How much shaking will kill your HDD ? Answer below.

[trs96]

I've seen so many failed laptop hard drives over the years that I always thought any movement while it is accessing data would essentially make it a brick, ready for the recycle bin. I've always wondered about this but never tried the "experiment" on an old clunker drive. It was quite surprising what it took to completely disable the laptop HDD shown in this video. If you want the Spoiler Alert, to completely kill your HDD quickly, remove the cover and get some dust and/or debris in there and then try to keep it running normally.

 

[trs96]

Here's a well done video if you'd like to learn how mechanical hard drives work, reading and writing data.

 

[Gigamaxx]

If the computer or laptop is not turned on then it should not be a problem with minor shaking. It’s when it’s spinning at 5400-7200 rpms and being shook that’s when you are taking a bigger risk.

 

[k7james]

In my experience, just lend your portable hdd to my sister. I've yet to get a working drive back from her. She could do data destruction for the government.

 

[rwillett]

I thought that most hard disks (nor SSD's) could survive a 300G shake. Thats quite a lot, you and I would probably be dead by then.

I'd be astonished if you could shake a HD to generate 300G shock, though dropping onto a rigid floor from a certain height would do this. My maths is shaky as I try to recall converting mass to energy and how fast it would need to accelerate in gravity to hit the right speed.