IBM Introduces 'Air Bags' For Laptop Hard Drives

Ruger writes "Reported in PCWorld this morning, IBM has introduced a technology for their new laptop hard discs which has a similar concept to airbags in cars. Active Protection System (APS) is a microchip put on the system board that senses acceleration. It parks the head of a hard drive inside a tenth of a second, significantly reducing the risk of damage to data. IBM also has a a press release on the new ThinkPad R50 and T41 models that include this technology, for those interested in the company line."

Comments

Portable Audio Players

[coral256]

This could be especially useful for, say, an iPod.

What if it misfires?

[IgD]

You have been playing the latest and greatest video game for a few hours when you make a mistake and pound the keyboard. The hardrives senses it and locks you down without saving. Whoops.

Re:I think this is great

[stratjakt]

Spend those bucks on a ruggedized laptop, like the Panasonic toughbooks, or one from dozens of other vendors. I work in the public safety field and use them all the time (ie; laptops in police cruisers). They're out there, and they're friggin indestructable. They also cost more than a comparable machine in a plastic shell, ie; the LCD is behind quarter inch plexi, the case is made out of hardened steel, the internals are mounted on shock absorbing rubber doodads, etc..

You get what you pay for in the end.

You can cough up 3 grand for a cute and trendy iBook, or for a virtually indestructable brick.

Oh yeah, before I forget, they weigh a friggin' ton as a rule. Weight is a big selling point for mobile users.

Aka "The Sierra Lesson"...

[Kjella]

Save early, save often. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're too young.

Kjella

Re:how many...

[SeanTobin]

how many Laptop Harddisks have been damaged due this very specific problem of the head not being parked(?).during a deacceleration. Does it add any mechanical stability to the harddisk ? What if the hard disk breaks in two pieces ?

A good deal more than you would think. Ever have a bad sector on your hard drive? Ever know about bad sectors on your hard drive? Those are two very different questions.

Modern hard drives have extra space available on them reserved for remapping sectors that fail. The drive can detect these failing as the voltages from the heads fall when reading data. At the first sign of this, the drive logic reads the data, moves it off to a reserved sector, maps it internaly, and goes on about its business. Now, there are a few things that can cause this.

First off, there is straight manufacturing errors. Less common than they used to be (hdd's used to come with tables of bad sectors printed on thier label) but they do happen.

Now, they can also occour when a read head is literaly floating microns above a spinning platter revolving at around 3000 rpm's. Whack that drive with a hammer and the head could contact the media, effectively scratching the disk. Depending on the severity there may be no damage, a bad sector could begin to form, the head could be damaged, or the drive could be shattered to bits.

Moving the head off the platter (or towards the center depending on thier parking mechanics) will almost eliminate problems resulting from the head contacting the media.

Now, parking the head will not add any stability to the drive, but it will greatly increase the g's a drive can experience before being damaged.

If your disk breaks into two pieces, you are going to need to call these people.