Over the years I have collected a BUNCH of different storage drives that I no longer need/use: seven hard drives and one SSD.
People always say that mechanical hard drives are fragile, but I’ve always kinda been curious about just HOW fragile they are. Does that make me a bad person? Who knows.
What I DO know is that in this video, I perform a range of super scientific tests to see exactly how much abuse these storage drives can withstand.
Disclaimer: I should also point out that I was about to dispose of all eight data discs – they were too old (and low capacity) to be used for anything too serious.
If you prefer text over video, please read on for the guide/transcript version of this video.
Video Transcript And Guide
Hey everyone! Bit of a silly video today. Basically, when SSDs first started coming out, people used to say they were a lot faster than hard drives, which of course we all know to be true. But the other, more secondary benefit of SSDs is that they are apparently a lot more durable than hard drives. Hard drives have circuit boards, a platter that spins around, and other fragile components, so everyone says they’re really delicate.
Over the years, I’ve ended up with loads of different hard drives, and I’ve kind of decided I want to get rid of them. But first, I’m going to see just how less durable they are. So, I tested each drive from my HomeLab NAS by running it with SATA cables so I could hot-swap things out. I have seven hard drives: two bigger ones, five smaller ones, and an SSD thrown in the mix, just for science.
Before doing any testing at all, I hooked them up to my HomeLab NAS, booted into Windows, and formatted every single disk so I started fresh. Then, I copied a bunch of files to each one so I could reference them and make sure the drives were healthy. I also labeled every single drive for science.
I thought we’d start off simple and “accidentally” drop a couple of hard drives off the desk, which is around 84 cm or 33 inches. I’m not going to be too scientific in this video, but that’s the plan. So, I’ve pre-tested all of these drives, as you’ve already seen. If we grab this hard drive here and then it just “accidentally” drops onto the floor…
That was number one. Now we’re going to try it with number six as well. My numbers are already rubbing off, but it’s okay. We’ll put that there. Oh, that one actually hit the skirting board. Let’s see if they work. If they do, we’ll carry on and actually drop things on them too. But first, let’s see whether these two work.
[Music]
First, I plugged the hard drive into the computer. Let’s see if it actually starts up. Yes, it does. [Music] Okay, so that works. That’s hard drive number one, the slightly bigger one, and the files load up fine—no issues there. Let’s check the other one as well. Yes, that is disk number six, and it also loads up fine. It’s got whatever this picture is… yeah, it loads up the pictures and all the files on there.
So, they both survived a standard drop from a standard desk. Now, let’s chuck things on top of them. Here’s a screwdriver. That was a direct hit onto hard drive number one. I’ll do the same with hard drive number six. I still don’t know why I’m doing this video, but here we go! Let’s carry on. Yes, that was definitely a hit. I’m going to try it again.
[Music]
Oh god, definitely a hit! The disk flipped over, so that was definitely a hit as well. I’m just going to check if that works before I drop more stuff on it. This is number six, so that’s probably our first failure. Yes, it’s now dead. As you can hear, it makes a weird chirping noise when I plug it in to turn it on. Whoops…
Please, I don’t want to kill two drives with just one screwdriver. Please, please, please… Yes! No chirping. That’s a healthy sound, right? There we have it—a good, healthy noise. Yes, it shows up, it shows up! That’s great. So, my slightly bigger drive, number one, the 3.5-inch disk, is still working.
So, this is disk one. I’ve just unplugged it after verifying that it works. What I’m going to do now is drop a tape measure on it. That might seem like a silly test, but actually, this is a lot heavier than the screwdriver. Let’s try that as well. I’ll just put it there and drop it from the same height. Should I drop it with the metal end? I don’t know. Let’s just do a deadweight test first.
[Thud]
Okay, so I’ve dropped it. Let’s see if it works. Right, it’s making a healthy noise… and again, it seems to have survived. It made a healthy noise on startup, and it actually shows all the files, which I can access. That’s pretty good.
Now, this is going to be with the metal end. You can see here, I’m just going to drop it and see whether that changes anything. If not, I’ll move on to the next test. Let’s have a look.
[Music]
Oh, I hate doing that—it feels really unnatural. Even though I’m literally going to chuck this out in a few days and take it to the local recycling center, it still feels unnatural to drop stuff. Let’s see whether this has actually survived yet another direct hit, which would be the third or fourth direct hit. Right, so yet again, all of the files have appeared. It’s actually survived direct hits multiple times.
Maybe that means these older drives are simply more reliable than the others, or maybe this one was just on its way out anyway. We’re going to do more tests to determine that.
Now, I’m going to drop drive number five from the same height and see whether it survives. Again, same height: number five drive.
[Thud]
Oh, okay, so that then slammed into the side of my desk as well. It actually bounced a little bit. They like bouncing, don’t they? But basically, let’s see whether that starts up now. Okay, there you have it: number five is also healthy. I’m not even going to look at the files on it. I’m quite happy that it can survive a drop like that.
At this point, I think it’s quite clear that simply dropping things can work quite well from a decent height. Next, I’m going to ramp things up a little by dropping the drives down the stairs. Hopefully, they’ll hit hard flooring, and we can see whether that changes anything.
Right, it’s hard drive time. I’m not sure how to throw them downstairs. Uh, I don’t know. I’m just going to do this. Okay, let’s do it from here and just see what happens.
[Thuds]
Oh god… oh god! Right, now for the 2.5-inch one. That was a bit more anticlimactic. Let’s help that along a little more. Okay, come on. Right, so… that probably didn’t go too well, did it? Let’s try that one again.
Brilliant. So, we’re back in my study now with the two drives. It didn’t work too well with the smaller one, but it worked very well with the bigger one, probably due to the weight. Thankfully, it didn’t kill my phone, even though I could see it spiraling toward the phone at quite high velocity. But let’s actually see if these two drives work.
First, number one: this is the bigger drive.
[Music]
Oh, I don’t like those noises. Yes, I’m pretty sure that one is dead. That’s the bigger drive that spun really fast down the stairs, hit the solid floor, and then whacked into my doorframe. It even left a little dent on the doorframe too. So, there were five…
Let’s try the next one, which is number five. Actually, of the drives I have left, it survived! That’s my smaller hard drive, which didn’t go down the stairs quite as well but still survived. So, we can see it there: it’s operational.
Next, my test is going to be dropping it from my height—around 6 feet—from the stairs onto a solid floor. I’ve put a mat down so I don’t mark the floor and my wife doesn’t kill me or notice what I’m doing. In general, though, that’s going to be the test: a 6-foot drop. Let’s see how it goes with number five.
What I’m also going to do—forgot to mention—is try this solid-state drive (SSD) as well. Everyone says how reliable they are, so let’s test that.
[Thud]
Oh, I didn’t like those noises. Let’s see if this works. It’s number five. Yes! Look at that: number five still works. That’s the one that actually fell from my height of around 6 feet onto a solid floor. You can see all the files there.
Let’s check the SSD as well. Let’s see if that works. Yes, it does, as expected. Drive three—also the SSD—all the files are there, which I completely expected because it’s an SSD. But at least they both survived a fall from 6 feet onto solid flooring. That is pretty cool.
I’m outdoors, which is scary. What I’m going to do now is drop the drive from this height – so, more than my actual height. I’ll drop it onto solid concrete or patio flooring—whatever you want to call it—and see if it survives.
[Music]
Okay, I’m going to drop it from here. It’s raining, so I just want to dry that off… oh no. It’s making a clicking noise. That’s dead. So that was drive number five, which I dropped from above my head outside onto some concrete. It didn’t survive. But it did survive being dropped onto solid flooring indoors, protected by a thin mat.
A lot of these drives have actually survived slightly better than I thought. I assumed many would break on the very first test. Some of them, though, have been surprisingly durable.
This next test involves a new drive—number four. I’m going to drop it out of a second-story window. In the UK, we call it the first floor (you’ve got the ground floor, and then the first floor, which we sometimes call the second story). Let’s see whether this breaks the drive. I’m assuming it will.
[Thud]
Okay, that was not a good noise. I’ll go get it and dry it off because it’s raining. Once it’s dried off, I’ll try it out.
[Whirring]
Oh, that’s not a nice sound. Oh god, I’m so sorry. It’s dead. It died on me. I’m so sorry.
As expected, drive number four did not survive being thrown out of a top-floor window. So, in terms of what’s left, I’ve got my solid-state drive, which still works, and three other hard drives: two 2.5-inch drives and one 3.5-inch drive. These haven’t been tested yet.
Next, I went to my garage to grab a bunch of other stuff, including some magnets. I’ve always been curious about what happens when you use magnets on drives. I know people say, “Don’t put them on a drive,” but do they mean not to do it when it’s running, or do they mean not to do it at all? I’m going to test both scenarios. I’ve got my different drives here. Let’s see how this goes.
First, I powered up the drive and checked it. It’s making a normal noise and has appeared on my computer.
[Thud]
Okay, so all four drives actually survived a hit from a mallet, which isn’t too surprising. I gave it a decent whack, but it’s good to confirm. Now, we’re going to try a metal hammer and see if that changes anything.
Forgive me, Father, for I have hit my drives with a hammer. Oh god…
[Music]
First, I’ll start with the 2.5-inch drive. Yes, it has appeared on my computer, even after taking a direct hit from a hammer. Surprisingly, all four drives survived a hammer hit, too. They bounced a little when I hit them, and I used a decent amount of force. It wasn’t a light tap or anything.
Next, I’m thinking about hitting the underside of the drive. I’ll pick disk number three as my sacrificial lamb and hit it there. Let’s see if that changes anything.
[Thud]
That wasn’t too bad. Let’s see if it works. I’ll plug it in… yep, it’s appeared again. So, it works fine. I’m going to hit it more (I know this sounds a bit sadistic) and see if that finally kills it.
[Thud]
Woo, it flipped over! That’s like a game on Squid Game, isn’t it? Flipping things over… Anyway, let’s check again. Oh, it’s gone. Yep, no output. So that’s number three, which I hit multiple times with a hammer. It’s finally dead.
Now, I’ve got some pretty strong magnets and one of my hard drives. I know magnets don’t really affect SSDs, but I wanted to see what they do to a hard drive. These magnets are quite strong. Let’s gently place one…
[Clang]
Oh god, it jumps up, doesn’t it? I’ll put two on the bottom. Something like that… there we are. Okay, now I’ll take the magnets off and power it on. If it still has data, I’ll put the magnets back on while it’s running.
[Whirring]
Okay, so the drive is showing data on my computer. Now, I’ll pop a magnet on it while it’s running and see what happens.
[Clang]
Oh, that noise! Is it a healthy drive, or is that just an old… no. No, it’s actually died. I tried accessing a file on it, and now it’s dead. That’s entirely expected because I’ve placed the magnet in a way that it can’t spin. It really didn’t like that.
I’ll take the magnet off and see if that changes anything.
[Music]
The D drive is back! I can actually access the files. That’s amazing. So, placing the magnet on it while it was running stopped it from working, but after removing the magnet and rebooting everything, it worked again. That’s crazy.
I was going to say I wouldn’t test any more, but at some point, a magnet is bound to kill a drive while it’s running. So, let’s put six magnets on there and see if that finishes it off for good.
I’m sorry, drive. One… two… three… oh, listen to that sound… four… I’m so sorry… five… oh no… and six.
[Clang, whirring]
That is what’s known in the business as an unhealthy drive. I’ll remove all the magnets now. Oh god, they’re so strong.
[Clink]
Okay, let’s see if it shows up again… no. I can’t see it now. It’s gone. That is a dead drive. So, we’ve officially killed it.
At this point, what do we have left? We’ve got the solid-state drive, and we’ve got one normal hard drive. For the grand finale, I’m going to drill them—and maybe put a nail through them as well. Obviously, this is going to kill them, and again, these drives were destined for the e-waste recycling center anyway. But this will be the final death knell.
Should I drill the edges first? Yeah, I’m going to drill the edges and just see whether there’s any chance of the drive surviving if I avoid the middle. If I drill the middle, I assume it’ll kill it outright.
[Drilling sound]
Yes, that’s definitely three holes—one there, one there, and one there. Let’s see if it still works. Oh, it’s got some shakiness to it. Let’s see if it starts up… yes, it worked. How?! How did that work? Should I just go straight for the middle? It seems like I probably should.
[Drilling sound]
Oh, yes! Finally. Quite literally, a hole all the way through it. You can see—clean through. I can even see myself on the camera now. So, I’m assuming this isn’t going to work anymore, but let’s just try it out.
[Startup whirring]
Wait… it’s loading? No! It cannot load… how has it done that?! It’s literally still working. D… yeah, good. Maybe I missed the circuit board? I’m going to have to drill it more. Yep, that’s literally what I’m going to do.
[More drilling]
Okay, that was genuinely hard work. The actual housing has started to bend now, so I’m assuming this has killed it. Let’s plug it in and see. Power on… and… nothing. It’s not appearing. Finally, it’s dead—which I shouldn’t be happy about, but I can’t believe it lasted this long.
I drilled three holes through it, and it still powered up. Then I drilled a hole completely through the middle, and it still worked! That amazed me. But now, it’s finally gone. It’s not showing up in Windows.
So, we’ve got one drive left, which is my normal hard drive. I’m going to try putting a nail through it. That sounds really sadistic, but let’s see what happens.
[Nailing sounds]
Wow, that’s actually quite hard to hammer a nail into. But it’s done—I’ve got nails sticking out of it. I don’t have very high hopes for this one, but let’s have a look.
[Whirring]
Nope. That’s not healthy, and it’s not showing up on the computer. So, that final hard drive is dead, which is entirely expected, given that there’s a nail sticking out of it. I even tried to pull it out, but it wouldn’t budge.
In conclusion, hard drives are actually more durable than I thought. You can drop them from head height, hit them with a hammer, and even drill through parts of them, and they’ll still work—sometimes. But at some point, they obviously fail.
I don’t know whether this video was helpful or useful, but I hope it was entertaining. If it was, please click the thumbs-up button, subscribe to see more videos like this, and thanks for watching!
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