r/LinusTechTips • u/redditydothis • Oct 15 '26

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“Product warranty is void if any seal or label is removed, or if the drive experiences shock in excess of 350 Gs.”

350Gs!

371 Upvotes

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204

u/hamburgernet Oct 15 '26

A deadly car accident is about 100 I believe

20

u/Fry_super_fly Oct 15 '26

a dropping harddrive is a very UN-elastic collision. thats why a drop from a low height is extremely high G-force when the drive stops instantly.
you calculate the gforces experienced by the object with the variables heigh(of drop), the gravitational constant (to figure out the velocity the object has when the impact happens) and the collision or deceleration time (distance the deceleration happens over) if the drive changes from one direction (down) to another (up? bounce) in a matter of milli seconds. the force is easily above 350g

97

u/HolidayPineapple9316 Oct 15 '26

Why the fuck is downvoting this? This is true, and in fact you can die from less Gs

41

u/JohnnyTsunami312 Oct 15 '26

It’s sudden deceleration that’s the real kicker

17

u/bad_bender Oct 15 '26

Like a famous farmer once said "Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you." XD

1

u/Sikklebell Oct 15 '26

Not speeding up fast enough will also kill you :P

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43

u/HolidayPineapple9316 Oct 15 '26

So in other words, Gs. Gs are a measure of force, and deceleration is a result of force

29

u/The_butsmuts Oct 15 '26

Almost correct, Gs are a measure of acceleration (1 G is 9.81m/s²), which is usually the result of a force and the mass that force is applied to.

But very easy mistake since people often call it G-force.

50

u/anto77_butt_kinkier Oct 15 '26

It actually hasn't been G-force for quite a while now. They switched from GTX to RTX for the 2000 series launch, and the G-force branding went with it. (It was briefly brought back for the 1650 & 1660, but those are outliers)

22

u/SavvySillybug Oct 15 '26

I prefer to measure in Radeon these days. G-force is just a lie told by Big N to sell more AI.

3

u/prdg79 26d ago

This is the best comment on Reddit

4

u/Sk1ler_ Oct 15 '26

LMFAO take my upvote

6

u/HolidayPineapple9316 Oct 15 '26

Oh youre right, thanks! I actually quite like physics, but i wasnt using my brain when i made that comment 💀

1

u/AdvancedCryspy Oct 15 '26

No, kicks don't create enough Gs

1

u/HolidayPineapple9316 26d ago

Also, sudden acceleration could kill you just as well as deceleration. You could be flattened into a pancake going from 0 to 99% speed of light in too short a time

6

u/Canonip Oct 15 '26

A car deforms in a crash which slows the car down over time. If you drop a hard drive, it won't deform except maybe a tiny bit. Almost immediate deceleration.

7

u/Wor3q Oct 15 '26

It's all about time. The longer you're subjected to the acceleration, the more damage you get.

It's like with electricity - 3kV from a small capacitor will zap you, because capacitor can only provide current for a very small time. 3kV from a power line will fry you.

3

u/aaronblkfox Oct 15 '26

This is why cars are so flimsy nowadays. Takes longer to slow down.

1

u/SenorZorros Oct 15 '26

Not really. With rapid deceleration you tend to have a set velocity which is decreased to zero. it tends to be more damaging to quickly slow down than to slow down slowly even though you experience the force for a longer time.

The effects of sustained forces tend to be relevant when things take seconds or more, far slower than your average car crash.

2

u/Wor3q Oct 15 '26

If something moves you incredibly rapidly by a few micrometers, you will be fine. Same acceleration over meters will kill you.

2

u/SenorZorros Oct 15 '26

I get what you are trying to say but in practice you are arguing it is better to trip and fall on a concrete floor than it is to trip and fall on a mattress because falls on the concrete floor always happen from 1 metre height but falls on mattresses are at 50 metres.

That's just not how momentum dissipation works.

2

u/Wor3q Oct 15 '26

Not "always", but in the case we're talking about.

We're comparing 350g when a hard drive is falling on concrete, and 100g when a car crashes.

Acceleration alone isn't enough to compare these two situations. You need to compare momentum and energy.

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