Laptop was Dropped

My neighbor was carrying my laptop for me, which was a bad decision on my part. I do keep it in a soft carrying case. Anyway, he accidentally dropped it onto cement ( fell a few feet, as he was in a wheelchair). I immediately checked it out and it appears to be working fine. When it was dropped my first thoughts were, "That's the end of the HDD." My question is: do you think any long-term damage to any of the components may have occurred (particularly the HDD, as it would be the component most sensitive to shock), or is it possible the HDD may have some sort of fall-sensing capability to lock the drive and minimize damage (I've read some laptops have that capability). What do you think? Thanks....Ed

Was it turned on or off when it was dropped? If it was turned off then the heads would have been parked and the chance of damage would be much less. If it was turned on, the G-force sensors that you talk about (if your laptop has them, check the manual) work like this:

Usually the system consists of accelerometers that alert the system when excess acceleration or vibration is detected. The software then tells the hard disk to unload its heads to prevent them from coming in contact with the platter, thus potentially preventing head crash.

Active hard-drive protection - Wikipedia

Sounds like you've been lucky @Mr Ed, but as a precaution it would be wise to back up your data and make a system image (if you do not already have one). That way you can replace the HDD if it ever fails and restore the system image.

Thanks for the explanation about how HDD's protect themselves. I'm sure my humble Toshiba doesn't have any G-force protection within. BTW, the laptop was off when it fell, so according to what you said, it did have some protection As I recall, my first Toshiba that broke the screen was running at the time, yet the hard drive survived until this day. Maybe just a fluke?

BTW, everything is backed up to external media and the cloud.

Mr Ed said:

BTW, everything is backed up to external media and the cloud.

A system image on an external HDD is a good idea too. Should you ever drop and break the HDD or it just wears out and dies then you can restore the image to a brand new drive and carry on as if nothing had happened. Windows comes with its own imaging software, but most here recommend Macrium Reflect (free) as a more reliable solution.

Macrium Reflect - Backup & Restore
System Image - Create in Windows 10

I read ya', Bree. I have backed up a system image on an external HDD (a new one, not the salvaged one from my old Toshiba).