Operating HDD at high altitudes

[radar]

Hi,

a colleague is going to some high altitude places in Nepal and Tibet. He plans on taking some HDDs to be able to transfer his photos from his CF cards. But looking at the specifications, the HDD drives (Hitachi, Seagate, WD) are only rated up to 3000m. He plans to be at places that are anywhere between 3500 to 5000m, eg Everest base camp, Lhasa in Tibet.

Has anybody here operated a notebook or PSD at high altitudes, other then a pressurised cabin in a plane? A plane does not count. What happens to a HDD that gets operated above 3000m, head crash due to low pressure??

Thanks,

Radar.

[sheepie]

...head crash due to low pressure??

I know mine would

I found this site which may or may not be useful...
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Hard:disk.html

A hard disk drive requires a certain range of air pressures in order to operate properly. If the air pressure is too low, the air will not exert enough force on the flying head, the head will not be at the proper height, and there is a risk of head crashes and data loss.

[MCWB]

Not sure how the drive will cope, but another issue you might come across is that NiMH batteries will lose a lot of their capacity when it's cold. If you're trekking without power for a lengthy period of time it might be something to watch out for!

[radar]

Thanks Sheepie and MCWB,

Much appreciated. There seems that one can get fully sealed and pressurised HDD that are then good at high altitudes. He'll have to decide if that will do the job for him.

As an alternative, he can forget about HDD and just go CD/DVD. There are portable CD/DVD writers that do not require a computer and can burn from a CF card. He could also boot from a Linux CD and then he wouldn't have to worry about HDD. They can do CD-burning as well, that's if he wants his Mac to be "dainted" running Linux

Cheers,

André