Myth #41 :

Sticking magnets onto your PC will corrupt its hard disk drive's data.

Truth :

This myth warns against sticking decorative / refrigerator magnets on the PC's case, as the magnets could corrupt data stored in the hard disk drive inside.

Fans of fridge magnets can rest easy though - these magnets are weak and their magnetic fields cannot penetrate the PC's case, much less the hard disk drive itself. In fact, some magnets are so weak that they cannot stay in place if you insert more than a piece of paper or two under them!

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Myth #42 :

You can quickly degauss or erase a hard disk drive by sweeping a magnet over it.

Truth :

This myth was popularized by movies where hackers or criminals would quickly erase the contents of their hard disk drives with a few sweeps of a powerful magnet. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to do it with regular magnets, no matter how big they are.

Every hard disk drive actually contains two powerful neodymium-iron-boron magnets that control the movements of the read/write heads. Yet the data on the platters remain unaffected. It will take a very, very powerful magnet to affect the data inside the hard disk drive.

There have been anecdotal evidence that you can erase data off a hard disk drive using neodymium magnets. In most cases, the hard disk drive was demonstrated to stop working after a neodymium magnet is passed over the top. However, the magnet merely corrupted the servo data embedded onto the platters. This renders the hard disk drive unusable, but with most of the data on the platters still intact.

Even in cases that successfully demonstrated the erasure of data off the platters, they involve directly rubbing both sides of the hard disk drive with a neodymium magnet for 30 seconds or so. Definitely a lot more work than just sweeping over the drive with a magnet!

However, there is no guarantee that all the data has been wiped off the drive. It is possible that only outer surfaces of the top and bottom platters were wiped clean, leaving data on the other platter surfaces intact.

For reliable data erasure, you will need to use a professional degausser that's designed to erase hard disk drives. Alternatively, use a software hard disk drive eraser or the built-in Secure Erase feature in most hard disk drives to overwrite the data.

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Myth #43 :

Degaussed hard disk drives can be reused later.

Truth :

Degaussing a hard disk drive not only erases its data, it also erases the factory-written servo tracks. This renders the hard disk drive unusable unless it is reformatted by the hard disk drive manufacturer to restore the servo tracks.

That's why software-based solutions like Secure Erase (freeware utility) are a far better option than degaussing, unless you intend to dispose of the hard disk drive after wiping out the data.

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Myth #44 :

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.

Truth :

We have seen people claiming that disconnecting an external hard disk drive using the Safely Remove Hardware feature in Microsoft Windows will also power down the drive, allowing it to be safely moved while remaining connected to the computer.

We have no idea why you would want to do that (move the external HDD while it's still connected to the computer) but you should know that the drive is still spinning even if you disconnected it using the Safely Remove Hardware feature.

The Safely Remove Hardware feature does not turn off or spin down the connected USB drive. It merely ensures that all outstanding operations are completed and the drive is no longer accessible in Windows, thereby preventing further transactions to and from the drive. This allows you to safely disconnect the USB drive without losing data.

You can easily bust this myth by attaching your external HDD to the computer and then disconnecting it using the Safely Remove Hardware feature. After that, place your fingertips on the drive itself - you will still feel the vibrations from the actively spinning hard disk drive inside.

If you really need to move the external hard disk drive, just do it gingerly. Or disconnect it from the computer, move it to the new location and then reconnect it. Seriously - it's an external drive. It's designed to be disconnected and reconnected...

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Myth #45 :

You can fix hard disk drives by swapping their damaged PCBs.

Truth :

This is partially true. Some hard disk drives can be repaired by simply replacing the damaged PCB with one from the same model, preferably from the same batch. There are online stores selling replacement PCBs for this purpose too.

However, many hard disk drives now store calibration data on the PCB. Replacing the PCB with another PCB from a hard disk drive of the same model will likely fail as the calibration data for each hard disk drive is unique to the drive.

If you have a hard disk drive with a bad PCB and sensitive data, you can try the PCB swapping method. However, chances are it will not work if the drive's unique calibration data is stored on the PCB itself.

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Myth #46 :

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.

Truth :

It is true that 7200 RPM hard disk drives use more power and generate more heat than 5400 RPM hard disk drives. In fact, it is only logical that a hard disk drive with a faster spindle speed (and a more powerful motor) would use more power and generate more heat than a hard disk drive with a slower spindle speed (and a less powerful motor). However, there are two caveats.

1. This generalization is only accurate if we are comparing 7200 RPM and 5400 RPM hard disk drives of the same generation. HDD manufacturers improve the power consumption and thermal output of their drives every generation. Therefore, a 7200 RPM hard disk drive can actually use less power and generate less heat than a 5400 RPM hard disk drive of a previous generation.
    
2. This generalization also assumes that both 7200 RPM and 5400 RPM drives have the same number of platters. A 7200 RPM hard disk drive using only a single platter would likely use less power than a 5400 RPM hard disk drive using two platters.

Even if we are comparing current generation hard disk drives with the same number of platters, we must note that current 7200 RPM hard disk drives use less power and generate less heat than older 5400 RPM hard disk drives. If those older 5400 RPM hard disk drives are suitable for notebooks, why not the newer 7200 RPM hard disk drives?

For example, the 750 GB Western Digital Scorpio Black, which spins at 7200 RPM, uses just 1.75 W during reads and writes. The one-generation older 320 GB Western Digital Scorpio, which spins at a more sedate 5400 RPM, actually uses 2.5 W during reads and writers. In other words, the 7200 RPM Scorpio Black uses 30% less power than the 5400 RPM Scorpio!

Instead of relying on such generalizations, it is best to compare the specifications and read reviews of the hard disk drives you are interested in buying, whether it is a 5400 RPM or a 7200 RPM hard disk drive. You should also base your purchase decision on whether you need the improved performance that a 7200 RPM hard disk drive can provide, and whether you can afford the price premium.

That said, this myth has some truth in basis. Some notebooks have very poor internal designs - placing hard disk drives in poorly ventilated areas, or near heat-sensitive components. As a result, they may have certified these notebooks to use only 5400 RPM hard disk drives. Upgrading such notebooks with 7200 RPM hard disk drives may cause an excessive build-up of heat, causing problems like crashes or palm/lap burns.

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Myth #47 :

7200 RPM hard disk drives are not good for notebooks because they are more sensitive to shock and vibration.

Truth :

This myth is based on the idea that a higher spindle speed would cause more damage if the drive's read/write heads hit the platters due to shock or vibration.

Well, a head hitting a platter spinning at 7200 RPM will definitely cause more damage than a head hitting a platter spinning at just 5400 RPM. However, this only addresses the amount of damage sustained if one of the read/write heads hit a spinning platter.

The fact of the matter is we do not want the head to hit the platter at all. A head crash is considered a catastrophic event, whether the platters are spinning at 7200 RPM or just 5400 RPM. Even if the head crash doesn't kill the drive immediately, it greatly reduces the drive's health.

The hard disk drive's spindle speed ultimately has no effect on the risk of a head crash. This is why the rated shock tolerance for 7200 RPM hard disk drives and 5400 RPM hard disk drives are the same.

In other words, there is no reason to avoid 7200 RPM hard disk drives merely on the assumption that they are more susceptible to shocks or vibration. They are as susceptible as 5400 RPM hard disk drives. If you want to protect your data - treat your drives right, no matter what their spindle speed is. Equal rights for all HDDs! :)

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Myth #48 :

Short stroking your 7200 RPM hard disk drive will make it faster than a 10,000 RPM hard disk drive!

Truth :

This myth has been going around for years. We actually dealt with this topic in our Modding A Barracuda 7200.11 Into A VelociRaptor article and The Hard Disk Drive Short Stroke Guide. However, the idea that you can short stroke a 7200 RPM hard disk drive into a 10,000 RPM hard disk drive is still making its rounds in various forums and articles. Even Seagate repeats it for marketing reasons.

Short stroking a hard disk drive is a technique used to improve the drive's performance by limiting the movement of the read/write heads as much as possible. In other words, it aims to shorten the stroke of the drive heads, hence its name. This reduces the effect of the read/write head's seek time.

Short stroking definitely improves performance and believe it or not, most of us are already short stroking our hard disk drives without knowing it. However, it is categorically wrong to say that short stroking will turn any 7200 RPM hard disk drive into the equivalent of a 10,000 RPM hard disk drive, much less offer better performance.

For more information on short stroking your hard disk drive, we recommend you read our Hard Disk Drive Short Stroke Guide. To read our debunking of the fallacy that short stroking can turn a 7200 RPM drive into a 10,000 RPM drive, click here.

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Myth #49 :

You need to overwrite your hard disk drive at least x number of times with zeros and ones to prevent any recovery of data.

Truth :

In the age of rampant corporate espionage, government snooping and even nosy tabloids, we rely on a variety of tools to protect sensitive data from prying eyes. This includes software to erase and overwrite decommissioned hard disk drives multiple times (up to 35 times!) before they are sold, donated or physically destroyed. However, all that sanitizing has been proven to be overkill and a complete waste of time.

A 2008 study by computer forensic experts Craig Wright, Dave Kleiman and Shyaam Sundhar R.S. found that when a hard disk drive is completely overwritten even once, the probability of a single bit of data being recovered is 56%. However, to recover a byte would require the correct head positioning to be precisely repeated 8 times, reducing the probability to just 0.97%. The probability of recovering anything more than a single byte is virtually zero.

It is an open secret that data recovery companies cannot recover data from hard disk drives that have been overwritten with zeros (or ones, if you prefer) just once. Phil Bridge, the Managing Director of Kroll Ontrack UK has publicly said that they are not able to recover data after a zero fill, which is the modern iteration of the low-level format.

According to Heise Security, which reviewed the paper in 2009, it is much more important to erase the entire hard disk drive, rather than just certain portions. Deleting files or even folders can leave the data lingering in shadow copies, back-ups, temporary files and even the paging file.

Therefore, the safest thing to do is to perform a low-level format of the hard disk drive with the free utility provided by your hard disk drive manufacturer. This overwrites every bit on the drive with a zero. Just make sure you use the latest low-level format utility provided by your hard disk drive's manufacturer!

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Myth #50 :

A 7200 RPM hard disk drive is faster than a 5400 RPM hard disk drive.

Truth :

If all other factors (areal density, platter size, etc.) are the same, a hard disk drive with a higher spindle speed will be faster than one with a slower spindle speed. However, the spindle speed alone is never a foolproof indicator of a drive's performance level.

A higher spindle speed only guarantees a faster random access time for a particular platter size. It is unaffected by other factors, like number of platters, platter size, cache size, etc. This is why a faster spindle speed is always desired in servers where random access performance is far more important than raw transfer rates.

The track-to-track seek time and the raw transfer rate benefit from a higher spindle speed as well, but they are also affected by areal density, which is basically the number of bits stored in a given area. All other factors alike, a higher areal density will reduce the track-to-track seek time and increase the raw transfer rate.

Things get even more complicated when you involve different platter sizes. The larger the platters, the higher the overall transfer rate - much more at the outer tracks but less on the inner tracks. In other words, a 7200 RPM hard disk drive will improve random access performance but it will not guarantee that the drive will be faster than a 5400 RPM hard disk drive in other aspects.

For example, compare the performance characteristics of two 3.5" hard disk drives - the 2 TB WD Caviar Black (WD2001FASS), which spins at 7200 RPM; and the 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4 (HD204UI), which spins at just 5400 RPM.

The WD Caviar Black drive was over twice as fast than the Samsung EcoGreen F4 at random accesses, but when it came to pure transfer rates, the Samsung EcoGreen F4 was actually 7% faster than the WD Caviar Black, despite its 25% slower spindle speed!

This is why it is important for those who value performance to actually read reviews on the hard disk drives they are interested in. Even drives from the same family often have different characteristics and therefore, differ greatly in performance.

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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.