Joel Kolstad wrote:
"Anthony Fremont" wrote in message
...
Just tipping a drive over on a hard table (like one in an external
case that has 0 shock protection, like most of them have) can kill
the drive by subjecting it to hundreds of G's of impact. If it's
running, it's almost a guaranteed a head crash.

I can pretty much vouch for that... I tipped one like that over a
couple years ago (it was a Buffalo Drivestation -- no internal
padding), and while it didn't immediately die, it became unreliable
and many files were no longer retrievable. So it probably had a head
crash -- just not one that completely trashed the head.

I'm also guilty of one having a hard drive just sitting on a case's
frame (the case cover removed) and bumping it a bit such that the
frame shorted across the drive's controller board, immediately
killing it. :-) In that case a controller board swap brought it back
to life.

Every one I've seen is just an aluminum case with absolutely no shock
protection at all. For some reason, the manufacturers like to have you
stand them up on edge. Really dumb IMO.