hard drive protecction system question....

[creed_mty]

Wow, i was impressed on the tech tv show when i saw the thinkpad t series active protecction system in accion!!!

So, the theory says that when the sensors detect a fall, the proteccion makes the HD heads put in park before the impact when is TURNED ON.

My question is what about when is TURNED OFF??? sometimes there are occasionally accidents when is NOT in use. Does the laptop HD heads place in park when TURNED OFF or there is not way to get any HD damages when TURNED OFF if a fall occours?

i will appreciate any info. thanks!!!!

Note: this is not a barrier for not getting a thinkpad. However, i really want a thinkpad and i decided myself that i cannot compare
a dell machine and my money will be well spent on a thinkpad!!
still thinking what configuration is good for me because i cannot fully customize it and the "gto" model i very expensive!

[kskim91]

When the hdd powers off the heads are automatically parked.

Years back you did have hard disks that did not automatically park the heads and you had to use a park command before powering off.

[GomJabbar]

The heads are parked when the hard drive is powered off.

If there is a power outage (e.g., you turn-off the computer) the spring, which counterbalances the electromagnetic force between the coil and magnet, takes over and automatically parks (lands them on skids or nanosliders--like pontoons on a sea plane) and locks the heads on a part of the platters called a landing zone (like an airport runway only curved) before they can crash (like an airplane) on, and mar that part of the surface of the platters where data is stored.

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/guides/hd/hd5.htm

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Active_Protection_System

[christopher_wolf]

Whenever a the system enters a sleep state such as Suspend or Hibernate, the drive heads are parked on the ramp, off the platter, and locked into that position until you resume. This is true for just about every modern laptop now, especially the Thinkpads.

HTH

[creed_mty]

Whenever a the system enters a sleep state such as Suspend or Hibernate, the drive heads are parked on the ramp, off the platter, and locked into that position until you resume. This is true for just about every modern laptop now, especially the Thinkpads.

HTH

WOW Thanks very much for the info. also is a good thing to be parked on sleep mode or hibernate!!!!

by the way i did not see similar system like thinkpads, other brands use like rubbered cushoned frames on th hard drive to also prevent damage to HD, one of them is dell. well on the review i saw on tech tv shown the thinkpad on a little window on screen where you can see the machine moving in the same way and turning the same way you do it with your hands physically at the very same time showing the proof of active proteccion system in accion!!!!http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... q=thinkpad

thanks a lot again for the info !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[christopher_wolf]

The only other system I know of and am familiar with that works like the Thinkpad HDAPS is the one that has been implemented on the Powerbooks although I do not know if it has been ported to the MacBook Pro line.

There is, I believe, a 3 DOF accelerometer chipset in the Thinkpads that detects sudden acceleration along 3 independent axes. Hence, you can ascertain positional information much like an inertia guidance system would, except without the need for bulky gyroscopes. Although, once it is held still in a certain position for a long time, the 3D view resets it to show it on the horizontal plane; this "view reset" has no effect on how it protects the HDD(s) but is simply very nice to look at and note.

HTH