Hard drive mounting: flat, on side, upside down? 1

[RICHINMINN]

Does anyone know if there are any manufacturer's recommendations on the mounting orientation of hard drives? I ALWAYS install a hard drive in a flat, electronics-side-down position in a system. But there are big-name PC manufacturers that install hard drives on their sides in a case, and I've seen some drives installed upside-down.

I've had people come to me, saying that their PC wasn't working right, and when I asked them if they had changed anything on their system, I've had several people say that they had simply taken their desktop system and turned it on its side to take up less desk space. I tell them to put it back down flat, like it's supposed to be, and in all cases that's fixed their problems.

When a hard drive is formatted in one position, and then put in a different position, the heads just can't track the same. But if a drive is formatted in an on-its-side position, it should work like that, but may fail if put in a flat position. But what happens when a drive that was formatted on its side develops a little more "play" in its head movement? A flat-mounted hard drive should encounter less trouble with head "play" because gravity is not working against it, but rather helping it.

What type of bearings do hard drive platters use? A needle or spindle bearing will not work as it should if it's used on its side, and will wear much faster too, I assume.

Does anyone have any input on this?

Rich (in Minn.)

 

[edfair]

Manufacturers specify the possibilities.
In most cases, changing orientation from horizontal to vertical won't affect modern drives since the tracking is derived from the track itself. On older drives there were issues. And older drives that had carbon static discharge wicks were specifically spec'd to not run electronics in a position to be shorted out by the graphite.
I haven't had reason to check the bearing types, but if the manufacturer warrants a drive for 3 years in any position I think the issue of bearing failure is resolved. Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[cooltechman]

most cuurent manufacturers state any position ok
exept as noted on ibm sit 45degree angle

 

[FredWagner]

One item that is affected by drive position is Shock tolerance - if a CPU box containing a drive is liable to get dropped or kicked, you don't want the shock vector to be aligned with the spin axis of the drive, which would cause heads to hit the surface of the platter. I notice that a lot of my newer gateway towers have the drives either flat, with the spin axis of the drive vertical in the tower, or on their sides, with the spin axis through the sides of the case. you almost never see drives with the spin axis through the front and rear of the case, where a kick to the front would do max damage. Only one case of that, a late model IBM home system, with the drive mounted vertical, down deep in the case. I discovered the unusual mounting because I had to replace the drive - under warranty. I think that just about makes the case for my explanation! Fred Wagner
frwagne@longbeach.gov

 

[RICHINMINN]

I posed this question to the tech support groups at several major hard drive manufacturers, and the word from Seagate (the first to respond to my email) is:

"The balanced rotary arm actuator design of the drive allows it to be mounted in any orientation. All drive performance characterization, however, has been done with the drive in horizontal (discs level) and vertical (drive on its side) orientations, and these are the two preferred mounting orientations."

Rich (in Minn.)

 

[FredWagner]

Rich -
Thank you! Seagate's word confirms my horror at the IBM mounting I found, which was with the drive on it's nose. Keep up the good work (and keep your drives level!)

Fred Wagner, KQ6Q Fred Wagner
frwagne@longbeach.gov