Hard drive corruption following gas discharge

[westerner]

Has anyone heard of any incidents where hard drives have been corrupted following a gas discharge in EDP environments?

[AnthonyB]

I do remember there was concern 'back in the day' of the risks of thermal shock from CO2, hence the wider use of BCF/BTM in computer environments.

With current agents the following links will be of interest:

http://www.availabilitydigest.com/public_articles/0602/inergen_noise.pdf

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/inergen-release-associated-with-acute-hard-drive-failure-rate-what-effect-causes-the-damage/

http://www.flametech-bg.com/admin/downloads/a3b380587e2a29236a70583bd274f909.pdf

http://www.datacenterjournal.com/it/inert-gas-data-center-fire-protection-and-hard-disk-drive-damage/

and with a solution:

http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/news/2011/silent-nozzle-extinguisher-does-not-harm-hard-disks.htm

This could be a major issue in Europe where the HCFC blends are intended to be phased out by the EU, leaving only inert gases & water mist for data centres