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Thread ID: 53411	2005-01-16 22:45:00	Buying old hard drives	mejobloggs (264)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
314892	2005-01-17 00:52:00	John: Extreme changes in temperature are probably not the worst thing; it's the moisture in the air which could give problems with condensation . Drives are not hermetically sealed . They "breathe" through a small vent (and filter) . In the days of MFM drives, Byte magazine carried horror stories about computers left in a car overnight in winter, taken inside and powered up, with immediate disk crash . But that seems the wrong way around to me . . . The suggestion was made that a drive being brought inside should be kept in a ziplock bag, and left in it until it had come up to inside temperature . My feeling is that it would breath out as it warmed up . Going the other way seems to me to be the risk . It's got warm air (which might hold a fair amount of water vapour) . When it cools down, it will suck in cold (drier) air, but the moister air has probably condensed out some of its water (on the walls of the case, I hope;)) even before that happens . It doesn't seem to be a much "reported" problem these days . MFM drives were pretty flakey anyway . :D They crashed on the slightest provocation . :( An interesting question . I wonder what the answer is . :D Of course, you are prudent to store the backup ina different building from the computer . Many computers have been stolen with their handy accessories . A backup disk is best not handy .	Graham L (2)
314893	2005-01-17 01:22:00	Unless the air is considerably more humid indoors than in the car, I don't see any reason to seal the whole lot up in a bag and, although the case and air within would warm before the space and metal within the HDD, of course things will equalise in time. I would imagine that as the HDD cooled in the car it is possible for dew point to be reached, thus moisture condensing on the parts inside. Warming above dew point allows water vapour to be formed once more, the dew point being varied by the amount of moisture present. If the air is at or close to vapour saturation then perhaps it will have to be expelled in some way before it's safe to use, boiling the moisture out of the HDD would work nicely, eh :thumbs: but then you'd have to seal it to stop the moisture returning as it cooled and pressure dropped. :D	Murray P (44)
314894	2005-01-17 03:41:00	Nah, its not for backup, its just to hold a 3gb Windows XP program with a program that the company came to install, and doesn't give you any way to install it yourself. I thought I could just stick that onto the 4gb drive, and just boot it up everytime I need it, which is about once a month. I have made a complete mess of the 40gb drive, so I want to format it and start again. yeh shop around a new 40gb hdd is only about $80 these days...... The thing is, I don't really want to spend $20, I have no job, and my money seems to be falling through my pocket somehow :( Guess I will have to get a job then ay? Thats why im only going for a 4gb drive.	mejobloggs (264)
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