Is it bad to keep a hard drive mounted upside down in a computer? Will it damage or shorten the life of it? Thanks.

It would probably be best to wait for the opinion of one of the more tech-saavy people on the board.. but from my experience it doesn't hurt the HD..

Ryan

Many years ago it was believed to have the drive positioned how the drive was low-level formatted. I am talking about the full height 5.25 form factor. I would still do that today with SCSI and IDE if it was possible.

As long as you ensure it's stable, it doesn't matter where or how it is positioned. Doesn't even need to be inside a case. Stability is the main concern.

__________________
Life is a journey, not a destination.

I do know that shaking and dropping it can cause some problems like lose data.

__________________
ActiveTuning - Partner & Director Of Sales & Marketing

Dave, do we speak from personal experience

LOL, fortunately no, but I read that somewhere I think...

__________________
ActiveTuning - Partner & Director Of Sales & Marketing

.. I can speak from personal experience on that...

it's not a good sign when your HD makes random clicking sounds, and can't be read from on bootup..

Ryan

After observing my co-workers, I have found that most computer parts adhere to the "3 foot rule." Most things dropped from over three feet are dead, under three feet and they tend to work, though specific parrts are hardier than others, i.e. power supplies survive more than hard drives and bare CPUs (yeah, I have some dumb co-workers).

__________________
Very few problems cannot be resolved by the proper application of high-explosives.

Heheh.. yeah, that sounds like a reasonable solution..

Going slightly back to topic...

I've never had a problem with drive orientation if they're upside down. Turned on the side, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. That puts additional stress of the servo motors, and could lead to premature drive death.

Out of curiosity, why are you putting a drive in upside down?

__________________
"And knowing is half the battle!"

I've put many HD's upside down and sideways and never had a problem. As to why you would want to put a hardrive upside down. Well if he is using micro tower case than I could see why. I had people who have bought the Emachines and then came to me to install another hardrive. There is really no way to mount another HD on that thing unless its upside down or on its side.

__________________
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

The only time one encounters a problem due to the orientation of one's drive is when the drive is moved from one position to another. The drive's spindle bearing tends to "wear" into a certain "pattern" in a short period of time, thus changing it's orientation becoming detremental to it's health.

__________________
Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

I'm running a machine right now with one drive correctly placed and the other upside-down. So far, no problems since I installed it a few months back.

The reason is the ribbon. In order for me to do a master/slave config, I have to turn one of the hard drives upside-down in order for the ribbon to fit. There is not enough space inbetween the two connections to rotate it around.

Great idea Rob! The only problem, is that the place I could use that was with my CD-roms, etc. :-\

__________________
paul@pleaseohpleasedontspamme.slcentral.com
A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems -- P. Erdos