> "Many PC users think that hard drives are fragile, and generally
> they are one of the most fragile components in the PC. In my
> weekly PC Hardware and Troubleshooting or Data Recovery
> seminars, however, I have run various hard disks for days with
> the lids off, and have even removed and installed the covers
> while the drives were operating. Those drives continue to store
> data perfectly to this day with the lids either on or off. Of course
> I do not recommend that you try this with your own drives ; neither
> would I use it on my larger, more expensive, drives"

I have done this.  I took an old 20Mb drive and removed the cover.  I had it
sitting in my office running continuous chkdsk's (dos, remember?)  It ran
for weeks with no dust protection.  I even blew cigarette smoke at it, and
that never phased it a bit.  Finally, after several weeks, it started to
develop surface errors and bad space.  Everyone else at work was
flabbergasted that it even ran, since we've all heard how bad (and instantly
destructive) dust or smoke is.  They ARE much more durable than people give
credit.

Disclaimer:  this was an old worthless drive, I have no idea how much of
this abuse a modern drive can take.  I suspect not nearly so much.

michael

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