Do you know of any ‘hard-core’ research papers documenting the failure rates of drives with covered holes vs uncovered? There are warnings on most disks, and warranties claim not to apply if the hole is covered (but how could they tell?), but I haven’t found any real data on the subject.
I have a set of specialty computers with high hdd failure rates, which I figured was just a bad batch of drives, but I have had a replacement drive of a different brand fail recently, so I am trying to review all the possible contributing factors. These are 2.5″ laptop hard drives encased in a metal frame with a foam liner around the perimeter of the drive to dampen vibrations. Would it help to tear out a chunk of the foam to make sure the breather hole is not covered? I have done this during most replacements, figuring it can’t hurt.
But if there are data out there showing covered holes cause failure rates to increase 0.0001 times the normal rate, then that is not much of a contributing factor. Any references or discussion of personal experiences would be appreciated.
