wrote:
On Sun, 24 Nov 2013 01:19:00 -0600, Califbill
wrote:

Still have a bunch of the magnets in the garage someplace. An RK04 platter
in the attic. 14" disk. Working for Maxtor, we saw lots of bad discs. As
we disassembled them to check inside. Surprising how durable they are. We
might have 6-7 disks setting on a cabinet top running tests and one would
fall off sometimes. Don't think we ever had one crash from the fall.

IBM did a lot of tests in the 90s and 90s for the Army, trying to find
out how tough disk drives really were. They figured out they actually
were better running than shut down and bouncing around in a tank or a
HumVee would not hurt one.
As I have said before, I had regular P1 desk tops running in a car and
a pickup for many years as MP3 players. I never had a disk problem in
spite of cranking up in a 140 degree car a couple times a day, cooling
down to 70 or so, then heating back up when I stopped.

When I worked for System Industries, the only drive we would not warrantee
was a Fujitsu 160 Mbyte, we sold to the French solar observatory in Hawaii.
Was installed I think 3000' above the highest recommended altitude. I do
not think the drive ever crashed.