Physical Hard-Disk Data Arrangements and Drive Failures?
Tadau asks: "Knowing not much of the low-level and molecular aspects of a hard drive platter, I'm wondering if it is possible to cause a weight change/imbalance on a hard drive platter by say writing solid 1's to approximately 1/2 of a side of the platter? If there is a weight change, then could that attribute to drive vibrations by an ever-so-slightly unbalanced platter, which may result in an eventual drive failure?"
The answer is yes. If you write all 1's to one side of a drive, and all 0's to the other side, the drive will eventually fail.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.