Seagate Drives Withstand Punishing Conditions on Everest

Seagate Drives Withstand Punishing Conditions on Everest

It’s one thing for Seagate’s hard drives to perform well in the controlled confines of a lab or a customer’s factory; it’s a different story when those drives must withstand some of the most punishing and unpredictable field conditions imaginable – the slopes of Mt. Everest.

Recently, two of Seagate’s external hard drives – the 100 GB Portable External Hard Drive and the 5 GB Pocket Hard Drive – did just that, accompanying a team of climbers that attempted to summit the world’s highest peak. The team’s guide, Jim Williams, brought the hard drives with him as far as the 17,500-foot base camp; Seagate’s drives are specified to work at 10,000 feet.

“The drives performed very well,” Williams said last week, back at his home in Jackson, Wyoming. “We used them to back-up pictures and e-mail. It was a relief that the drives operated so well, because we’ve had problems in the past with how our laptops performed at those altitudes.”

After spending several days adjusting to the altitude, the team left all non-essential gear, including the Seagate drives, behind at base camp, and continued up the mountain’s southern slope. But bad weather kept the expedition grounded for most of May.

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