How to Protect Your Hard Drive against Electrostatic Shock
An unbalanced electrical field contains a certain number of electrons which are not paired evenly. As a result, when it comes in contact with another field, the electrons make a rush to pair themselves evenly throughout and equalize the field. This rapid movement of electrons from one field of static electricity to the other is referred to as a shock. We feel it as a tingling sensation when we comb rough and dry hair, or if we walk across barefoot on a dry nylon carpet. School children often do the experiment of running a comb through their hair, and then observing tiny pieces of paper sticking to the comb, which carries an electrostatic field with it. This is also known as Electrostatic Discharge or ESD in scientific terms. It is not at all as harmful as the shock of an electric current which passes through the body at high voltage, burning its way through. We have all read about ESD in our school Physics syllabus, and hardly attach any importance to it. However, for a hard disk, a tiny electrostatic discharge that can be barely perceived by us might prove to be fatally damaging. The contents of a disk are very tiny and finely tuned to any electrical response. As a result, the circuitry of a disk perceives an ESD as a massive blast ripping through it. The memory chips, parts of the processor, and the expansion cards attached to the disk can melt at the force of an impact that may not be strong enough to even to be felt by us. The phenomenon of walking across the carpet as mentioned above discharges about 35,000 volts of static electricity to produce that little tingle. On the other hand, a sophisticated hard disk can be badly damaged at a discharge of as little as 10 volts!
Digital Goods Manufacturers and Electrostatic Shock
Obviously, unlike the everyday home pc user, the manufacturers of digital goods are very aware of this hidden menace. All manufacturers like Apple, Microsoft, Seagate, Hitachi, Dell, IBM, Samsung or Hewlett Packard ensure ESD protection while assembling their products. All manuals also mention the problems that may arise from electrostatic shock, and ask the installer to be careful about it, since it is usually not covered by the machine guarantee. Some companies list precautionary measures to be taken while installing their product, or refer to their own ESD guard for protection. There are a number of products patented every year that offer protection from electrostatic shock, and their details can be viewed if one visits the official as well as private patents websites. This would be helpful for any small or medium digital intermediary manufacturer who is looking for a solution to shock-proof their setup at a lesser cost.
Precautions against ESD for PC Users
A home user cannot afford costly protections against electrostatic shock, nor is it that important. But it is very important to avoid the ‘shocking’ surprise if one discovers that the processor has been blown off inexplicably, and a lot of money would be spent on the computer now. There are some hassle-free precautions one may take to avoid such a situation.
1. A hard drive should be kept in the ESD bag / wrapper / case as provided by the company until you are ready to install it.
2. There should be no high voltage fields near the computer. It is dangerous to have a powerful fan, vacuum cleaner, hair dryer or large battery charger in the vicinity of your pc. This is a very common problem as people prefer plugging in various gadgets into the strip till all of them start getting affected.
3. One should keep touching an unpainted and unvarnished surface like the computer chassis while installing the drive or placing cards on it.
4. The connector pins should never be touched with bare hands. The cabling ends and jumpers available should directly touch the surface of the pins. If you find this operation too delicate and problematic, ask for an installer to come and do it for you.
5. A data or power cable should never be plugged in to the drive without turning off the power from the supply box – this can actually blow the insides of your computer.
6. There are other protective objects such as wrist bands, electrostatic sensitive coating, and special tiles available. However, none of these are fool proof.
The best thing is to follow the precautions mentioned above.
James Walsh
View all articles by James Walsh
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