Mounting a hard drive upside down

**goobee** · 07-25-05, 09:19 PM

Any problems with mounting a hard drive facing down instead of up?

Thanks.

**Chris** · 07-25-05, 10:31 PM

I asked that question awhile ago, the concensous then was, nope, don't matter what way you mount them at all, I have my ones in question standing on end, no trouble so far, 24/7 for almost year now

**goobee** · 07-25-05, 10:42 PM

That's what I figured but I was not certain. Stupid Maxtor web site doesn't seem to address it on any of their FAQs. Thanks.

**YARDofSTUF** · 07-25-05, 11:03 PM

right side up, upside down, sideways are all good, keep away from angles.

***YeOldeStonecat*** · 07-26-05, 05:27 AM

Originally Posted by goobee

Any problems with mounting a hard drive facing down instead of up?

Up, down, standing on the side verticle or horizontal, doesn't matter.

**zooner** · 07-26-05, 07:19 AM

just don't mount 2 of them in a perpendicular fashion.

dont want any funny business going on.

**BlindPilot** · 07-26-05, 08:10 AM

lol zooner!

**downhill** · 07-26-05, 10:15 AM

I once had a WD that wouldn't work, upside down....

**Noevo** · 07-26-05, 11:02 AM

The only thing I've ever heard about drive orientation is that once you've had one, say upside down, for a while it's not good to then start running it in another way. Not sure if it's a valid point or not, seems like it could be though.

**mountainman** · 07-26-05, 11:11 AM

My WD worked just fine for a year when I mounted it upside down (on accident). I screwed it into the Antec HDD cage and didn't pay attention to which way the cage was sitting.

It worked just fine.

***YeOldeStonecat*** · 07-26-05, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Noevo

The only thing I've ever heard about drive orientation is that once you've had one, say upside down, for a while it's not good to then start running it in another way. Not sure if it's a valid point or not, seems like it could be though.

Yeah the bearings will wear in a certain fashion. Changing the orientation of the drive after a number of years in one direction could cause a failure...that makes sense. Since the load of the platters from being in a different orientation would put different loads on the bearings.

A combination of that, and plain old "luck of the draw"...as well as other things..operating temps, how carefully the drive was handled, quality of power supply, etc.