By the shield I mean the metal rectangular tube covering the connector pins.
Is this shield designed to take ESD shocks, and does it protect the internal circuitry from static electricity? What would happen if there was a static discharge from your body to the metal shield?
There still needs to be a circuit to ground for the spark to happen, so a spark won't happen until the drive shield is plugged into something metal.
Once it is plugged in, it is as much part of the the metal that you could touch to discharge yourself as the system you plugged it into.
