Any Problem With Putting a Hard Drive Up on Its Side?

DrCR · Post by **DrCR** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:27 pm

Any possiblity of damaging a hard drive by having a setup with the hard drive on its side? i.e. wearing the bearings or something.

Like the hard drive orientation in this pic (from the 9GHz Rendiathon bit-tech project):

Thanks,
DrCR

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tay · Post by **tay** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:00 pm

This is not a problem as a lot of older cases came with HDs in that orientation. I've run disks mounted upside down for years as well. The bearings are sealed and the drive heads clean out any minor leaks (which do occur on some drives) when the head is moving across the platter.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:00 pm

This is OK. Dig a bit in this forum, as it is discussed before.

I believe somewhere Seagate said that any right angle to gravity was OK.

DrCR · Post by **DrCR** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:14 pm

Thanks. Now you mention it tay, some of the old boxes I've seen do indeed use a verical hard drive orientation. Most of my experience with old machines has been "whiteboxes" rather than system units though so it didn't come to mind at the time I thought of this layout.

Tibors wrote:This is OK. Dig a bit in this forum, as it is discussed before.

My bad. (woe is me, I've posted a prediscussed topic

). I was sure it had been discussed here, and I naturally did a quick search, but I couldn't anything. Must of just lacked the magic search terms. Got any links bookmarked or anything? If not, that's fine; I'll find them.

Thanks again,
DrCR

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sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:15 am

Considering Silverstone has implemented such a mounting mechanism for their TJ-06, I'd be inclined to think that it's alright.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:35 am

DrCR wrote:My bad.

There have been people who wouldn't believe this until we "proved" it. So somewhere there are at least two threads with posts by me with the long version of why it is possible. But I couldn't be bothered to write that whole story again tonight. I didn't mean to forbid you to ask it again.

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:05 am

have two drives suspended on their sides in this pc, will be three as soon as i get around to making a new bracket...

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:59 am

I've also have seen plenty of discussion and evidence confirming that any orientation with the disk either horizontal or vertical is fine for the disk.

It is logical that such an orientation would have no effect on bearing wear, and besides, the bearings are designed to operate equally well under both horizontal and vertical forces, because the HDD makers have to allow for either orientation.

In theory, gravity could have a small effect on the actuators, but in practice, gravity is very insignificant compared to the operating shocks actuators are designed to cope with.

The only significant issues regarding drive orientation are effect on airflow (over the drive and through the case) and cabling (ease, neatness/airflow and kinks). But if a case is designed with a particular orientation in mind, that's not a problem.

Basically, as others have already said, don't worry about it.