I'm about to change my HDD for the first time. I don't have an anti-static wrist strap, but was planning on wearing some nitrile examination gloves. Will this keep me from shocking my computer to death?
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Are nitrile or latex gloves sufficient anti-static measures?
- Thread starter Lurchdubious
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Really it's unnecessary. Providing you don't detect some high level of static electricity in your house right now and you ground yourself just before you start, there's no reason to be so paranoid.
I swap hard drives all of the time without gloves or wrist straps.
I swap hard drives all of the time without gloves or wrist straps.
What kind of machine?
Conventional wisdom is that simply rubbing your hands on the computer's chassis (while not connected to power, of course) will discharge any static, but even then the risk of zapping something is very low - meaning I worked a job where I repaired computers, never grounded myself, and never zapped anything.
I user to build servers and workstations in Phoenix (single-digit humidity), and never once used a grounding strap, and never once zapped a single component. Not an issue unless you're preternaturally sloppy.
Forget using gloves. Just touch the metal frame of the computer and don't move your feet afterwards. I've never zapped anything.
Thanks for the replies! I have my bare feet touching a metal bar, and put on the gloves just cuz I'm used to that when working on delicate things, whether in the mouth, or my macbook (I'm a student dentist 
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).Thanks for the replies! I have my bare feet touching a metal bar, and put on the gloves just cuz I'm used to that when working on delicate things, whether in the mouth, or my macbook (I'm a student dentist
I doubt you will ever shock a patient while working as a dentist. In all the years I've had dental work, the only shock I've had related to dentists is the bill.