Here’s a question brought up on TPC that I decided to answer:
I saw a video of a guy demonstrating the gyroscopic effect in zero gravity using a CD player, and i tried doing it on my external DVD drive. I have moved it while it’s running before but i’ve always kept it level. When i tried turning it, i was just a few degrees off level and i could already hear the DVD start scraping the sides (It was angled away from the lens so no worries).
The problem is, i have this habit of flipping a laptop over when i’m leaving it on a soft surface to keep the vents in the open (Sofa, bed, mantel, carseat, etc.). I’ve been doing it ever since my sister laptop burned out (as in smoke came out) after she left it on her bed.
How do laptop harddrives handle gyroscopic effects? I’m hoping that what happened to the DVD doesn’t happen to the harddrive since it’s solidly secured but the drive head is also a lot closer to the platter and it’s moving atleast 7,000 rpm.
The demo of the laptop crashing after being subjected to a vibrator has the drive head banging up and down on the platter. I don’t jostle the laptop so there’s not much chance of that happening, but what i’m worried about is the platter hitting the drive head when i flip it.
This is My Answer:
AFAIK, laptop hard drives are built to withstand external forces, but of course not to an extreme. It’s not unheard of to find out about a person dropping his laptop while it was running and it’s still running fine, of course casing might end up cracked and all that.
Noone really has tested, a 3rd party one, this said gyroscopic effect. But I’d say to an extent, laptop hard drives are fairly resistant. Specially the ones built for rugged use.
source: tpc
Here’s a link to a forum discussing a similar topic:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=71911
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