Fluid
Dynamic Bearing (FBD) technology in hard drive spindle motors
The motor assembly
on many modern hard disk drives contains a fluid bearing. Fluid
bearings are commonly used by many hard drive manufacturers and
have advantages over their ball bearing counterpart drives is
so much as (1) They provide superior shock resistance and, (2)
They run much quieter.
However, Data Clinic
investigation has shown that when a hard disk drive with a motor
assembly of this type is powered up from cold, the fluid contained
in the bearing takes time to reach it's optimum performance viscosity.
During this time (when the fluid in the bearing is not operating
at its optimum viscosity) the hard drive platters are subject
to vertical vibration, causing multiple read & write errors,
ultimately leading towards the failure of the hard drive.
We believe that this
vertical vibration is a contributing factor to why many modern
hard disks develop firmware and other service area related faults.
Right:
Disassembly of the spindle motor from a seized FDB hard drive.
The parts are (left to right): starter motor, fluid bearing, rotor |
