[Liney]

For those of you who are not that interested in computer hardware, this is what the inside of your computer hard drive looks like, Bit of a tricky image, the actual hard disc is very reflective so what you're actually seeing is the read/write arm and it's reflection.

Attached Images

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

[tncowdaddy]

This is a cool shot!

[foxandcrow]

That is a very interesting shot, I remember that part when I opened an old one I had just to see what it looked like.

[MossyRocks]

I like it.

Just think of all the hours of engineering that went into that from all sorts of engineers. Software, materials, mechanical, electrical, aerospace, chemical, and probably others that I am forgetting.
Now I want to do another another component of that still on wafer. I will have to ask my father-in-law and see if he still has any.

[SSGGeezer]

It is amazing how it can move so precisely to read the disc so accurately. Great image too!

[photoptimist]

It is amazing how it can move so precisely to read the disc so accurately. Great image too!

Pentax SR uses essentially the same technology: a controlled current sent into a coil of wire generates a magnetic field that pushes or pulls on another magnetic field created by very high-strength rare earth magnets. Whereas hard disks have only one coil on a swing-arm, Pentax SR has four coils on a platform that slides in any direction.

[Liney]

If the disk was operating correctly, the disk would be rotating at great speed, and the arm would (from what I remember) be floating above the disk rather than actually being in contact with the disk.

But you're right MossyRocks, some engineer spent a lot of time and effort designing that arm and working out how to wire it up.

[MossyRocks]

If the disk was operating correctly, the disk would be rotating at great speed, and the arm would (from what I remember) be floating above the disk rather than actually being in contact with the disk.

The speed is actually surprisingly high. The circumference is only about 10" on a standard desktop drive. So assuming it is one of those ultra high end drives with a speed of 15,000 rpm the outer edge is moving would be about 140mph. This speed actually cause the head to fly above the platter. Because the head is actually flying above the disk the manufactures of drives end up employing areospace engineers to to design the heads. Also with higher bit densities the distance between the head and platter has continued to shrink so now I would imagine that even some of the finest dust would cause a head crash on some drives now. Back in college I had an internship at a place that made the signal preamps for drives and got a crash course in intricacies of how hard drives work. All I did was write code to run robotic test equipment.

They are an impressive piece of engineering on a lot of levels. It wasn't just one engineer on that arm it was a team.