According to relevant researches, in comparison to heat, humidity can make more serious damage to a hard disk drive (HDD). Therefore, in this article, we will probe into how humidity damages hard drive.
The article “What Is the Safest Temperature for Your Hard Drive” has introduced a lot about how overheat can destroy a hard disk drive (HDD). Also, in reality, a majority of users have already realized the danger of overheat. However, actually, similar to heat, humidity can cause destructive damages to HDD, too. And even it has been proven by some specialized researchers that humidity is a more knotty and common hard drive killer. Are you still suspicious of this? Just read on to get more details.
High Humidity
If you store the hard drive in an environment where the air around is very humid, you should look out for the drive. For example, if the hard drive is adjacent to a humidifier or you stay in a tropical jungle, over time, the water in the air can be accumulated inside the hard drive and continuously corrode the components in a gradual manner. And finally the drive will be broken one day.
Besides, as we all know, hard disk drive has Printed Circuit Board (PCB), which is controlling the electricity. The water in air can condense inside the disk with time, thereby resulting in a short circuit and PCB corruption. In this situation, the drive can stop working in a jiffy.
Low Humidity
Many users may mistakenly think that only high humidity can make damage to a hard drive. Not like that. In fact, too-low humidity can destroy the hard drive, too. In contrast, extremely low humidity generates a less evident or visible risk. That is static discharge. As we all know, in a pretty dry environment, static can built up considerably easily. Hence, when humidity drops surrounding the hard drive, if a static shock attacks the hard drive, there will be disastrous effects.
Conclusion
Depending on all above, you should ensure the appropriate humidity around the hard disk drive – not too high and not too low. It is highly advisable to keep your hard drive in 45-to-50 percent humidity. You should not use a drive above 80% humidity because that is the highest humidity which a drive can withstand. Plus, if you inevitably need to store a drive in low humidity below 35 percent, due to worsened risks, you had better keep it unpowered all the time. It is the only way to evade static damage. In a nutshell, please keep HDD in a proper environment – not overheated or not humid. Otherwise, it will be more prone to corruption. At that time, in face of physical damages, data recovery, like Outlook recovery, could be quite difficult.
Author Introduction:
Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including sql repair and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com
Leave a Reply