what is a suggested location to store templates on the hard drive?

Whether you lot're a bit of a parts hoarder or just trying to reuse old parts and go along them out of the dump, it's easy to amass a pile of electronic components. Storing them is no skillful if they're damaged when you lot go to utilize them, though; read on as we talk safety storage and how to keep your onetime HDD and friends alive.

Dear How-To Geek,

I definitely read your contempo article most getting data off an old difficult drive with interest every bit I have more than than a few laying effectually. I have a related question to inquire. How should I be storing these sometime hard drives? I don't really have a good reason to get rid of them and, even though the data is backed upward on them already, I like having them equally a sort of "deep backup" in example I ever actually need those old college papers or tax returns restored. I'thousand definitely guilty of just keeping them stacked up in a box in the dorsum of the closet and information technology doesn't take a computer engineer to know that'south a bad plan. Whatshould I be doing?

Sincerely,

Old HDD Hoarder

It e'er warms our geeky hearts when nosotros come beyond people who are interested in best practices and how to protect data (no matter how old or redundant information technology might exist). This is a useful question considering non just do the general principles we're about to outline employ to hard drives just too to other reckoner components like RAM, expansion cards, and motherboards.

There are 3 principle enemies of electronic components: static, moisture, and physical shock/damage. The easiest to avoid is physical shock and damage. Most people know to be cautious enough with their equipment to not store it haphazardly plenty so that a nudge off a tall shelf sends the difficult drive crashing to the floor (potentially, among many hazards, breaking off data/ability connectors or damaging the delicate solder joints).

Yous also need to be concerned virtually smaller and less visible damage that may occur, too. Years of being stored bare in a box at the back of your cupboard can atomic number 82 to (as the box is moved, jostled, etc.) the hard metal edges of one HDD's casing rubbing against the much softer underbelly of some other HDD (where the logic board resides). It would be a existent bummer to lose an old hard drive over a tiny damaged trace in a logic board when the platters and internal mechanisms are notwithstanding good. With that in heed, the very showtime lodge of business is storing HDDs and other components so they tin't fall, crash-land into each other, or otherwise suffer a perfectly avoidable expiry-past-physics.

While a tumble off a poorly organized bookshelf is definitely the louder and more than theatrical manner for a difficult drive to go, the silent killer is static discharge. Electronic components are enormously sensitive to static discharge and one errant zap (even if it isn't felt or seen) from a finger tip tin can be the buss of death to a component. The dryer the locale you alive in, the bigger the concern (many an unsuspecting component has perished in the bitter cold and dry 15% humidity of a Northern wintertime). In add-on to protecting the hard bulldoze from bumps and bruises, yous likewise want to provide protection against static discharge.

Finally, yous want to keep all your hard drives and bits 'n pieces of computers dry. Compared to the run a risk of falling or getting zapped, moisture damage ranks pretty low on the listing of potential risks (parts definitely die more often from plummets and zappy fingers than from slow corrosion in ultra-humid climates). Still, given how easy it is to proceed a box, drawer, or cabinet full of parts nice and dry out, there's no reason not to.

Now that nosotros've identified the three hazards your deep-storage parts might face up, what'due south the easiest way to mitigate them? We can await at how manufacturers ship those very parts to store (and directly to united states) to see what we need to practise. No company could beget to bargain with the piles of RMA'd components that would issue from poor packaging practices, so they apply all-time practices in club to get those parts safely to y'all.

When y'all unpack your typical hard drive, information technology has protections against all three of the hazards outlined above. The hard drive is cradled in some sort of protective foam, card lath, or plastic shell (or all of the above) to prevent impact damage. The drive is wrapped in an anti-static bag to protect it from shocks. Finally, somewhere in the box is a little package of desiccants (typically little silica beads in a perforated bag) to absorb any moisture and keep the container dry during shipment. Padded, electrically protected, and dry is the proper name of the game.

If you're only storing a few components, and you saved the packaging they came in, it's easy enough to merely put them right dorsum in. Here are two hard drives from around our role packed back in the protective gear they came in:

The hard drive on the left is wrapped dorsum up in its electrostatic bag and the i on the correct is in an electrostatic clamshell: a nicer choice that offers both shock protection and a little more physical protection than a uncomplicated purse.

Well-nigh other electronic components ship in like wrapping. RAM and processors typically come in piddling plastic clamshells. Motherboards and video cards come in electrostatic numberless protected by padding and a box.

Even if you don't have the originally packaging, yous can hope on eBay or Amazon and pick up the right stuff for a few bucks. Hither you can buy difficult drive size bags, 25 for $12. Desire to wrap up a motherboard or video carte du jour? Xiv bucks volition get y'all 10 large component bags. If you like your stuff well organized and labeled, you tin can even become sturdy little HDD cases that look a whole lot similar old VHS tape cases from a forget picture rental shop, complete with label space.

Once your components are wrapped or encased in their anti-static cloth, placed carefully into a box or cabinet where they're protected against slamming against each other by some appropriate barrier or padding, you can cease off the trifecta of best practice storage methods by tossing a silica pack in the storage container. Even a cheap $7 model, like this ane here, will last you forever, equally y'all can reactivate it every few years past drying it out in the oven.

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Have a pressing tech question? Shoot us an email at enquire@howtogeek.com and we'll do our best to reply it.

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Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/182754/ask-htg-how-should-i-store-old-hard-drives-and-electronic-components/

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