DATA CENTRES THE PROBLEM?
Hard Disk Damage
Since 2007, reports started to emerge saying that hard disk drives (HDD's) had been damaged following the release of Inert gas fire suppression systems.
Much speculation followed and early investigations focused around the possibilities of air-pressure changes, a chemical reaction, or temperature fluctuations during the release of the extinguishing agent.
What is the real problem?.............Acoustic noise.
When an inert gas is released from the pressurized cylinders it flows through the pipes at an extremely high velocity.
On exit through the discharge nozzles within the data centre, it generates high-level acoustic noise.
The noise reaches the HDD's where it causes vibration, which in turn causes the read/write element to go off the data track, resulting in the partial loss of data or in some cases a catastrophic failure of Hard Disk Drives.
