Inside the Hard Disk... Where Is My Data?!

Sooner or later, your hard disk will fail. This shot, shows the remains of a hard disk which has had the platters removed for recovery, then allowed to gather dust as it won't be used anymore. I suppose I shot this as a warning to others about backup, and the potential for technology to fail. It's also a chance to show how, despite our digital age has (surprisingly) seen a resurgence of analogue tech like the old LP player, the differences might not be fundamentally that different. I strove to show this, as some might, at first glance, see a record player, rather than a broken hard disk.

Some vaguely interesting facts.. for those who may not know:

Unlike the record player, where the needle drags along the grooves in a track by design, the spinning platters in a (working) hard disk create a circulating airflow within the drive, and the heads glide like aircraft on the wind currents.

Which is why, if you unplug your drive before "ejecting safely" (which involves finishing any data transfers, and parking the read-write heads OFF the platter), the wind dies and they can end up grinding against the platter, potentially damaging your precious photos. The black bits at the tip of the read head as shown in the immage are actually "bumpers" should this occur.. but they frequently break and end up leaving debris throughout the drive, causing greater problems for the drive.

Most rotating drives spin at either 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute, and the data track width is measured in mere nanometres, couple this with the heads floating all of 4-8 nanometres above the platter, getting the right data, putting it into a coherent structure, requires a huge amount of precision, and reliability.

Interestingly, new studies have shown that vibrations, such as loud music, sirens, and the noise of gases escaping an oxygen-deprivation fire suppression system has often done more damage to server storage drives than the fire.

Remember to backup! Drive recovery by anyone reputable is expensive, and any drive out of warranty is a drive where even the manufacturers won't support!
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