ESD or "static shock" is a portion of an imbalanced high voltage field on a non-conductive surface (e.g. your hand, the carpet, a screwdriver) that has just moved to a conductive surface in a rapid, uncontrolled fashion. "Static electricity" is the same portion of an imbalanced high voltage field on a nonconductive surface, but it has not yet reached the point of releasing it's electrons to equalize the imbalance between a conductor with a greater positive charge than itself. This imbalanced high voltage field will not "discharge" until conditions are right, that is until the number of electrons the charge grabs from around its location builds to a point in which no more electrons can be sustained. When a conductive surface of some type gets within 'jumping" distance, the process of equalising the electrical field is experienced.

While ESD won’t kill you, it can definitely kill your computer components. While it takes an electrostatic discharge of 3,000 volts for you to feel a shock, much smaller charges, well below the threshold of human sensation, can and often do damage semiconductor devices. Many of the more sophisticated electronic components can be damaged by charges as low as 10 volts.Especially sensitive to ESD are integrated circuits: processors, memory, cache chips and expansion cards. This damage can be immediate, resulting in melting, junction breakdown or oxidation. Even scarier, you could electrocute your drive and never even know it – the effects of ESD are difficult to trace and often do not affect the drive until several days to several months after the ESD occurrence.