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The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

blog.westerndigital.com

21–30 of 138 posts

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#21
post #9
post #3

if helium is better, why not use a vacuum?

Is heat a concern in HDDs? Vacuum would probably make it extremely difficult to cool if it's necessary.

Heat can still circulate through the metal parts. Which is a better heat transfer medium than air anyway.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#22
post #5
post #3

if helium is better, why not use a vacuum?

vacuums tend to collapse on themselves, I think it might be more costly in structural elements to prevent that?

Thermoses have vacuum in the walls, and they are very thin, much thinner than a hard-drive case.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#23
post #8
post #3

if helium is better, why not use a vacuum?

Hydrogen would also be .. interesting ...

Wouldn't be a fire risk because there's no oxygen available. But hydrogen is chemically reactive and over time it could corrode or weaken the materials inside the HDD.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#24

"Helium is notoriously difficult to contain. Its atoms are some of the tiniest in the universe." It's a good article, and I learned a lot, but every so often it reads like something an 8th grader would write the night before their paper is due.

And then it swings up and hits you with "a way that it doesn’t scathe the seal".

Plenty of "unscathed" around, but I don't think I ever met the "un"-free word.

Reminds me of the P.G.Wodehouse "far from gruntled" ( https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2011/05/words-... )

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#27

...I didn't really we had the technology to seal helium at all. Stupid question, but could you potentially create a helium balloon that never runs out of helium (because it's sealed and doesn't leak)?

If it's made of metal foil, probably. Much more diffusion-resistant than rubber. The problem with rubber balloons isn't that they have macro- or mesoscopic holes. They lose gas by diffusion all over.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#28

"Helium is notoriously difficult to contain. Its atoms are some of the tiniest in the universe." It's a good article, and I learned a lot, but every so often it reads like something an 8th grader would write the night before their paper is due.

And then it swings up and hits you with "a way that it doesn’t scathe the seal" . Plenty of "unscathed" around, but I don't think I ever met the "un"-free word. Reminds me of the P.G.Wodehouse "far from gruntled" ( https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2011/05/words-... )

[scathing remark deleted]

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#30
post #3

if helium is better, why not use a vacuum?

A gas provides a "bearing" for the heads to ride on as the disk spins below it.

Maybe magnetism could work. HDD platters take very strong fields to change magnetization these days, so erasing the data with the positioning magnet(s) seems avoidable.
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