Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
I have a couple of peripheral HDDs to send to a friend. Are they safe going by mail, no issues with X-rays, etc.?
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Is it safe to mail HDDs?
- Thread starter Gawdzilla Sama
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catsmate
No longer the 1
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Not a great idea. X-radiation isn't the problem, rough handling is.
Norman Alexander
Penultimate Amazing
Yup. Head scrapes = head crashes.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
I was automatic with the padded envelope. Elsewhere the suggestion was to wrap the HDD in printer paper, several layers. Dubious.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
AND when I was on active duty we'd get our mail delivered to the ship by ... most expedient means ... and we knew when someone's Mom had sent him a present containing liquid. 
The Great Zaganza
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if correctly powered down, scrapes shouldn't be a problem, as the arm is parked.
Padding is still advisable.
Padding is still advisable.
If they are very old drives you may need to use "park" to park the heads to try and prevent damage toithe platters and heads.
(I doubt they are going to be that old.)
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
The current one is an external, impact resistant design IIRC. It is "old" (in computer years) but has a very large collection of documents for the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) to add to their collection.
Oh, and all drives are "solid state" drives. I'm more worried about electronic corruption sources.
Oh, and all drives are "solid state" drives. I'm more worried about electronic corruption sources.
Last edited:
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Hard disk drives are not solid state drives. They have moving parts. Make up your mind what scenario you're talking about.
catsmate
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Oh well, SSDs should be fine.
Skeptical Greg
Agave Wine Connoisseur
HDD's would be fine if reasonably packaged in shock absorbing material, unless they are 40 years old.
They were shipped by the millions .
What's not hard about an SSD?
They were shipped by the millions .
What's not hard about an SSD?
Norman Alexander
Penultimate Amazing
True, but bumps in specific directions can force the very light arms out of the park position. Next time the drive spins up, the heads might be physically on the platter...zing!
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
The US Post Orifice has bubbly envelopes. As I want insurance I'll have to go to the local one anyway.
Not being an expert on this, so genuinely asking, isn't it possible to send the documents electronically rather than sending the HDD / SSD?
I assume thi data is backed up, it would be unfortunate if it was lost or damaged.
I assume thi data is backed up, it would be unfortunate if it was lost or damaged.
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
Padded envelope, inside a box, with padding. Put and pad that box into a larger box. It's like that earthquake isolation that some buildings use. I've sent some very delicate items this way.
Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
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Nothing, except that's not how the terminology works.
A floppy disk is a magnetic storage device that used soft plastic material to physically support the magnetic medium. A hard disk is a a magnetic storage device that used a hard metal disk to physically support the magnetic medium. Nobody uses floppy disks anymore, but hard disks are still used in hard disk drives (HHD) (the drive being the device that reads and writes data from/to the disk). The "hard" is relevant in distinguishing hard disks from floppy disks.
Solid state drives are in a sense "hard" (chips don't flex), but they are not disks. Hence no "disk" in the name. And they aren't referred to as "hard" because there are no floppy solid state drives they need to be distinguished from, and because the "hard" in hard disk drive is in reference to "disk", not "drive".
Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
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Solid state drives use NAND flash memory, just like cell phones, USB memory sticks, and digital cameras. Flash memory is fairly tolerant of x-ray exposure, at least at the levels used for package screening, airport security, etc. Data is stored as charge in a transistor array, and in principle, x-rays can knock electrons out of where they're supposed to be in a circuit, which can in some cases lead to flipped bits. But even the newest NAND devices still use hundreds of electrons per bit, so knocking a few electrons out of place won't be enough to flip a bit. And the x-ray screening devices just don't have that high an x-ray flux. So yeah, you can ship an SSD through the mail, and you don't really have to worry about data corruption. SSD's are pretty impact resistant too so if it's adequately packaged to prevent actually being smashed, you don't have to worry about that either. The real risk, which I believe someone mentioned already, is simply the package getting lost. If this data is truly irreplaceable, I'd back it up before shipping, but otherwise you shouldn't have any problems.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
Back it up to dropbox, and the recipient can just download it at their convenience.