Myth #21 :

Scanning for viruses several times a day can kill your hard disk drive.

Truth :

Scanning for viruses is no different from any other operations that requires reading data from the hard disk drive. Therefore, the act of scanning viruses is no less likely to kill your hard disk drive than it is to prevent YOU from catching a cold.

With that said, unnecessarily scanning the hard disk drive continuously will increase the operating temperature of the hard disk drive. Over a long time, the sustained high temperature can reduce the lifespan of your hard disk drive.

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Myth #22 :

"Excessive" head movements are bad/dangerous for high-speed hard disk drives (10,000 rpm and above).

Truth :

The funny thing about this myth is that head movements have little to do with the spindle speed, which is the speed at which the hard disk drive platters rotate. How often the read/write heads move depends on the number of random access operations, not the spindle speed.

As the heads in all modern hard disk drives move by electromagnetic force and are suspended over the spinning platters by a cushion of air, there's no reason why head movements in a higher-speed hard disk drive should be any more dangerous than they are in slower-spinning hard disk drives.

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Myth #23 :

The small holes on the hard disk drive allow dust to enter and damage the hard disk drive.

Truth :

The small holes are called "breather holes" and they are necessary for the proper operation of the hard disk drive. While it is true that any dust entering the hard disk drive can damage it by causing head crashes, it is impossible for dust to slip in through the breather holes because they are protected by an air filter.

The read/write heads float on a cushion of air (an air bearing) which rely on a certain amount of air pressure to work properly. The breather holes allow the hard disk drive to maintain the pressure of air within the drive. As such, they should NEVER be covered.

Again, covering the breather holes will NOT prevent dust from entering the drive because they already have filters doing the job.

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Myth #24 :

It's okay to drop a hard disk drive as long as it is not running.

Truth :

Yeah, right... You just dropped your friend's hard disk drive, didn't you? It's an outright lie and you know it.

Although hard disk drives are a LOT more robust when they are not running, they are still mechanical devices that can only take so much shock.

Even when they are not running, most 3.5" hard disk drives can only withstand shocks of 250 G to 350 G. That may sound like a lot, but acording to Mike from Western Digital, 300 G is only about a 3" (7.6 cm) drop to a hard surface, so it doesn't take much to damage a desktop hard disk drive.

The smaller 2.5" hard disk drives used in laptops are more robust and can take up to 900 G. Even so, you do not need me to tell you that it is not a good idea to drop them, even from a height of "just a few inches".

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Myth #25 :

Hard disk drive companies cheat in the way they calculate storage space!

Truth :

This is partially true. Back in the days when people were still playing RPGs with paper and dice, hard disk drive manufacturers calculated storage space the same way software companies did - 1 MB was equivalent to 1,048,576 bytes. Back then, a 40 MB hard disk drive would actually have 41,943,040 or so bytes of storage space.

Then the hard disk drive manufacturers wised up. They figured out that they could make more money if they calculated things a little differently. Why should they give us 41,943,040 or so bytes of storage space when they can calculate that as 42 MB and charge you for the extra 2 MB?

So they decided that as far as the hard disk drive industry was concerned, 1 MB was equivalent to 1,000,000 bytes. The software industry, of course, had no reason to adopt the new system. This is why your operating system will report that a 750 GB hard disk drive only has a capacity of about 698 GB. No, your mouse did not bite a chunk from your hard disk drive while you were asleep.

Now, you must be wondering why we think this is a myth. Well, it is technically not true that hard disk drive companies cheat in the way they calculate storage space. Think of it as "creative manipulation of reality". Oddly enough, many accountants and stock traders who tried similar things have been thrown into jail.

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Myth #26 :

If your hard disk drive dies, freeze it and it will buy you enough time to retrieve its data.

Truth :

As the myth goes, if your drive dies (for whatever reason) and you cannot access its contents, just chuck it into the freezer for a couple of hours. Once it's nice and cold, quickly hook it up to the PC and it will run for some time, which should allow you to to retrieve some, if not all, of the data in the hard disk drive. The key, apparently, is to do it while the hard disk drive is cold.

As the theory goes, the platters will shrink when they are frozen and become "unstuck" from the drive heads or casing. This would then allow the drive to spin up but only for a short time as the platters would then heat up and expand to their original size.

There has been a significant number of anecdotal testimonies that this method will actually work in some cases. e.g. when the hard disk drive refuses to spin up. The effect is only temporary though, but may be sufficient to allow you to retrieve important data from the failing hard disk drive. Of course, freezing the hard disk drive won't help if the drive has had a head crash or damaged electronics.

However, it now appears that those anecdotal accounts are just flukes of nature because it has been proven that running a frozen hard disk drive will permanently damage it. A frozen hard disk drive that is powered on will rapidly accumulate condensation not only on the outside but also on the platters. The heads will hit the water condensate on the platter surface and crash into the platters, scoring the media as the platters rotate at high speed.

Freezing the hard disk drive in a ziplock or any plastic bag will reduce the amount of condensation on the drive when it's powered on, but it will not reduce the amount of condensation inside the drive as the moisture is already inside the drive before it's frozen. This was confirmed by Western Digital's Product Marketing Manager during our recent Q&A session. You can also see this in action in YouTube.

John Christopher, Senior Data Recovery Engineer at DriveSavers, concurred, stating in an interview with Humphrey Cheung that, "If anyone got it to work, it was pure luck, I can’t find any reasons why it would work and my clean room guys have never gotten it to work". He added that water can condense on the hard drive platters after it has been take out of the freezer. "Then you get water spots which is really bad".

Finally, many hard disk drives use fluid bearings which cannot work below a certain temperature. Freezing the hard disk drive below that temperature will actually prevent the drive from running.

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Myth #27 :

Hard disk drives run better / last longer below ambient temperatures.

Truth :

This is quite a rare myth, possibly connected to the "frozen hard disk drive" myth above. Both are based on the premise that hard disk drives work better when they are really, really cold. The colder, the better.

Hard disk drives can operate at a wide range of ambient temperatures, very often from 0 °C to 60 °C. This is far in excess of the normal room temperature. This does not mean they work best at either extreme ends of their range. The Google report aside, hard disk drives can be damaged by high temperatures. So it pays to keep them cool.

However, freezing them below room temperature using a peltier (thermoelectric cooler) is not advisable as water can condense on the drive or cooler, and we all know that water and electronics do not mix too well. So you had better think twice before you hook up a peltier to your hard disk drive bay!

Remember, unlike ice-cream, hard disk drives really do not need to be frozen.

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Myth #28 :

You will lose 64 KB of capacity every time you format the hard disk drive.

Truth :

Another urban legend used to scare those who are thinking of formatting their hard disk drive. Who likes losing storage space, even if it's just 64 KB?

Well, you need not worry. You will NOT lose any storage space every time you format the hard disk drive.

Note that some of the hard disk drive's capacity will be reserved for use by the file system. So if you see some space "disappear", it's actually being used by the file system.

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Myth #29 :

If you format the hard disk drive more than xxxx times, the platters lose their magnetic properties due to repeated reorientation.

Truth :

Repeated reorientation of the magnetic field on the platters actually reinforces it. Every time the drive heads writes new data to the platters, the reorientation of the magnetic fields refreshes their strength.

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Myth #30 :

Every time you write or modify data, you are burning into a micron-thick layer of metal composite substrate. The more you write or modify data, the deeper you burn into the substrate.

Truth :

This is one of the most ridiculous thing we have ever read. Chosen as a Best Answer in Yahoo! Answers (which makes one wonder about the usefulness of any advice posted there), the author of this piece of tidbit seems to think that the hard disk drive works like a DVD writer, "burning" data into a substrate.

Obviously, it couldn't be further from the truth. Hard disk drive store data using a magnetic media layer on top of the platter substrate. Data is stored by modifying the magnetic orientation in the media. Nothing is ever "burned" into the magnetic media or substrate.

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Page

Hard Disk Drive Myths

1

• Introduction, Questions & Comments, Revision History

2

• Formatting a hard disk drive will kill it!
• Formatting a hard disk drive deposits a layer of dust on the platter.
• Formatting the hard disk drive will stress the head actuator.
• Defragmenting the hard disk drive will stress the head actuator.
• If your drive has bad sectors, formatting it causes more bad sectors!
• Downloading too much *stuff* will reduce your hard disk drive's lifespan.
• Insufficient power causes bad sectors.
• Cheap power supplies will "slowly kill" your hard disk drive.
• Your drive keeps spinning up and down because of insufficient power.
• Head parking is the cause of loud clicks.

3

• The head actuators' motor can fail due to excessive use.
• Frequent parking of the heads will make the head actuators' motor fail earlier.
• The hard disk drive only spins up when it needs to read or write data.
• It is better to spin down the hard disk drive to reduce stress on the motor.
• Sudden power cuts can cause bad sectors!
• Bad sectors can be repaired by reformatting the hard disk drive.
• You can "erase" bad sectors by formatting the hard disk drive.
• You must format your hard disk drive to improve performance.
• The hard disk drive can only be installed in the horizontal position.
• You must reformat the drive in the vertical position before using it in that position.

4

• Scanning for viruses several times a day can kill your hard disk drive.
• "Excessive" head movements are bad for high-speed hard disk drives.
• The small holes on the hard disk drive allow dust to enter and damage it.
• It's okay to drop a hard disk drive as long as it is not running.
• Hard disk drive companies cheat in the way they calculate storage space!
• If your hard disk drive dies, freeze it to retrieve its data.
• Hard disk drives run better / last longer below ambient temperatures.
• You will lose 64 KB of capacity every time you format the hard disk drive.
• The platters lose their magnetic propeties after being formatted xxxx times.
• The more you write or modify data, the deeper you burn into the substrate.

5

• Quick NTFS formatting causes bad sectors to appear.
• Constantly rebooting the computer will damage the hard disk drive.
• Formatting the hard disk drive causes changes in the surface of the platters.
• The hard disk drive is more vulnerable to damage if not installed inside a case.
• Touching the exposed PCB can damage it.
• Shaking or moving a computer that has been put into the Hibernate or Sleep mode will damage its hard disk drive.
• The read/write heads of a hibernating or sleeping hard disk drive sit on the platters for a quicker start-up.
• Hibernating the computer will damage the hard disk drive.
• 4K Advanced Format hard disk drives are faster.
• A higher areal density increases random access time.

6

• Sticking magnets onto your PC will corrupt its hard disk drive's data.
• You can quickly degauss or erase a hard disk drive by sweeping a magnet over it.
• Degaussed hard disk drives can be reused later.
• It is safe to move an external HDD that is still connected to the computer, as long as you first disconnect it using the Safely Remove Hardware feature.
• You can fix hard disk drives by swapping their damaged PCBs.
• 7200 RPM hard disk drives are not good for notebooks because they use more power and generate more heat than regular 5400 RPM hard disk drives.
• 7200 RPM hard disk drives are not good for notebooks because they are more sensitive to shock and vibration.
• Short stroking your 7200 RPM hard disk drive will make it faster than a 10,000 RPM hard disk drive!
• You need to overwrite your hard disk drive at least x number of times with zeros and ones to prevent any recovery of data.
• A 7200 RPM hard disk drive is faster than a 5400 RPM hard disk drive.

7

• A dead hard disk drive can be revived by smacking the drive on the side when it spins up.
• You can rescue your data from a dead hard disk drive by moving its platters to an identical "donor" hard disk drive.
• A computer's weight increases as information is added to the hard disk drive.
• You can overclock your hard disk drive!
• Dust is bad for HDDs so they should always be kept inside a proper PC case.
• The platters spin in a vacuum inside the hard disk drive.
• It is easy for the CIA (or any other nefarious government agency) to recover overwritten data from a hard disk drive.
• If your hard disk drive fails to spin up, knocking it with a hammer will unlock the bearings and get it spinning again.
• Hard disk drives cannot spin faster than 15K RPM because the edge of the platters would break the sound barrier and cause the platters to shatter.
• Never put a tablet (iPad / Nexus / Surface) with a magnetic cover in the same bag with a notebook, or the magnets in their cover will erase the date in your notebook's hard disk drive.

8

• Using an AV-optimized hard disk drive in a desktop / server can cause data corruption.
• You cannot boot off GPT-formatted hard disk drives if you are using Microsoft Windows.
• Vacuuming the insides of your computer will fry the hard disk drive and other components.
• SSHDs are impervious to vibration and shock.
• SSHDs are more reliable than HDDs.