Hard-Drives: Probably a Dumb Question

[fallenangle]

This is probably going to appear a bit thick but I've not had much experience buying hard drives and there's something I don't understand about the way internal HDDs for sale are displayed on eBay, Amazon or wherever.

The majority are shown with their internal workings open to the elements, the rest have full metal covers in place. Why? Are the former actually sold open like that for some reason?

Increase my knowledge please.

[charlesr]

No, they are sealed in a dust free environment. Any particle of dust will completely destroy a drive if it gets under the "needle". Getting one open is almost impossible with a vice and some serious hardware. It just looks more exciting in pictures I think.

[capcom_suicide]

No, they are sealed in a dust free environment. Any particle of dust will completely destroy a drive if it gets under the "needle". Getting one open is almost impossible with a vice and some serious hardware. It just looks more exciting in pictures I think.

Yes, also quickly shows if it is a traditional mechanical drive or more modern solid state disk (memory chips, rather than spindle.)

[superkully]

You don't need a vice to open a hard disc,we opened a few old ones at work - those magnets in them are lethally strong :-)

[fallenangle]

That is what I thought about the vital importance of keeping them dust free internally which is why it seemed and still seems odd that the majority being sold are displayed that way. It is just weird that you'd try to sell something which if it had actually been opened up like that would almost certainly be ruined. But if that's how it's mostly being done who am I to point out the irony?

I have this image in my mind of some thick HDD seller on eBay looking at how others have illustrated their listing and taking their HDD apart so they can photograph the inside. Could have happened and you'd probably never know

Anyway thanks for enlightening me people.

[superkully]

It would be a truly feckless person who did that, a bit like opening a box of photographic paper to take pics...