Editing Head crash

{{Short description|Read-write head of a hard disk making contact with the platter}}
{{about|hard drive failure|the German-American band under the same name|HeadCrash (band)|the cyberpunk novel|Headcrash}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2011}}
[[File:Hard disk head crash.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A head crash in a modern drive. Note circular scratch mark on the platter.]]
[[File:Samsung_Harddrive_headcrash_DSCN0124b.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A head crash]]
A '''head crash''' is a [[hard-disk failure]] that occurs when a [[disk read-and-write head|read–write head]] of a [[hard disk]] drive makes contact with its rotating [[hard disk platter|platter]], slashing its surface and permanently damaging its magnetic media. It is difficult to recover data from a head crashed drive. It is most often caused by a sudden severe motion of the disk, for example the jolt caused by dropping a laptop to the ground while it is operating or physically shocking a computer. Laptop 2.5 drives are significantly more likely to have a head crash due to their mobile nature despite having higher shock resistance than 3.5 desktop drives. Desktop drives being larger are more prone to damage if dropped but are usually in one place like in a computer/server so they are overall less likely to have a head crash.

==Head details==
A head normally rides on [[Air bearing|a thin film of moving air]] entrapped at the surface of its platter (some drives manufactured by [[Conner Peripherals]] in the mid-1990s used a thin liquid layer instead of air and Connor was the only manufacturer to ever do this<ref name="Corporation1993">{{cite book|author=Bonnier Corporation|title=Popular Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qg1TXHcJwgcC&pg=PA48|date=April 1993|publisher=Bonnier Corporation|pages=48–}}</ref>). The distance between the head and platter is called the [[flying height]]. The head flies so close to the platter that you need a microscope to actually see its not touching the platter. The topmost layer of the platter is made of a [[Teflon]]-like material that acts like a lubricant.  Underneath is a layer of [[Sputtering|sputtered]] carbon. These two layers protect the magnetic layer (data storage area) from most accidental touches of the read-write head.<ref>Wiederrecht,  Gary Phillip (2010). ''Handbook of nanoscale optics and electronics,'' p. 257. Academic Press. {{ISBN|978-0-12-375178-2}}</ref>

The [[disk read-and-write head]] is made using thin film techniques that include materials hard enough to scratch through the protective layers.
Heads must not touch the platters unless it is on a landing zone but modern hard drives use load ramps(a notable exception would be cheaper seagate drives that still use landing zones) so the heads never touch at all. A head crash can be initiated by a force that puts enough pressure on the platters from the heads to scratch through to the magnetic storage layer. A tiny particle of dirt or other detritus, excessive shock or vibration (such as accidentally dropping a running drive), can cause a head to bounce against its disk, destroying the thin magnetic coating on the area the heads come in contact with, and often damaging the heads in the process. After this initial crash, countless numbers of fine particles from the damaged area can land on other areas and can cause more head crashes when the heads move over those particles, quickly causing significant damage and [[data loss]], and rendering the drive useless. Some modern hard disks incorporate [[free fall sensor]]s(in 2.5 drives but very rare in 3.5 drives)to offer protection against head crashes caused by accidentally dropping the drive.

==Differences at RPMs==

Since most modern drives spin at rates between 5,400 and 15,000 [[revolutions per minute|RPM]], the damage caused to the magnetic coating can be extensive. At 7,200 RPM, the edge of a 3.5inch  platter is traveling at over {{convert|120|km/h}}, and as the crashed head drags over the platter surface, the read-write head generally overheats, making the drive or at least parts of it unusable until the head cools down.

[[File:RAMAC 305 disk.JPG|thumb|right|250px|[[IBM 350|IBM RAMAC disk]] shows head crash damage.]]

==Older heads==

Older drives typically rotated far more slowly and had larger heads flying higher above the surface of the medium. However, since in many cases, the medium was housed in a removable cartridge or pack and since air filtration was comparatively crude, crashes were fairly frequent and invariably expensive.

==Laptops==
Head crashes have been a frequent problem on laptop computers since they first incorporated hard drives, since a laptop computer is more liable to be dropped or jostled than a stationary machine. This has led to the development of [[active hard-drive protection|protective technologies]] that "park" the head at a safe distance from the disk when sudden motion, such as that of a dropped computer, is detected. Active Hard Disk Protection software and sensors began appearing in laptops in 2003 with [[IBM]] introducing it in their [[ThinkPad]] line of laptops,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ku|first=Andrew|title=IBM ThinkVantage Technologies: Hard Drive Active Protection System|url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/1173|access-date=2021-03-22|website=www.anandtech.com}}</ref> becoming common around 2009 with the introduction of [[Windows 7]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=28 December 2020|title=HP Notebook PCs - Use ProtectSmart to Prevent Hard Drive Damage|url=https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02502605|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}}</ref> These drives are also designed to "self-park" during sudden power loss, which has reduced the incidence of head crashes. With the popularization of [[solid-state drives]], which have no head or disk, the head-crash issue has been nearly eliminated in modern laptops.

==See also==
* [[Active hard-drive protection]]
* [[Bad sector]]
* [[Click of death]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hard disk drives]]
[[Category:Technological failures]]