question regarding laptop hdd

Resilience of laptop hdd?
Hey guys ... I have an Acer 5930G and inside the lappie resides my 250GB (5400rpm) hdd (WDC WD2500BEVS-22USTO to be precise).

I accidentally bumped the frontal area of the laptop with my foot (it's sitting on a Zalman NC-2000B cooler btw) twice in a month by now.
It did not fall on the floor or anything drastic, but the frontal area did make a smallish 'bang' on the way down after being bumped by my foot (like any solid object does under gravity).

In any event ... is the hdd resilient enough to withstand these 2 accidental bumps, or am I looking at a potential hdd failure several months in the future?

I mean, I was planning on replacing the hdd anyway later on with a 320GB 7200rpm WD Scorpio Black in order to gain larger capacity and speed when it comes to file transfers, copying, loading, etc ...

But, for the moment I'm using the 250GB one and was wondering if the hdd will be fine after these 2 accidents.

General operations and everything else is as fine as before.
No slowdowns, no problems of any kind have been detected (yet).
It's a shame the thing didn't come with a free fall sensor ...

 

I dont think the hard drive was impacted. I think you are ok.

 

Just to be sure, google WD Data Lifeguard Tools, and download the tool for the Scorpio Blue Series, and view the SMART data and run an Extended Scan.

 

Way ahead of you Andy.
Downloaded it 5 mins ago.
I just ran the SMART test ... was fine.
Gonna run an extended test during the day though as I'm tired and have to get up in about 6 hours.

I also don't think the hdd suffered any damage given the fact the 2 bumps were minor.
Then again, there's always a possibility for 'something' so I just wanted to know the overall fragility of hdd's.

I mean, my old DELL laptop fell 2x on the floor (I accidentally pulled it via the power cable with my foot) and the hdd failed after about 5 months.
But those 2 occasions were extreme as that laptop actually fell on the floor ... these 2 incidents with the Acer were nothing like that.

I know I know... plenty of accidents happening to my laptops that are foot related.
It's kinda funny as you think about it actually ... but definitely not funny if/when the hdd fails as a result and you lose your data.

I'm being careful though.

 

harddrives can take quite a bit of bashing, really. They are not as fragile as one is inclined to think. I have dropped my laptop to the floor before (well, actually the dog ran into the powercord and the laptop flew a couple of meters before hitting the floor...), and no damage to the drive. Though this happened with a harddrive that has a free-fall-sensor, and I now have it tested, and it worked, since the computer stopped responding after the drop, I can only assume that was the free-fall sensor kicking in... My drive is a Seagate 7200.3.

As stated before in the thread, your harddrive is probably a'ok. But as allways, be sure to backup your critical data. Harddrives are prone to failure even though they haven't been subject to physical punishment.

 

Extended scan was fine (did it while I was sleeping).
I backup the most important things ever since my old laptop hdd died.
I lost a lot of valuable data (but nothing that can't be replaced over time).
And the old laptop is still live and kicking ... after of course I repaired it's back-light and replaced the faulty hdd.

That thing still has a few years in it ... provided of course it makes it that far (given the fact no accidents happened to it ever since the repairs and replacement took place ... I'd say there's a good possibility it will be ok).

and the acer, well I'm keeping my eye on it so it should last quite long (hopefully)