Mounting hard disks at strange angles (was RE: OT: the 1U system)

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Jan 30 11:06:01 2003

--- "Feldman, Robert" <Robert_Feldman_at_jdedwards.com> wrote:
> Folklore for PC's was that if you recorded data on a hard drive with the
> platters horizontal, remounting it vertically could cause read errors.
> Any truth to this?

I remember that was a commonly accepted concern back in the days when
we used to have to do our own low-level formatting (ST506/ST412 drives,
primarily). I think since modern drives have things packed so tightly
that the thermal expansion and contraction of the platters causes the
tracks to perceptibly migrate, causing drives to be *much* smarter
about positioning than they used to, might have made that concern
(if there ever really was one) obsolete.

I've heard cautions for more modern drives that they can be mounted
any way except one, typically either nose down or circuit board up,
presumably due to bearing loading issues. The Amiga 4000 had the
drives routinely mounted "upside down" with no concerns, but I
would think that one would *never* want to do that to, say, an
RK05.

Anyone have any personal experiences with oddly-mounted drives?

-ethan
Received on Thu Jan 30 2003 - 11:06:01 GMT