External Hard Drives Close to Studio Monitors?

[johnbarnesiii]

Hi guys,

Is it ok to place my external hard drives right next to my studio monitors?

I heard it could be bad for the drives but not sure if true or not?

I have Mackie MR5 studio monitors (first version they made), and I have G-Technology external hard drives (one 4TB and one 2TB)

Thanks in advance!

[albee1952]

I would try to keep at least a foot of distance. with external drives, its pretty simple. Maybe all you need to do is add a shelf beside or under your desk Having said that, I have a pair of USB drives sitting next to my JBL LSR305 and have had no issues in over a year(but I don't know how well-shielded my speakers, or yours are) I think I will be moving mine tomorrow Remember, spinning drives work by magnetism on the platters, so anything that is magnetic(like unshielded speakers) as at least worth wondering about....

[johnbarnesiii]

Thanks I'll keep in mind. I just searched online and it says my studio monitors are shielded so I guess that's a good thing, making it less of an issue. I'll keep an eye on them to be safe. Cheers.

[Muddy-T]

Don't worry, it's perfectly safe.

It would take a magnet many, many times stronger than found in any commercially available speaker to affect your HD in any way.

In fact, and I'm quoting from memory, you would need a magnet

powerful enough to suck the iron out of your blood cells

(Damn, I just love dispelling myths... )


Also, just for the record, electro magnetic shielding -as commonly found in audio equipment- is not the same as magnetic shielding, which is rather more complicated.

[Darryl Ramm]

Magnetism is likely just not ever an issue. The mechanical vibration getting to the drives may be more of an issue. Certainly loud bass can even do things like trip off the drop sensors in some HDD. Move the disks away from the speakers and try not to have them coupled mechanically to say the desk, put the speakers on floor stands or maybe foam isolators. But if you have this setup now and are not seeing problems/disk errors then likely it is OK.

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Magnetism is likely just not ever an issue. The mechanical vibration getting to the drives may be more of an issue. Certainly loud bass can even do things like trip off the drop sensors in some HDD. Move the disks away from the speakers and try not to have them coupled mechanically to say the desk, put the speakers on floor stands or maybe foam isolators. But if you have this setup now and are not seeing problems/disk errors then likely it is OK.

Yup - there's data out there that strongly links hard drive failure to vibration in the environment. I'd keep your drives well away from speakers.

[Muddy-T]

Originally Posted by Rich Breen

Yup - there's data out there that strongly links hard drive failure to vibration in the environment.

Could you provide a link to this data? I've been searching for half an hour and I can't find any conclusive proof for that.

(I'm not counting the guy on YouTube shouting at JBOD's... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4)

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Muddy-T

(I'm not counting the guy on YouTube shouting at JBOD's... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4

Huh you found an excellent video showing problems and you don't want to count it? What do you think those latency spikes might do to a Pro Tools session? The drives here may be tripping drop detectors and trying to park the heads, or just having vibration interfere with the head servoing.

Although rare this can happen, it is why Avid recommends disabling drop protection (aka sudden motion sensor) in laptops. Physical handling issues/robustness is another good reason to just use SSDs.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Muddy-T

Also, just for the record, electro magnetic shielding -as commonly found in audio equipment- is not the same as magnetic shielding, which is rather more complicated.

And just for the record many monitors/speakers are, or at least were, magnetically shielded. If the OPs monitors claim they are shielded that is exactly likely to be what the manufacturer means, magnetically shielded. That was done to avoid image and especially color distortion with televisions/CRT monitors. Thin mumetal shielding, it worked, not necesarilly complicated. But certainly never done with concern about disk drives. I am not sure why this thread went off in a magnetism direction in the first place. The only real possible issues are mechanical/vibration.

[Muddy-T]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What do you think those latency spikes might do to a Pro Tools session?

I have no idea at all. Do you? Does anyone?

I haven't seen any reports of 'shouting at HDD corrupts PT session' yet...