Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
On 1/14/2016 10:24 PM, JJ wrote:
No. Not really. Not all of them. It depends on the HDD manufacturing.
Some
models are durable, and some are not.

My 160GB WD only lasted about a year while my 3 years old 40GB Seagate is
still fine.

I have never had a dead hard disk, except that IBM Deathstar that used
glass platters. The other one I lost was a Seagate ST-251 40M (yes, 40M)
which was dropped accidentally.

FYI, my environment is somewhat harsh. No air conditioning (because
it's in
an open room), and the air is not clean enough.

Outside air shouldn't be able to reach inside the hard disk, but the
circuit board might be affected.


Outside air *does* reach the platter. There is a hole
in the cover, with a hepafilter fastened by adhesive,
on the inside surface.

http://www.howtogeek.com/127433/what...n-hard-drives/

This is a datasheet for a filter disc for the HDA cover.
Just to illustrate they do exist.

https://www.donaldson.com/en/diskdri...ary/051290.pdf

*******

The only drives currently which are completely
sealed, are the Hitachi helium drives. (I don't know
if anyone else makes a helium drive yet or not. There
isn't a lot of helium to be wasted any more. The price
is getting quite high.)

Such a drive, wants to keep the helium inside.
(No need for a breather hole :-) )
I consider such a design to be truly miraculous,
as you know how hard it is to keep helium
gas in anything. Helium gas is used specifically
for lab testing, for the detection and removal
of leaks in vacuum systems. It's a bitch to
keep it from leaking.

Paul