Mounting Hard Drive Sideways

[barney]

What is everybodys opinion about mounting drives sideways (on scsi cards, etc)?  Does it hurt or shorten the lifespan of the hard drive.  If so, I will just mount it in my floppy drive bay.  Thanks

[matt020]

It's been done for years, and is still being done (in servers, for example). No harm caused by sideways mounting.

But, I have heard a rumour that if you initially mount a drive sideways, run it for a period of time, and then mount it flat (horizontal), the drive wont like it. I have no further info than this.

[ElPolloDiabl]

On the instruction manual it says you can mount it sideways, but not upside down. I ran my 330MB Fujitsu for about 4 years sideways, it's in storage now but can still be read.
I'm wondering if modern high density drives might be a bit more touchy. If it's over 5GB I would play it safe and give it the more secure mount.

[the_leander]

EeeBoxen, EeeTops, flatscreen iMacs etc all have their drives mounted on their sides and there doesn't seem to be any issues there.

[zipper]

Many recent external drives are meant for standing sideaways to take less space on desktop. I got three side by side...

[LoadWB]

I have mounted hard drives in all six positions with never a problem.  I remember WAY back (like, 1992) I was told that changing a drive's orientation required a reformat.  I did it, several times, mostly because it burned time in class.

[matt020]

I remember WAY back (like, 1992) I was told that changing a drive's orientation required a reformat.  I did it, several times, mostly because it burned time in class.

Maybe thats the rumour that I heard to...

[Thomas]

You wouldn't be able to take your laptop or netbook with you if that was still true. Also you couldn't buy hard drives from mail order shops.

[Sparky]

Sideways is fine, I've 2000 plus drives in my dubious care, all mounted sideways, don't have more than 1 or 2 die a week ;-)

[Tension]

Sideways is fine, I've 2000 plus drives in my dubious care, all mounted sideways, don't have more than 1 or 2 die a week ;-)

Wow.  Dont fancy them odds!!

[gertsy]

Sidways is fine but never mount a HD at 45 deg.

[Thomas]

Sidways is fine but never mount a HD at 45 deg.

Reason ?

[zipper]

I think in some HD manual it was recommended - don't remember which but probably IBM as I have had several of them, 1 -36 GB SCSI.

[gertsy]

Reason ?

Because 45 deg is the maximum operating temp for a HD.

Wah wah wah waaahhh.

It's all in the timing...

Gertsy...

[ElPolloDiabl]

ROFLMAOARARARFTWGJSOSSTDIOU!  :roflmao: