Hard Disk Drive Myths Debunked

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Brian

the thing is, simply quoting from the report:

The disks are a combination of serial and
parallel ATA consumer-grade hard disk drives, ranging
in speed from 5400 to 7200 rpm, and in size from 80 to
400 GB. All units in this study were put into production
in or after 2001. The population contains several models
from many of the largest disk drive manufacturers and
from at least nine different models. The data used for
this study were collected between December 2005 and
August 2006.

and while it may be true that there are those RE(enterprise edition series by western digital) editions and stuff, somehow i believe that they're referring to the hard drives that are used by us consumers as i don't believe there are any RE editions of hard drives which are 3 or more years old

i don't dispute the 75-80c level, but i'm just questioning the logic of worrying about temperatures say, for a typical system in malaysia, 40c-50c for hard drives and people recommending others to get hard drive coolers as it will supposedly lengthen the lifespan of the hard drive while this report points out otherwise

edit: drive temperatures are taken from SMART

Hmm.. I spoke to a Seagate rep about this. He says that desktop consumer drives were not designed to run 24/7. That's what server-grade drives are for. Also, they do not tolerate rotational vibrations quite as well as server-grade drives.

In any case, while the report has may drives in its database, it only has nine different models and even includes 5400 RPM drives which are slow and cool enough for heat not to be a problem. In fact, heat only became a real issue with the introduction of the 7200 RPM drives.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by 64bit

The guide did not mention the type of format used. There's a "Quick" and "Full" format in Windows. As I know, quick format does not detect bad sector. Does quick format erase the location of the bad sectors previously detected? Which type of format is recommended when doing a reformat?

The type of format didn't matter. In the cases we have seen, the user usually did not know about Quick and Full format or even low-level formatting. All they heard was that ANY formatting inevitably "kills" the hard drive.

[harddiskbug]

Quote:

There are also no such things as virtual bad sectors and physical bad sectors. A bad sector is a sector that cannot be written to or read from properly. It can be due to an eroded media or direct physical damage to the media. It cannot be repaired by any software and formatting will not restore it.

Sir, I would like to point out here, that there is something can be called as "Virtual" or "Logical" bad sectors. As I am a data recovery and hard drive professional, I can sort this out. See, A logical or virtual bad sector is mainly caused by software malfunctions and/or other software related issues. In this case, the sector has no physical problem, but the data on that perticular sector gets currupted sometimes, and when OS or other utitilities issue the command to read that perticular sector, they get negative response from there and show that sector as bad. These type of sectors can be made easily accesible by some "software" or even by formatting (depends, what do you assume by "formatting" here). As, all one need to do is simply re-write that sector by zero or any other byte, and it will be fully accessibe after this rewriting procedure. However, the data will be wiped of that perticular sector. So, If somebody does a formatting (something like zero filling), then he can get rid of those logical bads, without assigning them to any valuable spare sector.

And, even physical bad sectors can be removed !. Well, not just by rewriting, but by adding them into either user level G-List/SMART or factory level P-List (in case of no spare sectors available). Or by editing the drive's zone table. (I did not need to say this, but as you said, that they can't be removed by any "software", So I had to say that ).

So, It's my humble request to edit that info, as it is creating another myth in an attempt to debunk a myth !

Regards
harddiskbug@yahoo.com

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by harddiskbug

Quote:



Sir, I would like to point out here, that there is something can be called as "Virtual" or "Logical" bad sectors. As I am a data recovery and hard drive professional, I can sort this out. See, A logical or virtual bad sector is mainly caused by software malfunctions and/or other software related issues. In this case, the sector has no physical problem, but the data on that perticular sector gets currupted sometimes, and when OS or other utitilities issue the command to read that perticular sector, they get negative response from there and show that sector as bad. These type of sectors can be made easily accesible by some "software" or even by formatting (depends, what do you assume by "formatting" here). As, all one need to do is simply re-write that sector by zero or any other byte, and it will be fully accessibe after this rewriting procedure. However, the data will be wiped of that perticular sector. So, If somebody does a formatting (something like zero filling), then he can get rid of those logical bads, without assigning them to any valuable spare sector.

And, even physical bad sectors can be removed !. Well, not just by rewriting, but by adding them into either user level G-List/SMART or factory level P-List (in case of no spare sectors available). Or by editing the drive's zone table. (I did not need to say this, but as you said, that they can't be removed by any "software", So I had to say that ).

So, It's my humble request to edit that info, as it is creating another myth in an attempt to debunk a myth !

Regards
harddiskbug@yahoo.com

Hello harddiskbug,

Thank you for writing in. We will look into the matter ASAP and have the error corrected!

Do let us know if you know of any other hard drive myth that needs correcting or adding to the guide.

[Dashken]

This guide was written in response to the numerous fallacies about the hard disk that are still being propagated in many forum discussions. Although many articles have covered these topics, it is apparent that hard disk urban legends are still more popular than the simple truth.

So, let's get down to basics and examine some of these common fallacies or myths and debunk them!

Here's a quote from the article :-

"To be honest, many articles have covered these topics. It would have been easy for someone to do a quick search online before imparting their opinions to newbies. Unfortunately, it became apparent to us that some folks just prefer to trust their innate instincts over logic and knowledge. As such, these hard drive urban legends have remained more popular than the simple truth. So, let's get down to basics and examine some of these common fallacies or myths and debunk them!"

Link : Hard Disk Drive Myths Debunked Rev. 2.1

[alpaja]

I heard that the size of the partition formatted effects the performance of a hd, ie 1gb, 2gb, 4gb, 8gb, 16gb, 32gb,64gb,128gb .... partitions perform better

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by alpaja

I heard that the size of the partition formatted effects the performance of a hd, ie 1gb, 2gb, 4gb, 8gb, 16gb, 32gb,64gb,128gb .... partitions perform better

Hmm.. You mean the more partitions you have, the better? That's interesting.

[harddiskbug]

Quote:

Hello harddiskbug,

Thank you for writing in. We will look into the matter ASAP and have the error corrected!

Do let us know if you know of any other hard drive myth that needs correcting or adding to the guide.

Thanks for your kind consideration and quick reply. I will surely think over the matter and will find some more myths to be debunked. As well as, the corrections, which should be made to existing stuff. Anyways, thanks once again to consider it.

Meanwhile, as I can see everywhere on your site (and in your signature too), that you are currently in search for some technical writers. . Well, As I told you previosly, I am in the Data Recovery and Hard Drive related bussiness, so, maybe having some stuff of your interest. . Not a bad idea for the free time. So, do let me know sir, if there is some space in TechARP, where I can do something.

[alpaja]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Hmm.. You mean the more partitions you have, the better? That's interesting.

No, that if the partitions were binary like memory they performed better?

[nexus]

i heard that deep freeze can damage the hard drive

probably myth