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Does vertical position affect the lifespan or integrity of a hard drive?

Does vertical position affect the lifespan or integrity of a hard drive?

I've noticed on many small PC cases that the hard drives are installed vertically. In midi cases, towers and others of a larger housing, they are in the horizontal position.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 326
Total answers/comments: 5
Guest [Entry]

"It shouldn't matter which way you do it these days. But there's one possible caveat of making it vertical:

Under situations where cooling is at premium and you don't have the means to increase cooling of your system, mounting the disk horizontally with the label facing upwards could be seen as an advantage, since heat rises away from the disk surface more efficiently than if the disk was mounted vertically. But even so, any impact on performance or disk lifetime would only be noticeable in years to come. Just thought nevertheless to make this note."
Guest [Entry]

At one time (long ago) manufactures advised against changing the orientation of a drive without reformatting it. This was due to the heads being affected by gravity and becoming misaligned with respect to the data. I have not seen such a notice in quite some time.
Guest [Entry]

Old thread but I thought I'd put in my input. Every drive I have ever owned, external or internal...the ONLY ones that failed were the ones positioned vertically. My 2.5" samsung external drive has been positioned horizontally and its been working perfectly for 3 years, while my other external 2.5" was positioned vertically and it failed within a month. My WD my book 1tb is only vertical because the feet are positioned to stand it vertically. I will NEVER put a drive vertical...same goes for gaming systems. Horizontal will prolong life. If someone says its ok to go vertical...dont listen to them.
Guest [Entry]

"I have had many different combinations down to even mounting horizontal (no hard drive space, so just put a screw through the hole for a fan!

I can say that I have not seen any difference what so ever in life."
Guest [Entry]

I mount hard drives vertically and horizontally and it doesn't affect performance at all. Oh and I work in IT :)