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The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

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Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#101

Post by jasomill »

aaron695 wrote: post #44

If anyone has a helium drive you can check it's levels - S.M.A.R.T. ID 22 If you are bored I'd be interested to hear what level it's at on old drives. Like is it still 100% after a year? [edit] I assume the 100/64h means 100% maybe not [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/windows8/comments/11ndk0o/what_is_c... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis_and_... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/wl…

I have a pair of HGST HDN728080ALE604 drives (8TB Deskstar NAS). One has SMART 22 at 100 after 43,239 power-on hours; the other is offsite and online, but is the same age and had SMART 22 at 100 last time I checked.

My other helium drives (WUH721816AL5204 — 16TB Ultrastar DC HC550) are SAS, and I don't know how to check helium levels of these (smartctl reports neither SMART 22 nor anything related to helium).

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#102

Post by buildsjets »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #41

Are HDD's a significant consumer of the world's helium, in the scheme of things? I had thought helium was used only in a few bleeding edge drives, and they went to normal air as the tech matured.

Let me go read the article for you.

Yep, it says right there that a "standard" helium tank is adequate to fill 10,000 hard drives. I am going to assume that by "standard" they mean 220ft^3 or 250ft^3, even though my "standard" for tanks is 125ft^3 because I can comfortably carry one of those on my shoulder.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#103

Post by aaron695 »

HankB99 wrote: post #70
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold my beer.

The small amount contained in the HDD would a minimal risk. Larger amounts handled in the manufacturing process, OTOH... I'm curious how the shaft seals for generators manage to seal the hydrogen. Perhaps the hydrogen is contained within the the generator and not exposed to the seals, though I thought one of the reasons for its use (along with cooling) was reduced windage losses.

[dead]

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#105

Post by adrian_b »

addaon wrote: post #80
adrian_b wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, at the same number of electrons, the heavier atoms have a smaller volume, i.e. they are tinier, because their greater nuclear charge attracts the electrons closer to the nucleus. Li+, Be++, B+++ are tinier than He, but they are ions, not neutral atoms. Neutral Li, Be, B are bigger than He, because they have an additional electron layer. Both neutral H and H- are bigger than He, because their one or two electrons…

Muonic atoms are many, many times smaller, and neutral — so small that the reduction in atomic radius by substituting a muon for an electron can catalyze fusion. Purely muon helium would be the smallest such. (Tauons can’t form atoms as their decay time is shorter by orders of magnitude than would be needed.)

You are right, so in order to say that the helium atom is the tiniest, the statement should be additionally qualified, by saying that it is the tiniest among the stable neutral atoms, in order to exclude the muonic atoms.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#108

Post by banish-m4 »

joezydeco wrote: post #90
Out_of_Characte wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming a drive contains helium at standard temparature and pressure, and contains about a liter in volume. That would be about 1 gram worth of helium per drive.

One MRI machine uses about 2,000L of liquid He, which expands to around 1:770 in gaseous form. So roughly 1,540,000L of helium gas per machine.

MRI machines borked the MEMS accelerometers in iPhone due to helium contamination. I assume most smartphone sensors are now helium-tolerant.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#109

Post by Y_Y »

joezydeco wrote: post #90
Out_of_Characte wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming a drive contains helium at standard temparature and pressure, and contains about a liter in volume. That would be about 1 gram worth of helium per drive.

One MRI machine uses about 2,000L of liquid He, which expands to around 1:770 in gaseous form. So roughly 1,540,000L of helium gas per machine.

GE says over its lifetime (roughly 13 years) an MRI machine will use about 1e4 litres of liquid helium. Two thousand litres is a good estimate for the capacity of a machine, but it's not a useful figure unless you know how often you need to replenish it.

Re: The Race to Seal Helium HDDs (2021)

#110

Post by banish-m4 »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #23
rwmj wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's not the main problem. The main problem is hydrogen is fucking painful to contain.
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