@tightwad It’s actually a real thing. Hard drives are designed so that the read/write head flies over the platter on a teeny layer of air. The lower density of helium means less drag, so less energy lost (about 20%), and the heads can be moved faster. But the main attraction is increased data density, which is the holy grail of hard drives.
The challenge is that helium is one of the smallest atoms, so it’s difficult to contain. Hydrogen is even smaller, but there are certain drawbacks to using it. Because of its ability to penetrate the tiniest of holes, helium is used in leak detection on vacuum systems. High vacuum that is, not your Dyson.
Obviously if your hard drive relies on helium to function, you want to make sure the helium doesn’t go anywhere. So adequate sealing has been a big engineering challenge. The housings on these helium drives are so different from every other drive I’ve seen, that the first time I picked one up part of me wanted to take it apart to see how they made it. But since they were $300, I refrained.
Sealing is also a 180 degree shift from conventional hard drives which “breathe” through a filter. Because of this, normal hard drives have a maximum operating altitude, typically 10,000 feet. (While I was searching for that number, I found a discussion of someone having hard drives fail in HOURS at 20,000’ !)
Here’s a head crash failure. The dull areas on the platter are where your data used to be. But I’m sure if you could gather up all those little bits of dust and glue them back in the right place, everything would be just fine.
@blaineg After reading your explanation on why helium is better than air, wouldn’t it be even better with a vacuum so there would be zero resistance? Seems to me the sealing for helium would have to be the same for a vacuum.
@cengland0 the way drives work now, the heads need something to “fly” on. It could be possible to build arms that keep the heads at the right distance from the platters without this, but they might not tolerate much in the way of vibration without striking the platters.
This was before SSDs were affordable, and before helium drives existed, but the consensus was that the simplest fix might be to pressurize the server rack.
Actually, in the days when Compact Flash (CF) memory cards were common for digital cameras, before flash-based memory sizes increased to today’s sizes, I recall reading about mountain climbers using Hitachi hard drive-based CF cards in their cameras… and having them crash at high altitudes.
@RedOak it’s oxygen and acetylene in the, erm, balloon. You’re right that it looks like he’s using a mig welder to weld. Maybe when he jumped he pulled back and squeezed the feed, arcing through a good long bit of wire to have it still sparking that much after it’s off the piece and on the ground.
A little helium trivia: Although helium is the 2nd most abundant element in our universe, it’s actually pretty rare on earth and we are running out of it. It’s used in all sorts of science including MRI devices.
At least you saved on shipping costs.
Why does this sound like the Nitrogen in your tires scam?
@tightwad It’s actually a real thing. Hard drives are designed so that the read/write head flies over the platter on a teeny layer of air. The lower density of helium means less drag, so less energy lost (about 20%), and the heads can be moved faster. But the main attraction is increased data density, which is the holy grail of hard drives.
The challenge is that helium is one of the smallest atoms, so it’s difficult to contain. Hydrogen is even smaller, but there are certain drawbacks to using it.
Because of its ability to penetrate the tiniest of holes, helium is used in leak detection on vacuum systems. High vacuum that is, not your Dyson.
Obviously if your hard drive relies on helium to function, you want to make sure the helium doesn’t go anywhere. So adequate sealing has been a big engineering challenge. The housings on these helium drives are so different from every other drive I’ve seen, that the first time I picked one up part of me wanted to take it apart to see how they made it. But since they were $300, I refrained.
Sealing is also a 180 degree shift from conventional hard drives which “breathe” through a filter. Because of this, normal hard drives have a maximum operating altitude, typically 10,000 feet. (While I was searching for that number, I found a discussion of someone having hard drives fail in HOURS at 20,000’ !)
Here’s a head crash failure. The dull areas on the platter are where your data used to be. But I’m sure if you could gather up all those little bits of dust and glue them back in the right place, everything would be just fine.
By the way, when was your last backup?
@blaineg After reading your explanation on why helium is better than air, wouldn’t it be even better with a vacuum so there would be zero resistance? Seems to me the sealing for helium would have to be the same for a vacuum.
@cengland0 the way drives work now, the heads need something to “fly” on. It could be possible to build arms that keep the heads at the right distance from the platters without this, but they might not tolerate much in the way of vibration without striking the platters.
@blaineg @tightwad
People drag their poor, protesting hard drives up Everest and the like?
/giphy cruel
@f00l @tightwad Well they did mention an airplane.
This was before SSDs were affordable, and before helium drives existed, but the consensus was that the simplest fix might be to pressurize the server rack.
@blaineg @f00l @tightwad
Actually, in the days when Compact Flash (CF) memory cards were common for digital cameras, before flash-based memory sizes increased to today’s sizes, I recall reading about mountain climbers using Hitachi hard drive-based CF cards in their cameras… and having them crash at high altitudes.
@f00l @RedOak @tightwad I still have one of those Microdrives, though the capacity is much smaller. Amazing bit of engineering!
@blaineg indeed, I recall being amazed they could fit a hard drive in that space. 'Not sure the 2.5" laptop drive was even “invented” at the time.
Yes, the 2.5" drives were around some time before the Microdrive.
@RedOak I still use CF cards in my digital camera. It’s a Canon 1dx and use a 1000x CF card. Real expensive for those cards so I only have 1.
/giphy floaty
@f00l Acetylene gas? That’s really messed up… but funny.
@f00l @mehcuda67 From the kaboom, that’s an oxygen-acetylene mix, which is even more messed up!
If it were just acetylene, there would have been a lot of sooty, black smoke, and less boom.
@blaineg @f00l @mehcuda67
I’ve been a hack welder as a hobby for for 40 years and still have an Oxy-Acetylene setup.
That looks more like arc-based welding due to the sparks.
Oxy-Acetylene cutting can produce a lot of spatter but the torch is longer than that.
@RedOak it’s oxygen and acetylene in the, erm, balloon. You’re right that it looks like he’s using a mig welder to weld. Maybe when he jumped he pulled back and squeezed the feed, arcing through a good long bit of wire to have it still sparking that much after it’s off the piece and on the ground.
A little helium trivia: Although helium is the 2nd most abundant element in our universe, it’s actually pretty rare on earth and we are running out of it. It’s used in all sorts of science including MRI devices.
@cengland0 I read somewhere that we might have bigger reserves of helium than were previously reported.
Either way, you inhale from the balloon, talk funny, and the gas floats off into outer space. It is important to appreciate.
@cengland0 @InnocuousFarmer When you can’t quite hit those high notes.
@blaineg @cengland0 Bwahahah! That is excellent choir singing there.
@blaineg @cengland0 @InnocuousFarmer
I’m in love with the sound of this choir. : )
@blaineg @cengland0 @InnocuousFarmer clearly lipsync, lol
@mollama You’re probably right but it’s still cute and funny.
Helium is not the second most common element in the universe. The most common element is Hydrogen, followed closely by Stupidity.