Is it OK to mount Hard Drives *vertically* ?

[VBboy]

Please answer only if you know for sure Otherwise, my guess would be as good as anyone else's.

Is it OK to mount hard drives vertically? (so you will have the longest side on the bottom, as shown):

#########---> Power
#########
#########---> IDE

Or do you have to mount them regularly, horisontally?

The reason I ask is because the Lian PC70 case has the vertically-mounted 3.5 internal drive bays. I don't want to break my HD by using it like that...

Are there any additional heat or reliability concerns when the HD is mounted like that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hawkeye_(BEL)]

I think you can mount them that way without a problem. Just don't move them into another direction when they're still spinning. The basic laws of physics dictate that the heads will crash then...

 

[VBboy]

Hawkeye_(BEL),

You're right, if you push it sideways the head will move and touch the surface.. not good

But isn't that the same as hitting your computer on the "head" when they are mounted normally? Same effect, right?

.. I'm afraid now.

 

[GameQuoter]

Yes you can mount it vertically. My friend's pre-built computer had the hard drive mounted vertically. Just don't mess with it while it's on.

 

[yiwonder]

You can mount it in any direction, but like the others have said, do it with the drive stopped and your computer off.

 

[VBboy]

Has anyone had hard drives in such position for a year or more? Just want to check that they don't melt or anything like that..

 

[VBboy]

What about the arm with the head? Isn't there more force acting against it (gravity) when it has to slide up/down instead of left/right?

 

[Ryan]

I have Actually, it was mounted that way for 4 years! Hell yea, and it works fine....

 

[mk52]

We have OEM machines here at work that have the hdds mounted vertically and they ve been running for years since they are PII450s.

-MeliK

 

[filmore crashcart]

I had an interesting thing happen when I was formatting my new 40 gig IBM 60 gxp with it in a vertical position. The formatting was very slow and eventually stopped half through the format. I started wondering if I had a defective drive and started the format again. The second time around, it again started slowly, until I moved the harddrive into a horizontal position. Once it was in a horizontal position, it sped up, formatted fine, and I loaded windows. With my other WD 40.5 gig drive, it didn't matter what position the drive was in, but with the IBM, at least for me, having it set vertically had a very bad effect.

 

[Hawkeye_(BEL)]

I saw an OEM Packard Bell computer once with a vertically mounted HD, and I've heard that it was done rather often in the days when people still used desktop cases instead of towers.

And about the effect of gravity... good question actually. I think the loss in speed from moving the head upwards is compensated if the head has to move downwards, IF it makes a difference at all (electric motor is probably not even noticing it).

 

[VBboy]

I guess I'd better call Maxtor/IBM/Western Digital and ask them this question to be sure.. Don't want to void the warranty by running them vertically mounted

 

[VBboy]

Also, I know that the head is supposed to "float" above the disk's surface, on a thin layer of air. But if mounted vertically, things seem to work differently.

Anyone care to pop your old HD open, mount it vertically and take her for a spin for me?

 

[LXi]

Gosh, whats the big deal? You have to call the hard drive makers to make sure?? Jeez, tell you what, every OEM(Dell, HP, Compaq...) does this on their machines, it's no problem.

 

[dkozloski]

Not only can the drive be mounted in any orientation you like, it can be moved around at will while spinning and unless you give it a good thump there is very little risk of data loss. Hard drives function well on land vehicles, aircraft, and the rolling ships at sea. Practically all the caveats on hard drive treatment apply to much older generation equipment. A modern hard drive is a truly amazing piece of equipment.Take the time to examine the specs for shock loading and the like to appreciate what good engineers can do.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

My friend has an emachines Celeron 333 MHz and it has been running for three years with the hard drive mounted vertically. It's the only place for a hard drive in his case. Not that emachines are anything to follow, just pointing out an experience. The only problem is that the bottom half of the drive gets full faster than the top half because of gravity. If you can overlook that, you're okay. BTW, just kidding

 

[VBboy]

NelsonMuntz:


<< The only problem is that the bottom half of the drive gets full faster than the top half because of gravity. >>


-- It's a good thing that you were kidding

I don't think I want this Lian PC70 case anyway because the bottom of the piece of metal on which the power supply rests is solid metal, so the bottom cooling fan of the PSU will be useless. So I would either have to go with a different PSU (i.e. not Enermax), or cut a hole in that metal plate.

I guess I will have to spend the $240 somewhere else

 

[MplsBob]

There were several articles about this several years ago. They all concluded that there was no problem mounting a drive vertically.

Several of the articles suggested that the drive be partioned and formatted in the vertical postion.

 

[SilverThief]

Actually I've seen them mounted vertically in a Dell computer.

 

[VBboy]

I've seen HD's mounted vertically in a Packard Bell computer

 

[Zach]

<< I had an interesting thing happen when I was formatting my new 40 gig IBM 60 gxp with it in a vertical position. The formatting was very slow and eventually stopped half through the format. I started wondering if I had a defective drive and started the format again. The second time around, it again started slowly, until I moved the harddrive into a horizontal position. Once it was in a horizontal position, it sped up, formatted fine, and I loaded windows. With my other WD 40.5 gig drive, it didn't matter what position the drive was in, but with the IBM, at least for me, having it set vertically had a very bad effect. >>



It's called a loose cable.

 

[Zach]

<< Several of the articles suggested that the drive be partioned and formatted in the vertical postion. >>



I remember another thread about this, and partitioning/formatting doesn't need to be done in the storage position any more. That was way back in the old days, when the drives were MFR (or was it MLR or something? THe giant 10MB suckers with two data cables). I think it was because they used stepper motors for the heads or something. Do a search if you want more info, it was either in general Hardware or Peripherals.

 

[dkozloski]

Several years ago a helper and I were going through the server room and he stumbled and hooked his toe on a mission critical server that dumped over on to its face with a big bang. At this point the drives were indeed vertical. We sat it back upright and it is still running fine to this day.

 

[TravisBickle]

I like to mount my hard drive swinging from the chandeliers.
I got the idea from the Kama Sutra

 

[MplsBob]

I hate to be the one to correct you VBboy.

Even if you mount a hard drive horizontally, the rotational speed difference between the top side of a platter and the bottom is a very real issue.

Several pioneers in the development of hard drives were either killed or seriously injured when when the negative mu anti-gravitons thus generated caused platters to split with great violence. It was not unusual for the upper portions of platters to actually make it into deep space.

This was corrected when several different groups of space aliens, who were upset about these flying platters, approached earth's scientists. They demonstrated how you could virtually eliminate the problem by filling each drive unit with molasses.

The impact of the molasses can easily be seen in the length of time it takes Windows to bootup.

(Just kidding, of course, at the end of one v-e-r-y long day. VBboy I hope you did not take offense. None was intended.)