Hard drive are high tech

[blakerwry]

I was just reading through some hitachi hdd data. They compare the distance between a hdd platters and it's reading heads to various other objects....

They give an example of an Jet airliner having to fly 1 inch above the surface of the Earth.


This exerpt shows that a mere finger print smudge is some 200 times taller than the distance between the hdd head and disk surface.

 

[jtr1962]

The jet airliner analogy is wrong. Consider that a hard drive head is moving at about 80 mph relative to the platter when on the outer rim of a 7200 RPM hard disk, and is "flying" at a height of perhaps 1 um. A more accurate analogy would be an airliner flying at 7 um, or 0.00028", since the airliner moves about 7 times as fast as the hard drive platter. Or put another way, if you were to scale up the head to the size of an airliner, then it would be indeed be flying at a height of about 1 inch, but at a speed of 3,000,000 mph! So either way, the analogy is wrong.

In any case, this just goes to show what an incredible piece of engineering a modern hard drive is, all the more so when you consider their low price and high reliability.

 

[time]

I like the idea that a single bacterium could cause a head crash.

Actually, if we translate the head distance to ceiling height in our world, the bacterium would be as big as a 10 to 200 storey building. :eek4:

 

[Tannin]

Good post, Blake. Thankyou. Time we brought ourselves up to date from the hoary old comparisons that we used to read in ST-225 days.

Time, one wonders if a virus might be a more appropriate cause. With that in mind:

Head gap: 40nm
Large virus: 250nm
Small virus: 20nm
Maximum resolution of an electron microscope: 2nm
Maximum resolution of an optical microscope: 500nm

 

[blakerwry]

I like the idea that a single bacterium could cause a head crash.

Actually, I kind of like to imagine that the bacterium would take a spin on platters and jump the head as it comes by. ...kinda like jump rope.


... from the reference point of the platters, the head does come by.... 7200 times a second on my drives. -That a fast jumping bacteria

 

[Tea]

Hot damn that's a seriously fast hard drive, Blake! In fact, it's approximately 28.8 timez fazter than my X15. Iz it for sale by any chance?

 

[Buck]

Wooooweeeeeeeeee - 7200-rps; access time must be amazing!

 

[Handruin]

I was going to say the same thing...that's one hella fast drive...432,000 RPM's is amazing! The wine from that motor must drive all the dogs crazy in your neighborhood.

 

[Buck]

I don't know Handyruin, it depends how sour the wine tastes.

 

[Handruin]

I don't know Handyruin, it depends how sour the wine tastes.

:sqnt:

Thanks bucky

 

[blakerwry]

you guys are cruel... you know what I meant... 7200 times a minute...

or approx 120 times a second.

 

[Buck]

you guys are cruel...

. . . and unusual (read my signature)