Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (
More info?)
Hard drive internals need to breathe, but are not ventilated as such.
o They have a small hole to equalise pressure between inside & outside
o Hence the name "breather hole", also called "do not cover"
The breather hole is not a vacant hole, but has a filter membrane over it:
o The filter membrane is porous to air molecules for pressure equalisation
o It is non-porous to any solid matter large enough to cause a head crash
That said I recall manufacturers do not advise the use of drives in very
severe particulate environments - perhaps as much re membrane clogging.
There is no "conventional airflow" - merely as the drive heats/cools it will
cause air inside it to expand/contact - and migrate out/in across the filter.
Hard drives often cite a limit to usage based on altitude:
o That might be related to drive internal air pressure
---- since the head floats on a thin layer of air
o It might also be due to air density, and so air mass re cooling
---- fans are constant *volume* air movement devices
---- increase altitude and so the *mass* of air moved falls
Cooling is based on heat transfer to a given mass of air, so cooling
at sea-level may become unsatisfactory at very high altitude.
So hard-drives are not ventilated per se, they have a breather hole.
Volatile compounds used in fumigation could enter a hard-drive thro the
breather hole if the drive is cooling from hot to cool in that environment.
Fumigation is designed to get everywhere - or it will not work.
In reality I would not worry - except to adhere to fumigation guidelines
Hard drives are vastly more vulnerable to extremes of temperature.
Power will almost certainly be disconnected since you do not want any
airflow in the house to cause inadequate treatment anywhere. If they are
using Butane as the propellant, that would also make things exciting.
--
Dorothy Bradbury
www.dorothybradbury.co.uk for quiet Panaflo fans (free shipping)
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