Is older simply better? A story under the influence of a certain beverage...

[carum carvi]

Yes, yes, we all have a drink sometimes and once I was pretty intoxicated and I accidentally BAKED my 10 year old external harddisc in my microwave. How could anyone in their right mind put a harddisc in their microwave? I dit it once. And it SURVIVED. Honestly. It survived a 220 Celsius (equivalent Fahrenheit pizza temperature).

How could I have ever been so stupid to put my harddisc into my microwave? First of all, I was extremely busy with MANY tasks. I was reorganising my entire storage room. I had many things in my hands simultaneously. At ONE certain moment I had my external harddisc in my hands, with lots of other things on my mind as well. The first thought in my mind was NOT to forget WHERE I stored my external harddisc, because it was valuable. Since I use my microwave regularly and I was standing in front of my microwave at that very moment I though it would be a GOOD idea to TEMPORARILY put my external harddisc into my microwave so I would not forget where I put it.

HOLD ON, Hold on. Dont be judgemental right away. Remember I was under the influence of a particular beverage, with a certain amount of alcohol involved AND I was in a hurry. NOT a good combination.

Anyways, in the end I literally / physically BAKED my Samsung external harddisc for 10 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius (Fahrenheit Pizza temperature) BUT it SURVIVED.




NOW COMES THE GOOD PART:

After my external harddisc was baked at pizza oven temperatures I ran an error test. It worked perfectly.

I also ran an error test on some other (newer, NON baked) harddiscs and they had MORE errors, much more errors than my oven baked external Samsung harddisc.

That Samsung external harddisc was over 10 years old and BAKED at 220 degrees Celsisus, Despite that, it was still (according to error tests) more reliable than the newest NON baked harddiscs.

Is older really bettrer when it comes to harddiscs?

[Hoser Rob]

... Is older really bettrer when it comes to harddiscs?

No, you were just one lucky SOB that time. Now BACK UP that drive, you can't expect it to keep working for long after that abuse.

[deck_luck]

[lsemmens]

Not necessarily so, It sounds like you were blimmin lucky!!!! Hard disks these days also have a much higher data density so a minor fluctuation of read write in a newer disk might produce and error whereas the older disk has the data stored in a larger area, so to speak. Yes, we have all done stupid things under the influence, fortunately the only thing I hurt was me pride.

[carum carvi]

Hard disks these days also have a much higher data density so a minor fluctuation of read write in a newer disk might produce and error whereas the older disk has the data stored in a larger area, so to speak.

Ahah, that's a good counter argument for NOT using error tests at all then? Because if these new harddiscs (because of their physical design) do show more errors, it's not wise / sensible to compare them with much older harddiscs which have a different design?

My BAKED harddisc is still working perfectly though. I am not trashing it

[absque fenestris]

Hi carum carvi, nice that you are back in the forums.

Metal in the microwave? That doesn't work at all ... Sparking and things like that. Short research on the Internet:

https://gizmodo.com/what-actually-happe ... 569906393

As far as I understand, your hard drive largely reflected the microwaves and was not heated to pizza temperature. However, your experiment is not necessarily recommended for repetition...

[lsemmens]

Actually, I'd suggest that the main damage to a microwaved drive would be the electronics. Given the spitz and sparx generated by metal in a microwave. Electronic fuses (i.e. transistors, chips etc) generally do not cope well with spitz and sparx.

[absque fenestris]

I think I still have a very, very old 80 MB IBM SCSI * lying around. Should I try my cooking skills? The baking time would of course have to be adjusted according to the age of the cooking stuff.


* 80 MB (MiBi ...) is not a typo

[Portreve]

* 80 MB (MiBi ...) is not a typo

My very first hard drive was a SCSI-interfaced 5¼" Seagate 80 MB hard drive. It was loud, but it worked well and it was so cool to be able to warehouse all my data and programs on one drive.

I have to admit, though, that I've never tried microwaving a hard drive. I'd tend to think the metal casing would effectively shield the drive platters.

[absque fenestris]

Should we test it?

[Pjotr]

a particular beverage, with a certain amount of alcohol involved

Sounds like good stuff. What was it?

[absque fenestris]

If carum carvi reveals the secret, an inexplicable worldwide microwave extinction will probably have to be reported.

...what then should be related to the readership of this forum and the Mint users in general.

[old_noob]

So, I'm assuming you installed a pizza in your computer. How did that work? Does plain cheese give better speed than a meat lovers special?

[Pjotr]

So, I'm assuming you installed a pizza in your computer. How did that work? Does plain cheese give better speed than a meat lovers special?

[carum carvi]

So, I'm assuming you installed a pizza in your computer. How did that work? Does plain cheese give better speed than a meat lovers special?

I have recently discovered that I am allergic to pizza's. I am not kiddin. Seriously. It's the milk INSIDE all the pizza's that makes my tummy ache. Certain beverages I (fortunately) can still tolerate quite well, although I tend to BAKE some computer equipment from time to time under the influence of these beverages... but the computer/pizza combi SURVIVED !

To end the mystery of the microwave, I must explain that I do have a COMBI microwave/oven. My bad. I was not explicit enough in mentioning that I have an OVEN/BAKE function to heat (not microwave) pizza's / harddisc for 10 minutes at 220 C. Microwaving would not have lasted for seconds, as I have learned from The Mission Impossible movies and the sorts...

There is one other thing which I should have mentioned as well: there was a leather case around my Samsung 250GB harddisc, which took the first blow and which totally melted. Perhaps that leather casing was the reason the harddisc survived, and not simply because the harddisc was OLDER and built better. But I like to think so anyways....

Older is better. I am not AT ALL objective in these matters, since I am getting older every day and I like the idea that getting older DOES have some benefits... or doesnt it...?

All you grumpy old men out there, please stand by me....

[rene]

I am not AT ALL objective in these matters, since I am getting older every day and I like the idea that getting older DOES have some benefits... or doesnt it...?

Sure. You have to deal with all the nonsense for a progressively shorter remaining period...

[old_noob]

We have a similar oven, a Sharp "convection/microwave" unit, which can operate as a microwave, a conventional electric oven or some combinations thereof. I have found that actual cooking temperatures tend to be about 20-30C lower than advertised. Maybe that also helped save your drive if your oven is similar.

[Portreve]

There is one other thing which I should have mentioned as well: there was a leather case around my Samsung 250GB harddisc, which took the first blow and which totally melted. Perhaps that leather casing was the reason the harddisc survived, and not simply because the harddisc was OLDER and built better. But I like to think so anyways....

Y'know, this made me think of an interesting (yet unrelated) bit of trivia. China is planning on using a wooden heat shield for their space capsules. Also, this morning before work I saw an article in my news feed talking about a cork heat shield. In both cases, the idea is to introduce an ablative material which will slowly char, and thereby carry away the heat generated by re-entry. It seems insane, but evidently it's legitimate, and it's doable. Who knew...

[For comparison, Gemini and Apollo (and maybe later Mercury?) capsules had something like a phenolic epoxy resin which was used to fill up a multi-layer set of metal honeycombs. Wood generally and cork specifically are not toxic like the resin was.]

Now, to the point about your hard drive initially being encased in a leather pouch, I suppose it would have (at least initially) served as an ablative, though I suspect its useful life in that capacity would have been pretty short.

All you grumpy old men out there, please stand by me....

I may not necessarily be old yet (though my knees would likely argue the point if they could type) but I have been known to be a bit grumpy a time or two (I'm certain there are other LM members who could confirm that fact) so I've got your back, carum carvi.

[Mick-Cork]

Look on the bright side, you could have toasted or fried it

[BG405]

I'm guessing that the "leather" was imitation stuff made of plastic, otherwise it wouldn't have melted? In any case, the resulting mealtime platter would have been discgusting.