Hard disk shock protection

I want to upgrade my internal 80GB Toshiba HDD to a 160GB Hitachi drive.
I have read that the Macbook HDD shock protection system is on the motherboard
and that any drive will be protected. Does anyone know for sure if this is true ?
Thanks, Tom

Thanks, Kappy
On the old Toshiba drive there was a 3 or 4 pin connector that isn't present
on the Hitachi, and I thought this had something to do with the HDSP.
Tom

Similar Messages

What level of disk shock protection is there in Portege R830

Folks,
I work in an area where there are lots of people who carry their Portege Laptops (mostly R830's) around while they're still on - mainly while they're moving from desks to meeting rooms etc, and often carrying them on an angle. I feel a bit silly because I insist on putting mine to sleep before I move it.
What level of disk shock protection is there in these laptops? Am I being paranoid or is everyone else inviting disaster?
Thanks,
Yokki

Hi
First of all its not really good for the HDD if the notebook would be moved while the HDD is in use in such case the HDD read/write head would be affected while carrying along but there is a software called Toshiba HDD protection which use an sensor built in the notebook. the HDD protection detects the vibrations and shocks and automatically moves the HDD head in a safe position to reduce the risk of damage caused by head to disk contact.
Here more details:
+What is TOSHIBA HDD Protection?+
https://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/FAQ2503AZ0000R01.htm

Disk shock protection for Dell laptop

Welcome Archers!
I have laptop Dell Studio 1558. I want to turn disk shock protection.
I read the wiki
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/La … protection
and
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HDAPS
but I do not know what method is good for Dell.
Last edited by e7k (2012-10-04 08:53:31)

I don't think any of those will work for you, Becoz both of them are clearly not targeting dell.
It wont hurt to try, but how will you know that its proctecting your Disk?

How to setup hard drive shock protection with applesmc?

Hi,
I've read that the applesmc module allows to read the motion sensors in intel macbooks. I've checked with lsmod and the module is loaded in my machine.
How do I make sure that shock protection is enabled? AFAIK, there should be a daemon running that reads the sensor data (using the files exposed by spplesmc). Which daemon would that be?
Thanks.

No, I'm not really sure. I'm assuming that's something that the OS needs to take care of since there are posts and articles that talk about how to set it up (All the ones I've found are for the IBM thinkpads)
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Active_Protection_System

Ipod Nano sync error : Hard disk write protected

I have a 2nd gen IPod nano 4 GB. I had Itunes 7.1 installed on my PC when I last synced. A week later my disk crashed and in the new disk I installed Itunes 7.2. When I tried to sync, I get a error message which says " disk is write protected. Please remove write protect and sync again "
Can someone help

No, you can use a third party program like Yamipod, or XPlay2, etc. But I would advise you to download iTunes anyhow, even if you have to go to another computer and then burn it to a CD or something.
12" PB, Mac Mini (x2), G3 iMac (x3), G4 iMac, G5 iMac, Centris 610, SE30, Mac+ Mac OS X (10.4.4) 3G iPod, iPod shuffle, iPod nano

Protecting an external hard disk from copying

I have an external hard disk with 120+GB of teaching resources in what may soon become a semi-open access environment. I would like to set up the drive so that a user can view files on it but not copy them onto a CDR or another external drive. Is this possible? I tried setting "permissions", but I could get the effect I was after.
G4 PowerMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

It isn't possible. If a user has permission to read files on the volume, the user then has permission to copy and save them to another location.
I'd be more worried about your files getting trashed. External drives are very insecure. Even if you try to enforce permissions on them, as soon as the drive is plugged into a Mac, the user will have full read+write access to all its contents by default. That's the nature of external drives.
So I'd start a comprehensive backup regimen to protect the data on the drive, or try a network storage solution on which permissions can really be enforced.

Best protective cases for bare internal hard disks used with drive dock?

I've been noticing that my external, powered hard drive enclosures are taking too much space; plus I think I can save money by plugging internal hard disks into a drive dock such as http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php , then connecting that via FireWire 800 to my Mac Pro.
However, I don't want to leave them exposed when not active. I've searched around and found several options like silicone holders and WiebeTech's VHS-esque boxes, but not a really thorough roundup of protective cases.
Does anyone have any firsthand experience or recommendations for protective cases?

Thanks for the Google Base link, but it doesn't seem to work any more.
I did manage to find some cases from a company called Technology Directions in Melburne, Australia.
I needed something that would sit well on a shelf, but also offer good durability and anti-static protection. I also have some 2.5" drives from notebooks that no longer work, and some 3.5" drives that won't fit into my current system at the same time.
I saw some good reviews, so I ordered a 10-pack and they arrived in under a week, with very reasonable shipping. They came with labels and foam padding (which I only needed for some of the drives). I now have 10 cases holding 14 drives, in protected bliss, on the shelf. I can read the label and instantly see which drive I need, instead of peering into anti-static bags. Highly recommended.

Format a password protected hard disk in Disk Utility in OSX

Well, this isn't exactly old, but I have a Toshiba MK6034GAX Hard Disk drive from a Laptop (It's a 60GB PC Hard Drive), It got replaced one day, as it has the "HDD Password:" prompt at startup on a Laptop computer, and I was wondering how I could format it in Disk Utility (The version in OS X 10.4.11). Is there any utility for unlocking HDDs with the "HDD Password:" prompt for OS X?
Dr. Power User

Use any old utility under OS 9 to erase it, then Disk Utility will not see it as password-protected. You could try Lido or any of the others on this page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/hd.html

How do i retrieve file vault protected files from an external hard disk that used to be my mbp's hard drive? the hard disk got corrupted and will no longer boot. I put it in an enclosure and attempted to copy my files but failed because of FV encryption.

This external hard disk used to serve as the main drive of my mbp. It got corrupted and the OSX would no longer load. I upgraded to a 500gb hd and used the old hd as an external drive. I tried to copy my files but i could not access them because of the filevault encryption. 110gb of hd space appears as used which means that my files are still in the drive. Is there a way to retrieve these files? thanks

According to your post, you're using Leopard, so FileVault only encrypts your user folder (unlike Lion). On the mounted external drive, in your user folder, you should see a file called username.sparsebundle, with username being your user name. Double-click that file to open it and it should prompt you for a password. Type in your password and the file will mount as a volume in Finder. You should be able to copy all of your files over.

How to password protect external hard disk drives

Hi All,
I have purchased and external USB port hard disk. The problem with it is anyone just plug it to thier computers USB port and use it as we use our windows explorer to browse the filesystem. However whenever I plug to my computers USB port it should prompt me for a password and once authenticated it should allow me to browse the filesystem of my external hard disk. How can I achieve this using java ?
Thanks & Regards,
Kumar.

If you really want this to work properly, you will have to write a DLL for Windows that will intercept the appropriate filesystem call and prompt you for a password. Otherwise, another option would be:
Create a standalone Java application that will read/write from the hard drive
Use Java Cryptography extension for all read/writes to the hard drive (encrypt onto hard drive, decrypt into memory or internal hard drive)
Have your sign-on required to use the Java application (and hence, decrypt the contents of the drive)
Use passphrase-based symmetric encryption so that the password can be the actual key for the encryption/decryption (or if you want, have that key unlock a larger symmetric key also encrypted on the drive)- Saish
"My karma ran over your dogma." - Anon

Does iBook Hard Drive: Toshiba MK4025GAS have shock protection?

does the Toshiba MK4025GAS hard drive have the thing where, if you move the computer, the drive mounts and stops spinning to prevent damage?
oh yeah, this is the drive in my ibook g4.

Hey LLL&D and Welcome to Apple Discussions,
does the Toshiba MK4025GAS hard drive have the thing where, if you move the computer, the drive mounts and stops spinning to prevent damage
This is from a post by simie in macrumors.com:
"SMS only exists on iBooks built after July 26, 2005. These iBooks are either 1.33GHz or 1.42GHz. All 1.42GHz iBooks have SMS. Only 1.33 GHz iBooks with a scrolling trackpad, 512MB RAM (stock), and 40GB HDD (stock) have SMS."
And an explanation of how it works by mkrishnan Demi-God (Moderator) in mac-forums.com:
"Well...there are two things. There's the motion sensor. But the hard drive itself is just a normal hard drive. All hard drives can be commanded to "park" their read/write heads. A hard disk works by a magnetic probe/sensor floating over the disk as the disk spins. It can read the HD by reading the magnetic state of the block underneath it, and when a potential is applied, it can change the magnetic state.
Anyway, hard drives often get damaged because this head crashes into the disk and causes physical damage and/or misaligns itself. Parking essentially pulls the head out of the way so this can't happen as easily.
When the motion sensor detects the motion, the software or motherboard or whatever commands the disk to park, and it does. But the hard disk unit itself is identical to any other 2.5" hard disk, and it's mounted in the same way"
I also wondered about this and knew it was in the later iBooks but wasn't sure which ones.
Richard

X61 - Cloning hard disk

Having read through past postings, I have discovered that to clone the hard disk on an X61 to allow a larger drive to be installed, it is necessary to follow these steps:
1. Make an image of the original hard disk in a way that preserves the larger Linux boot sectors.
2. Ensure that the new hard disk is in the X61 when the image is loaded, as the X61 writes the boot sectors in a different way to normal
So what I now need is to identify the best utility to use for the imaging process. Can anyone recommend a utility that can boot from a CD and connect peer to peer to another workstation to dump the image over the network (or alternatively to a locally connected USB drive), and later connect to the remote image and reinstall it to the new drive?
Thanks
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I was successful using Partition Manager 9 - this was a freebie from a magazine cover. It is my experience that for successful cloning, you need to be booting from an external source and not running a utility from the operating system you wish to clone.
The Partition Manager solution includes an iso file to create a recovery CD, which is bootable, and which supports USB connected external hard disks.
I used this to boot my X61 and create a complete hard disk image on my external USB drive. This took several hours, as PM is very slow at around 2Mb per second. I then replaced the hard disk in my X61 with a 320Gb WD drive (the model that has automatic shock protection), booted from the PM recovery CD again, and then reloaded my rather huge image (around 50Gb).
Again, this took several hours, but at the end of the exercise, the whole thing booted up normally and I'm now working with a lot more free drive space.

14 Months and the Hard Disk Fails!!!!!

Well I am raging, I have had the Mac for 14 months now, and at the 12 month point I had the option of extending the warranty, because of Christmas I had only one opportunity to buy over the phone, from a cold call!! Now I never do this and told them that, they said its a one chance only because they are closed over Christmas.
So 2 weeks ago my hard disk failed, its damaged beyond even data recovery!! I have tried to find an online complaints procedure, err none to be found. I think it is shocking that a piece of equipment should fail less than 2 months out of warranty!!
Anyone with any advice for a complaints procedure would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Andy

Had one lady opt out of one on an iPod , Apple only covers for 15 days , something happened on the 17th day , she was out almost 200 bucks and nothing could be done. SOL
Why did you rip off the old lady? Just because she didn't buy the extended warranty?
You are obviously cluelss. The iPod warranty is for one full year, not 15 days.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304869#faq2
"How long is my iPod covered by Apple’s warranty?
Your iPod or iPod shuffle is covered for one year by Apple’s Limited Warranty for iPod. Warranty service for eligible repairs is available at no charge for twelve months from the date of original retail purchase (”date of purchase”). If you have purchased an AppleCare Protection Plan for iPod, there will be no shipping and handling fee. A $29.95 shipping and handling fee will apply to all warranty repairs performed six months after date of purchase."

Comparison of SSD with hard disk drives

Attribute or characteristic
Solid-state drive
Hard disk drive
Spin-up time
Instantaneous.
May take several seconds. With a large number of drives, spin-up may need to be staggered to limit total power drawn.
Random access time[45]
About 0.1 ms - many times faster than HDDs because data is accessed directly from the flash memory
Ranges from 5–10 ms due to the need to move the heads and wait for the data to rotate under the read/write head
Read latency time[46]
Generally low because the data can be read directly from any location; In applications where hard disk seeks are the limiting factor, this results in faster boot and application launch times (see Amdahl's law).[47]
Generally high since the mechanical components require additional time to get aligned
Consistent read performance[48]
Read performance does not change based on where data is stored on an SSD
If data is written in a fragmented way, reading back the data will have varying response times
Defragmentation
SSDs do not benefit from defragmentation because there is little benefit to reading data sequentially and any defragmentation process adds additional writes on the NAND flash that already have a limited cycle life.[49][50]
HDDs may require defragmentation after continued operations or erasing and writing data, especially involving large files or where the disk space becomes low. [51]
Acoustic levels
SSDs have no moving parts and make no sound
HDDs have moving parts (heads, spindle motor) and have varying levels of sound depending upon model
Mechanical reliability
A lack of moving parts virtually eliminates mechanical breakdowns
HDDs have many moving parts that are all subject to failure over time
Susceptibility toenvironmental factors[47][52][53]
No flying heads or rotating platters to fail as a result of shock, altitude, or vibration
The flying heads and rotating platters are generally susceptible to shock, altitude, and vibration
Magneticsusceptibility[citation needed]
No impact on flash memory
Magnets or magnetic surges can alter data on the media
Weight and size[52]
The weight of flash memory and the circuit board material are very light compared to HDDs
Higher performing HDDs require heavier components than laptop HDDs that are light, but not as light as SSDs
Parallel operation[citation needed]
Some flash controllers can have multiple flash chips reading and writing different data simultaneously
HDDs have multiple heads (one per platter) but they are connected, and share one positioning motor.
Write longevity
Solid state drives that use flash memory have a limited number of writes over the life of the drive.[54][55][56][57] SSDs based on DRAM do not have a limited number of writes.
Magnetic media do not have a limited number of writes.
Software encryption limitations
NAND flash memory cannot be overwritten, but has to be rewritten to previously erased blocks. If a software encryption program encrypts data already on the SSD, the overwritten data is still unsecured, unencrypted, and accessible (drive-based hardware encryption does not have this problem). Also data cannot be securely erased by overwriting the original file without special "Secure Erase" procedures built into the drive.[58]
HDDs can overwrite data directly on the drive in any particular sector.
Cost
As of October 2010, NAND flash SSDs cost about (US)$1.40–2.00 per GB
As of October 2010, HDDs cost about (US)$0.10/GB for 3.5 in and $0.20/GB for 2.5 in drives
Storage capacity
As of October 2010, SSDs come in different sizes up to 2TB but are typically 512GB or less[59]
As of October 2010, HDDs are typically 2-3TB or less
Read/write performance symmetry
Less expensive SSDs typically have write speeds significantly lower than their read speeds. Higher performing SSDs and those from particular manufacturers have a balanced read and write speed.[citation needed]
HDDs generally have symmetrical read and write speeds
Free block availability andTRIM
SSD write performance is significantly impacted by the availability of free, programmable blocks. Previously written data blocks that are no longer in use can be reclaimed by TRIM; however, even with TRIM, fewer free, programmable blocks translates into reduced performance.[25][60][61]
HDDs are not affected by free blocks or the operation (or lack) of the TRIM command
Power consumption
High performance flash-based SSDs generally require 1/2 to 1/3 the power of HDDs; High performance DRAM SSDs generally require as much power as HDDs and consume power when the rest of the system is shut down.[62][63]
High performance HDDs generally require between 12-18 watts; drives designed for notebook computers are typically 2 watts.

I wish I could get my head round the SSD vs HDD with a NLE rig. My builder is trying to persuade me to use a Toshiba 256Gb THNSNC256GBSJ for OS and programs, and it is only NZ$20 more expensive than the 450Gb 10k rpm VelociRaptor I was originally planing to use for the OS. That sounds suspiciously cheap to me, and I am concerned about the finite writes to SSD - mainly because I don't really understand it.
The rest of the new build is
3930K
Gigabyte X79-UD5
8 x DDR3 1600
Coolermaster with 750W PSU
Geforce GTX570
I plan to transfer the drives from my current system as a starting point, and reassess after giving it some use. That means
Either the above SSD or 450Gb 10k Raptor for OS (new drives)
300Gb 10k rpm Raptor (currently used for OS in old box)
150Gb 7k4 rpm Raptor (reserved for Photoshop Scratch in old box)
2 x 1Tb WD Blacks (data drives)
2 x 1Tb WD USB3 externals
I don't know how I would configure the drives in the new box, but have seen Harm's table and will try to follow his advice. It's a dreadful thing to admit, but I don't have a backup strategy, and the above drives are well over half full. Well over! And I am only just getting serious about video, (the rest is mainly CR2 files from my Canon 1Ds3 and 1D4)
I know it must be like banging your head against the wall, but should I avoid that SSD and go with the 450G Raptor? I have read a comment that the WD Blacks don't work well as Raid0. Is that BS or true?
I am about to give the go-ahead so need to confirm the spec.

Disk write cache corruption on an external hard disk

Recently I purchased an external hard disk, to put all of my pictures of my baby due to space limitations on my internal laptop drive. Since my Canon camera 10 megapixel pictures take up a ton of space this was occurring at an alarming rate. My intention was also to back up to DVD but never got to it. This is both a comment and a question.
Now said baby, is getting really good at pulling cords etc. He managed to do this on the external drive firewire cable. As far as i know the drive was not in the process of actually writing. However, after a few minutes and trying to re-plug the drive the OS crashed with a Grey Screen of Death hardware error that tells you that you need to push the power button..
This apparently corrupted the drive's directory. Upon reboot the drive would not mount. Since there were time machine backups on the drive too Diskwarrior was not able to reconstruct the drive in the built in memory available on the computer. Time machine stores millions of files and Diskwarrior apparently wants to keep it all in memory at once. Since my computer has 2GB you would hope that would be enough but apparently not. So that failed. Other utilities seemed to be able to find the files but not restore the directory. I also took it to the apple store they were not able to recover it.
I have to say this is extremely distressing, and hard to believe that a simple accident like this could cost the loss of thousands of pictures. I did send it to a rescue company but that was expensive but I think apple needs to do something about this situation.
On Windows there is a way to disable the write cache for external drives. This is not available for Mac OS X. This would prevent this rather common occurrence of a plug accidentally becoming disengaged when the drive is not in the process of writing. This reduces the odds but I still think apple, in order to become clearly superior, needs a better solution.
I know Apple has experimented with ZFS would this not eliminate this possibility of this kind of disaster? Is this in Snow Leopard desktop? I know they are thinking this is a business customer focused technology but clearly if it can eliminate this kind of thing then I think it is extremely useful to their non server customers. Perhaps there are other ways of dealing with this issue but ZFS is designed to deal with these issues. HFS+ is extremely fragile to disk corruption.
I know my situation is not that uncommon and this is not the first time this has happened to me with an external drive. You would think I had learned. I hate to think of how many other people have had the same thing happen to them.

Disabling a write cache would not help you with the problem you are having. Besides the write cache is on the hard drive and operates independently of the operating system. But nothing can protect you from disconnected an external drive improperly, and if the drive is in the process of being written to, and the problem comes from directory corruption, not file corruption, as in the case you have described, disabling a write cache would not have made any difference.
For the future the magic word is: Backups.
< Edited by Host >

Hard disk shock protection

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