives - looking for ideas

[Patrick]

Hey all,

I now have some WL 4TB drives, WD Red 4TB drives and a WD RE 4TB drive all sitting next to one another.

I was thinking of connecting them all running them idle for a bit, then running bad blocks. Both at idle and bad blocks taking thermal images.

Any idea what might happen running the drives not in a proper enclosure? Maybe on an insulating mat?

I have never tried this method.

Regards,
Patrick

 

[PigLover]

They will be fine. I test new drives like this all the time. Easiest to just sit them on their back so you don't need to worry about insulation (metal side down). Mild vibration from drive activity for a short time (couple of days running badblocks) won't damage them.

 

[Chuckleb]

I agree. Seeing that I have them sitting in toasters all the time as well, this works. The biggest dangers to the drives are heat and vibration. Since you want heat, bare is perfect. Usually I use a computer case fan attached to an extension cable or two to cool on my workbench. For vibrations, these are pretty rugged, especially the ones you are testing. The electrical thing has concerned me but has never been a problem.

Here's an example about 3 weeks ago when I migrated data to the WL drives. You see the WL drives in front and Hitachi Coolspin drives in the other stack . Needed the ports. Ikea bin rocks for height. Wouldn't do this long term (>1 week).

 

[Chuckleb]

This line of thinking made me curious so I downloaded a vibration recording app for my Android phone and set it on top of a hard drive on my workbench. I didn't have any crappy hard drives around to compare but from what I could tell, there is no noticeable vibration difference between a 4TB WL, 2TB WD RE, 3TB WD Green drive. Badblocks is sequential so little head movement, I should try to plot it with some 10kRPM drives and random seeks. I think that's where the vibration comes into play most often, that and the vibration of everything together inside of a case with big fans, etc.

I have a good butcherblock counter from Ikea that dampens the overall room vibration pretty well too. I'll have to see if I can convert these data into a graph but it's relatively flat. BTW, I think that the Ikea Trofast boxes above increase vibration

 

[Diavuno]

Yeah, I too frequently run drives with no enclosure.

Often I just put them on cardboard or mouse pads. (Helps with vibrations)
Both materials are non conductive.

I'd never stack them myself.

 

[Chuckleb]

I agree on the stacking... This was a worse case due to my ability to rip out the molex connector on the HDD cage. I had to get the other drives online somehow and not enough room to spread them out.

 

[rubylaser]

These are so cheap, I bought one for home for testing drives.
SANS DIGITAL HDDRACK5 5-Bay

That being said, I've stacked drives for years in testing and never had a problem.

 

[Chuckleb]

You rock. Just totally solved a problem that I didn't know I had.

 

[Patrick]

These are so cheap, I bought one for home for testing drives.
SANS DIGITAL HDDRACK5 5-Bay

That being said, I've stacked drives for years in testing and never had a problem.

I have seen those before. I just set this up with the WL and WD Red 4TB drives. Did the rubber mat method just so I can take a side by side picture.

 

[Chuckleb]

Random quick question Patrick. Do the red and WL weigh different? I noticed my previous RE drives weighed more than similar but never bothered to check. Don't have any 4TB RE or would check.

 

[Patrick]

I do not have a scale at home (would have been a good thing to ask for on the registry huh?)

The difference in temps is clear as day though.

BTW - TweakTown Enlarged Image

Exact same PCB and casing as the WL drives.

 

[Patrick]

Just as a FYI - hands on both the Red drives and the RE/ WL drives (they are the same) and there is significantly more vibration from the WD Red drives.