Electronics > Beginners
What is this item found on a PCB?
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Ranayna:
An air filter was what came to mind first, seeing those pictures. With the added information that this came directly from the harddrive and not somewhere else in the recorder, that is confirmed in my opinion :)

You may be aware or not (a surpising amount of people are not), that most harddrives cannot be airtight and no harddrive has a vacuum inside. The heads need a cushion of air to float over the surface of the disk. Having the internal and external presure equalized is important for most harddisk. On almost every harddisk (except of course Helium filled ones ;)) you will find a breather hole somewhere. This is the first time i see an external filter though. I'm sure there is also an internal filter, otherwise just removing the PCB might break the disk.

Do you know the model of disk? Now i'm curious ;)
upl8:
Thanks. Yes, I was aware that the heads float on a cushion of air. Amazing devices.

The drive is (or was) a WD3200AVVS-63L2B0. I can't find any photos showing the filter.
Ranayna:
If I remember correctly, it has been a long time since I tore down a WD harddisk, for that style of case the filter is stuck on the inside of the lid, just where the clearly visible breather hole is. I was not able to find a picture of the lid though.
It certainly was not attached to the interface PCB of the harddisk. Maybe there was some kind of extra attached filter, but that would not be something that is fitted by Western Digital.
Ranayna:
Somehow that topic nagged me  :box:  :horse:

So, at work I found a similar 250 GB Western Digital Harddrive in the junkbin. The lid is the same as yours (or at least looks the same)
One removed label and 7 screws later I had the confirmation: That little clear plastic box filled with small black spheres is stuck on the inside of the lid beneath the two (one is covered by the label) breather holes. I cannot provide photos at the moment, but the filter looks exactly like the one you posted.

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