Hard Disk Drive Anatomy
So that you can explain why control of cover within the hard disk drive is not a particularly good plan it’s helpful to understand somewhat precisely a tough disk stores, and accesses, important data.
Within the hard disk drive is really a circular disk which details are stored magnetically that’s then utilized obtaining a read/write mind which hovers within the platter (very close – only according to microns) and interprets the magnetic data. These disks rotate inside the incredibly high-speed (usually 5400rpm or 7200rpm). The circular disk (frequently known as platter) is usually built of aluminium or glass but features a very thin special coating crazy where the details are inside the platter will probably be stored.
This special layer is extremely sensitive these kinds of the speeds in which the patter spins within the hard disk drive may be damaged when using the tiniest of particles for instance dust as well as other airborne contaminants. If you think it becomes an exaggeration then what you need to know reaches 7200RPM some dust hitting against a very thin layer containing your valuable data will probably be travelling inside the incredible speed which spells injuries for your platters surface.
Why A Category 100 Clean Room is important
As highlighted above, when you are getting any small particles of dust in your hard disk drive this makes big trouble once the drive spins again. Within your house or perhaps work you’ll find typically 500,000 one,000,000 airborne particles .5 microns across or bigger for every cubic ft of air – in the event you get rid of the insurance plan inside the drive in this atmosphere you are in big trouble!
A category 100 clean room is really a specialised atmosphere through which there’s under 100 airborne particles (<0.5 microns diameter) per cubic foot of air. It is in these environments in which hard drives are built in the first place – they are assembled fully and then sealed so that no dust particles can enter the drives once they are shipped out to retailers.
If there is ever a need to open a hard drive for data recovery (e.g. a swap of read/write heads or a change of spindle motor) then it must be performed in a class 100 clean room by a professional data recovery specialist or you run the risk of permanently damaging your data. There are of course numerous examples of people on the internet that claim to have successfully opened/repaired drives at home but you can bet for every success story there are probably 100 people that have lost their data for good.
The bottom line is never open a hard drive at home unless you cannot afford to pay for a professional data recovery specialist or you do not consider the data valuable enough to risk losing.