Have you ever wondered if mounting a hard disk drive on its side or even upside-down affects its lifespan or reliability? According to every drive m

It’s Fine To Mount Hard Drives On Their Side Or Even Upside-Down

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2024-08-29 14:00:03

Have you ever wondered if mounting a hard disk drive on its side or even upside-down affects its lifespan or reliability? According to every drive manufacturer, it’s perfectly acceptable to mount a hard disk drive in any orientation as long as it’s not tilted and has sufficient cooling. File this under “now you know”…

My new server case, the NZXT H440, has five drive sleds with mounting holes for one drive on top and another on the bottom. Although this makes power and data cable routing a little more interesting, it’s perfectly fine to mount drives like this. Especially with the H440, since there are three very large fans blowing air across them at all times!

So it’s perfectly fine to mount a hard disk drive upside down, vertical, or on either end as long as it’s secure from vibration and shock, not tilted at an angle, and gets enough cooling. This is no surprise since every vendor sells external USB drives with vertical or end-on mounting.2

Filed Under: Enterprise storage, Features, Terabyte home Tagged With: disk drive, hard disk, hard disk drive, HGST, mount, Panzura, Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital