Avoiding the Expense of Data Recovery: Protecting Hard Disk Drive against Electrostatic Shock

Technically speaking, managing the ESD could be too costly, as it damages the devices or components. It may even result in a catastrophic failure, which emerges at once or a latent failure, during which a slow degradation occurs while in use, causing ultimate failure. You may even neglect this, by considering it as absurd or insignificant. But, static shock or the ESD could cause severe damage to the hard disk drives. Just as the lightning bolt damages a tree, the ESD also operates like a bomb exploding in the hard drive, thereby propelling apart several minute components of the circuit board.

The ESD is part of an imbalanced high voltage area on a non-conductive surface such as the carpet, screwdriver or the human hands, moving to a conductive surface in a swift, unrestrained mode. Though this does not harm the human beings severely, it would definitely corrupt the components of the computers. An ordinary human being would feel the static shock, only if the electrostatic discharge is of 3,000 volts; whereas even the lesser charges, much beneath the brinks of human sensation, would damage the semiconductor devices severely. Even the more refined and the latest electronic components could be corrupted by discharges as low as 10 volts.

These static discharges occur when a charge on human body or tool identifies a trail of minor resistance from itself to a drive. If the energy of that charge is bigger than that of the energy the drive can dissipate safely, the damage may occur. The components that are most sensitive to the electrostatic discharges are integrated circuits: memory, processors, the expansion cards and the cache chips. There may be sudden damage causing oxidation, junction breakdown or melting. To your dismay, you could electrocute your hard drive without even identifying it. That is, the effects of electrostatic discharges are complicated to sketch and generally do not damage the drive even after several days or months after the occurrence of the discharge. However, one need not worry, if they follow several trouble-free steps. By following this, they can make sure that they have well protected their computers, thereby avoiding the problems caused due to ESD.

The safest way is to remove the media from the computer. Before moving the system, hard drive or other component, discharge personal static build up, by touching a grounded metal object, such as a plugged-in computer chassis. The hard disk drive should be handled in such a way as an egg would be handled. One needs to handle the damaged hard disk drives just as they would handle the new drives. It is better to keep the hard disk drive in an ESD bag (until you handle it) that is especially intended to prevent ESD. One must always use an ESD wrist strap stuck to an unpainted surface on the computer chassis. If not possible, try to touch an unpainted surface on the computer chassis before handling the drive. One should not use a bare finger or a non-insulated tool; instead, they can touch the connector pins on the drive by using proper cabling ends or jumpers.

It is always wise to protect the hard drive from sources of high voltage power such as fans or vacuum cleaners. It is not advisable to plug a power or data cable into a drive unless the supply to the box is completely off. At last, even by restricting the temperature, one can minimise the electrostatic discharge. That is, by rising the relative humidity of the room, where the system is placed, one can very much trim down the build-up of electrostatic discharge.

Therefore, when your hard disk drive experiences electrostatic discharge accidentally, thereby causing you the data lass, you need not worry. Do not panic. There are several best solutions available just by making a call. There are number of experienced data recovery companies that deal with the damages caused to hard disk drives by ESD. These companies would make use of the latest technology to perform the task of recovering the data. When one contacts these companies, they would help you in recovering the lost data.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on Data Recovery see www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk

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