Perhaps a 'wet drive' might of interest in industrial settings where
there's critical data and a high fire probability.
But, in those settings, they probably just upload frequently.
For example, I've read the space shuttle has no flight recorder. Data
is transmitted.

D from BC wrote:

Oops.. I think I recall seeing that 'black box' recorders record on a
spool of wire. That's probably why it's fire resistant.
Dunno if there's a flight data recorder ( black box) that uses
something like a PC hard drive.
The materials in a typical PC drive will just melt or decompose.

D from BC
British Columbia
Canada


Modern 'Black Box' recorders are digital.

Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:

I think a fire resistant computer (or drive) might be an attractive
product for the worrysome people.

Regardless of whether your computer is combustible or not, magetic media
will be erased if it reaches the Curie temperature and there lies a
fundamental problem.

Perhaps jet 'black box' technology can be used to protect a drive.
If those things can survive a jet fuel fire, it should survive a house
fire.

They are incredibly well insulated but even so are only rated to survive
something like half an hour or so IIRC in a fire.

If it's the data you're worried about, simply store it offsire either
physically or using online storage. I've started 'backing up' important
stuff to my hotmail account since it offer 5GB of storage now.

How about this as an idea...
An external drive in a steel drum of water.

Not only does the drive get liquid cooling during normal operation
(could extent the drive lifetime)

but during a fire it could take a long time for the water to boil. Even
boiling water should be ok.
IIRC boiling water is below the Curie point.

More fire energy is needed to boil all the water away. Hopefully the
fire is under control by then otherwise the drive becomes dry and gets
heat damaged.

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:41:58 +0100, Eeyore
rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:



D from BC wrote:

I think a fire resistant computer (or drive) might be an attractive
product for the worrysome people.

Regardless of whether your computer is combustible or not, magetic media
will be erased if it reaches the Curie temperature and there lies a
fundamental problem.
snip

D from BC wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:

I think a fire resistant computer (or drive) might be an attractive
product for the worrysome people.

Regardless of whether your computer is combustible or not, magetic media
will be erased if it reaches the Curie temperature and there lies a
fundamental problem.

Perhaps jet 'black box' technology can be used to protect a drive.
If those things can survive a jet fuel fire, it should survive a house
fire.

They are incredibly well insulated but even so are only rated to survive
something like half an hour or so IIRC in a fire.

If it's the data you're worried about, simply store it offsire either
physically or using online storage. I've started 'backing up' important
stuff to my hotmail account since it offer 5GB of storage now.

How about this as an idea...
An external drive in a steel drum of water.

Not only does the drive get liquid cooling during normal operation
(could extent the drive lifetime)

Not really. Modern drives barely get lukewarm and don't need forced cooling,
unlike certain full height 5-1/4 inch drives of old I recall that required
40W of DC input power !


but during a fire it could take a long time for the water to boil. Even
boiling water should be ok.
IIRC boiling water is below the Curie point.

True.


More fire energy is needed to boil all the water away. Hopefully the
fire is under control by then otherwise the drive becomes dry and gets
heat damaged.

Why bother with water ? There are some amazing silica ? based insulating
materials that would keep a drive suitably insulated. Like the stuff they use
for the space shuttle tiles.

Graham

Neato...
I guess that's wayyy better than magnetizing a spool of wire.

Do you mean like flash memory?

I did a quick Google and found some results for 16GB flash drives.
And there's a 64Gig flash drive the size of a car key, but it's like
$5000.00..

I'm guessing digital flight recorders are using similar tech.

I have an almost new 750Gig Seagate Barracuda drive and it's so hot I
can't keep my fingers on it.
Even my drive temp. app is reporting that the drive temp is at the
upper limit for a good lifetime.

D from BC wrote:

I have an almost new 750Gig Seagate Barracuda drive and it's so hot I
can't keep my fingers on it.
Even my drive temp. app is reporting that the drive temp is at the
upper limit for a good lifetime.

Model number ?

Graham

I think many people would grab their computer if their place was on
fire.

Would you save your computer during a fire?

I'd be yelling to the firemen below "Catch my computer!" :)

What can I do to protect my PC from a house fire?

D from BC
British Columbia
Canada

How about this as an idea...
An external drive in a steel drum of water.

Not only does the drive get liquid cooling during normal operation
(could extent the drive lifetime) but during a fire it could take a
long time for the water to boil. Even boiling water should be ok.
IIRC boiling water is below the Curie point..

Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:

I have an almost new 750Gig Seagate Barracuda drive and it's so hot I
can't keep my fingers on it.
Even my drive temp. app is reporting that the drive temp is at the
upper limit for a good lifetime.

Model number ?


Uh... It's a bit of a job to pop out the drive and check the sticker.
So I just went on the Seagate site.
I might be using the Barracuda 7200.10 model ST3750640A..

Should I check the sticker on the drive? What's up?

D from BC wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:

I have an almost new 750Gig Seagate Barracuda drive and it's so hot I
can't keep my fingers on it.
Even my drive temp. app is reporting that the drive temp is at the
upper limit for a good lifetime.

Model number ?


Uh... It's a bit of a job to pop out the drive and check the sticker.
So I just went on the Seagate site.
I might be using the Barracuda 7200.10 model ST3750640A..

Should I check the sticker on the drive? What's up?

I was curious why it ran so hot but the answer is there on the data sheet.
An average operating power of 13W as opposed to 5W or so for more routine 3
1/2 inch drives.

Do you really need 750GB of ultra fast stoarge ?

Graham

Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:

I have an almost new 750Gig Seagate Barracuda drive and it's so hot I
can't keep my fingers on it.
Even my drive temp. app is reporting that the drive temp is at the
upper limit for a good lifetime.

Model number ?


Uh... It's a bit of a job to pop out the drive and check the sticker.
So I just went on the Seagate site.
I might be using the Barracuda 7200.10 model ST3750640A..

Should I check the sticker on the drive? What's up?

I was curious why it ran so hot but the answer is there on the data sheet.
An average operating power of 13W as opposed to 5W or so for more routine 3
1/2 inch drives.

Do you really need 750GB of ultra fast stoarge ?

Graham

Not really...
I just was pissed at being short on disk space most of the time and
got something 'just to be sure' :)

Also, I don't like burning CD's or DVD's.

It'll be a long time till I see a 'disk full' pop up

I think many people would grab their computer if their place was on
fire.

Would you save your computer during a fire?

D from BC wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
D from BC wrote:

I think a fire resistant computer (or drive) might be an attractive
product for the worrysome people.

Regardless of whether your computer is combustible or not, magetic media
will be erased if it reaches the Curie temperature and there lies a
fundamental problem.

Perhaps jet 'black box' technology can be used to protect a drive.
If those things can survive a jet fuel fire, it should survive a house
fire.

They are incredibly well insulated but even so are only rated to survive
something like half an hour or so IIRC in a fire.

If it's the data you're worried about, simply store it offsire either
physically or using online storage. I've started 'backing up' important
stuff to my hotmail account since it offer 5GB of storage now.

How about this as an idea...
An external drive in a steel drum of water.

Not only does the drive get liquid cooling during normal operation
(could extent the drive lifetime)

Not really. Modern drives barely get lukewarm and don't need forced cooling,
unlike certain full height 5-1/4 inch drives of old I recall that required
40W of DC input power !


but during a fire it could take a long time for the water to boil. Even
boiling water should be ok.
IIRC boiling water is below the Curie point.

True.


More fire energy is needed to boil all the water away. Hopefully the
fire is under control by then otherwise the drive becomes dry and gets
heat damaged.

Why bother with water ? There are some amazing silica ? based insulating
materials that would keep a drive suitably insulated. Like the stuff they use
for the space shuttle tiles.

Graham