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Jackintosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 21, 2009
573
4
I'm by no means an expert in this. But I've been reading the occasional hard drive problems and related symptoms posts for Minis here. I've also read my Mini instructions, warning not to move the Mini unless shut down and powered off. The manual warns that otherwise damage to the hard drive could occur. Could this be the cause for some of the hard drive problem reports we see here?

The Mini is so small and light, it's so tempting to just lift the thing and tilt it in your direction to attach or detach a cable. I've actually done that while it was powered on without thinking, only to realize the potential consequences. Am I paranoid or is any there truth to this as a potential HDD issue?
 

jwhazel

macrumors regular
Sep 22, 2005
222
77
The mini uses laptop hard drives which are made to be moved around within reason without issue.

The simple fact is that hard drives are small electronic devices that use precision high speed moving parts to operate. They're bound to fail sooner or later and as the speed and complexity (capacity) increase, so does the chance for defects.
 

Tomorrow

macrumors 604
Mar 2, 2008
7,160
1,364
Always a day away
People forget that hard drives are one of a very, very few moving parts in a computer. As such, they typically have shorter lifespans and are more prone to failure.

People also forget that Apple doesn't make hard drives - these come from Seagate, or WD, or Hitachi, etc. The problem isn't isolated to Minis.
 

Jackintosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 21, 2009
573
4
Ok, thanks all. Makes sense. Since they're laptop drives, sounds like not a big issue to move the Mini around within reason.
 

MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Jan 8, 2008
2,721
2,042
Tampa, Florida
Ok, thanks all. Makes sense. Since they're laptop drives, sounds like not a big issue to move the Mini around within reason.

Just gently scooting it around your desk a bit to reach a port in the back should be fine. Just don't bang it, whack it, drop it, tilt it suddenly, etc. and your mini will be happy :)
 
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