Dangers of mobile Hard Drive?

[feeras]

Hi,

I'm planning to buy a hard drive with a external case (USB2/FW). Now I realise that hard disks are pretty fragile things - I've lost one recently when my pc was on and it fell on its side, killing the hard disk. I was just wondering, what are the dangers for having an external hard disk? I remember years back when people would park the "head" of the hard disk. Is this still available? Could people with an external hdd give me some of their experiences - preferably similar to what I want to buy as I know that there are some complete external units available (eg. Maxtor).

Appreciating any advice!
Kien

[holistic]

Harddrive are not are fragile as you might think.

From the Maxtor site , The DiamondMax® Plus 9 spec sheet.

Temperature
Operating (°C) 5 to 55
Non-operating (°C) -40 to 71
Shock
Operating Mechanical Shock 2ms (G) 60
Non-operating Mechanical Shock 2ms (G) 300

I use a USB external for storing copies of my files : email, word docs, excel etc.
The enclosure has taken a fall (about 3 feet onto carpet) and still keeps on tickin'. (note : tickin' as in "timex watches - takes a lickin keeps on tickin')

Realistically think it through : Laptops use harddrives , are constantly on the move, bump ...bump.... know of any issues with them??.

][

Also .......

....I know that there are some complete external units available ...

Any drive will do ,all you need is the enclosure. You can buy them separately then add the drive.
EG: http://www.orangemicro.com/fw800usb20hd.html
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/usb_hard-drive.html


Firewire recommended . Oh ! and before the question is asked. NO No NO firewire it is not faster than an internal IDE drive.
800Mbps firewire is "megaBITS" or 800/8 = 100Mb/sec MAXIMUM .

[redwudz]

I have used a small mobile 2.5 inch 10 Gig hard drive for 2 years without any problems. It is surrounded with a silicon rubber cover and has USB2 and Firewire connections. Works great. Never dropped it on the floor, but I don't drop my cameras, CD players or the like. It has knocked around in my softside luggage quite a bit, though.

Edit: If you want something almost indestructable, you might look into a flash drive. Plugs into a USB port. 512Meg about $130US. 1Gig a bit more, but you can't hurt them.

[Solarjetman]

I don't have external drives, but I do have a removable tray drive (which would be even more stressful) and have not had problems.

As long as you don't put unnessisary strain on it, like throwing it haphazardly in your backpack, dropping it, doorstop, etc... you should be ok.