Power being cut from HDD's bad?

[NineLives]

My power has cut out like 3 times in the past 3 days... other than data loss, can it damage my 2 HDD's physically?

I have a mirror of my C drive on my D drive lol, thats my only back up as of now. (steam games take up SO much space)

The head parks itself if power is cut to prevent a head crash right? Where does it get that power? LOL?

[ilya]

Don't worry about it until it happens A LOT. I'm talking in the realm of what you've experienced, but continuing non stop for months.

When power is cut from your PC, lots of capacitors still hold a residual charge that can keep the system going for a small fraction of a second. But in the case of the hard drive, there's a magnet that parks the head automatically whenever there isn't any power supplied to the drive. You can try pulling the power plug from a drive and you'll hear a quiet clack during the spindown.

Bear in mind the magnet is not meant to save your drive every time, after time it can damage or misalign the head.

[NineLives]

Originally Posted by ilya

Don't worry about it until it happens A LOT. I'm talking in the realm of what you've experienced, but continuing non stop for months.

When power is cut from your PC, lots of capacitors still hold a residual charge that can keep the system going for a small fraction of a second. But in the case of the hard drive, there's a magnet that parks the head automatically whenever there isn't any power supplied to the drive. You can try pulling the power plug from a drive and you'll hear a quiet clack during the spindown.

Bear in mind the magnet is not meant to save your drive every time, after time it can damage or misalign the head.

I actually remember that happening with my PS3, I'd always hear a clunking noise. Thanks man. How much is too much though LOL.

It probably happened like a good 15 times for the 8-9 months i've had my new PC... as for my old pc I was like 12 or 13 when I got it, and I used to force shut down the thing thinking it was okay. That DELL and its harddrives have experienced a 10 foot drop (within the case), and probably close to 100+ power cuts rofl.

[ZZLEE]

a "UPS" Barttery back up power supply will help .

NCIX.com - Buy APC BACK-UPS ES 650VA 390W UPS 8 Outlet 365J Canadian Version - AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION - BE650G-CN - in Canada


Like that

[PeopleCanFly]

Sounds like you should invest in a UPS if you want your computer to last. Constant blackouts and even brownouts can do some pretty nasty things to your computer if it happens a lot.

[LarkStarr]

if you're so worried, buy a small UPS that can shut down the computer in an event of a power outage.

that wasn't cool, guys.

[JD]

Personally, I'd be phoning your electricity provider and asking them what the hell is going on...

That surely doesn't seem like reliable service and I'd expect some discounts in return.

But yes, as the 3 other posts say, a UPS will help protect your electronics but you should really figure out the root cause to all these power outages.