Can mounting a HD vertically damage it or..

[Tauren]

shorten it's lifespan? I just opened my fiancee's Gateway and it is mounted vertically. I was thinking it put's all the weight to one side.

 

[edjam]

Well, my old Dell had it vertically in a cage too, don't think it would damage them, they wouldn't want them all returned because of the way they store them would they?

 

[datallah]

If you look at pretty much any HDD manufacturer's spec. pages they will specify that the drive can be mounted either horizontally or vertically. You can be sure that if the orientation of the drive during operation had bad effects on its performance or longevity the manufacturers would advise against it.

Don't worry about it. I've had drives mounted vertically in several of my older systems and the only drive that has ever failed on me was mounted horizontally.

 

[Tauren]

nt

 

[samgau]

I think those mounted vertically tend to become noisy earlier than those mounted horz. i guess we could equate that to a reduced lifetime... by how much, now thats the question... I'd say in the 5-10% reduction...IMHO

 

[Vegito]

some even has it up-side down

 

[corkyg]

In the "old days" we used to do that frequently with small cases.

There is a caution . . . once you mount and use a HDD one way, then it is not a good idea to change it to another way.

 

[dcdomain]

Hell if the R&D guys at Dell and Gateway thinks it's a good idea, then I don't see why we should worry.

 

[Harish]

I dont think that should be a problem. Dell usually loads the HDD that way....and I havent had any problems so I guess its cool..

 

[yourharddrive]

nope....my Dell's had a Vertically Mounted HD and its been running 4 years straight...no problems...though my horizontally mounted IBM HD failed but thats just IBM drives for ya

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Nope, shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't mind the bytes filling it up from the bottom up... 😀 I have run into an Emachines that mounted the drive that way as well.