Ruggedized Hard Disk Drives Keep Data Safe In Harsh Environments

Conventional hard disk drives (HDDs) are designed to reliably operate in the hospitable physical surroundings of interior deployments, which are typically characterized by mild temperatures, stable humidity and modest levels of vibration. By contrast, outdoor and mobile storage environments can entail anything from sweltering heat or sub-zero frost to oppressive dampness and pounding vibration. And all may be encountered miles above sea level. So it’s no surprise that bringing the benefits of HDD-based storage to outdoor and mobile settings such as automotive, industrial PC, field computing, and military applications poses a formidable challenge to engineers.

How is it possible to maintain the consistent performance and reliability of hard disk drives when they are exposed to such a broad range of harsh external conditions? The solution may be a new breed of purpose-built HDDs, specifically designed to withstand the temperature, vibration, shock, altitude and humidity extremes that are endemic to many outdoor and mobile storage situations. Ruggedized disk drives, like the Seagate EE25 Series™ for example, are being specially designed to ensure reliable performance in punishing physical surroundings. To appreciate the magnitude of this challenge, remember that HDD storage relies on magnetism to store and retrieve data on a drive’s platter(s).

This arrangement is made possible by the extraordinary proximity of the read/write head to the platter surface. Riding a few nanometers above the rapidly- spinning platter, the complex read/write head system has been likened to a Boeing 747 flying at 600 miles per hour — six inches off the ground. A variety of adverse environmental conditions can disrupt this arrangement and prevent a hard disk drive from delivering optimal throughput, reliability and data integrity. The following are brief discussions of the most significant environmental issues facing an outdoor or mobile storage HDD, and how new generations of ruggedized disk drives are employing remarkably innovative designs and technologies to overcome them.