Is this Hard Drive Packaging safe? [PICS]

A

ATITek

Limp Gawd
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Aug 6, 2004
Messages
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I received a replacement hard drive today by UPS and this is how it was packaged. The drive is in a hard plastic shell with a pack of silicate gel. It is not in an anti-static bag, just the plastic shell. The drive was packaged in the center of the box covered in packing peanuts top, bottom, and sides. I pulled it to the surface of the peanuts for two photos. It seemed tight before I opened it.


Should it have been in an anti-static bag?

hd1.jpg



hd2.jpg
 
I believe (but don't hold me to it) that the plastic shell is an ESD protective enclosure, so a bag would have been redundant. I know that all of the memory and CPU's I've bought in the past few years have been similarly packaged.
 
The plastic container is ESD protection, as well. As ryan said, this is completely normal. I've had two Samsung hard drives arrive this way, both have lasted 2+ years without failure.
 
ESD resistant, and ESD proof are not the same thing.

In order for it be ESD proof, it needs to be made of plastic with metal wires inside it creating a Farraday Cage.

Those silver ESD bags do this.

By the way, and ESDresistant/proof enclosure is worthless if it is "open" or has any holes in it. In the case of the above pic, the entire shell is open along its seam, thereby rendering it completely useless against ESD of any kind.

However, most hard drives (if not all) have ESD protection built into them.
 
SarverSystems said:
ESD resistant, and ESD proof are not the same thing.

In order for it be ESD proof, it needs to be made of plastic with metal wires inside it creating a Farraday Cage.

Those silver ESD bags do this.

By the way, and ESDresistant/proof enclosure is worthless if it is "open" or has any holes in it. In the case of the above pic, the entire shell is open along its seam, thereby rendering it completely useless against ESD of any kind.

However, most hard drives (if not all) have ESD protection built into them.
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The plastic case snaps shut and has no holes in it. So what you are saying is this packaging "COULD" have caused ESD damage?

Hate to load my data onto it and find out it is damaged a month later.


JaYp146 said:
The plastic container is ESD protection, as well. As ryan said, this is completely normal. I've had two Samsung hard drives arrive this way, both have lasted 2+ years without failure.
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This is a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1. My guess is these are sent to the OEM just like this just in a multi-slotted cardboard box.
 
its fine. i wouldnt worry about it.

it did come with a warranty, right?
 
Keep in mind the ESD symbol is not really a standardized symbol. It seems each country uses their own version of it.

The plastic case that your hard drive is in has a symbol the represents an ESD function. Since the case is plastic, I can guarantee it is not ESD proof, but rather it does not cause ESD itself.
 
These type of antistatic cases are designed to provide a relatively large air gap between any ESD sensitive bits (the ICs on the control board) and any external source of ESD. The drive should be fine.

Though I think those packing peanuts themselves should be made with that antistatic poly. God I hate those things.
 
keenan said:
These type of antistatic cases are designed to provide a relatively large air gap between any ESD sensitive bits (the ICs on the control board) and any external source of ESD. The drive should be fine.

Though I think those packing peanuts themselves should be made with that antistatic poly. God I hate those things.
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This is how the OEM ships them so my guess is it is safe, They did stick a small paper insert under the control board that also confuses me. It talks about warranty and such.
 
This packing is good. Don't worry about antistatic bags. They don't do shit anyways..
 
keenan said:
These type of antistatic cases are designed to provide a relatively large air gap between any ESD sensitive bits (the ICs on the control board) and any external source of ESD. The drive should be fine.

Though I think those packing peanuts themselves should be made with that antistatic poly. God I hate those things.
Click to expand...

I agree with both points ;)

The packing peanuts do seem to go everywhere except where you want them to go, don't they?
 
hmz said:
Don't worry about antistatic bags. They don't do shit anyways..
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Really?

The only drives I've bought that were packed in hard plastic shells but not metallic bags were a couple of Seagates whose circuit boards were covered with metal (Barracuda IV) or rubber (U5). Seagate later eliminated those covers and started adding metallic bags inside the plastic shells. Coincidence?

I thought that hard drive electronics were made of chips designed only to the industry standard protection level of 3,000V, compared to 12,000V for USB ports. Also I read that chip producers want to reduce the protection to just 1,000-2,000, or only enough for handling by manufacturers.
 
larrymoencurly said:
Really?

The only drives I've bought that were packed in hard plastic shells but not metallic bags were a couple of Seagates whose circuit boards were covered with metal (Barracuda IV) or rubber (U5). Seagate later eliminated those covers and started adding metallic bags inside the plastic shells. Coincidence?

I thought that hard drive electronics were made of chips designed only to the industry standard protection level of 3,000V, compared to 12,000V for USB ports. Also I read that chip producers want to reduce the protection to just 1,000-2,000, or only enough for handling by manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Its probably cheaper not to have the metal on the drive, hence the coincidsnce.
 
larrymoencurly said:
I thought that hard drive electronics were made of chips designed only to the industry standard protection level of 3,000V, compared to 12,000V for USB ports. Also I read that chip producers want to reduce the protection to just 1,000-2,000, or only enough for handling by manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Probably more due to the fact that faster electronics need to operate at lower voltages, and thus are more fragile. Making them more tolerant slows them down, makes them considerably more expensive to manufacture or both (or just plain isn't possible with current technology) and nobody wants that when it's pretty easy to avoid this type of damage with proper handling.
 
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