Mounting HDDs Sideways After Running Flat For Years?

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Flogger23m

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Thinking of getting a new case, and I'm torn between a few of the Fractal Design cases. One which I like is the Define S, which mounts HDDs sideways on the rear of the motherboard tray:

install2.jpg


I understand that drives should work fine while mounted upside down, sideways, ect. Though if the drives have been running in a traditional flat position for a number of years, will it be a problem when changing their orientation?

I use a number of drives, such as a Seagate 7200.11, WD FAEX Black, Toshiba P300 and WD FALS. Some of these drives are fairly old. Is there any reason that switching their orientation will degrade their life? I've read it may have been a problem for older drives in the past, but thought I'd ask anyways.
 
Shouldn't make a difference.

That being said, if the drives are >3 years old, they're at a higher risk of failing when you move them AT ALL, so make sure you got a backup before you move cases.
 
Bandalo said:
Shouldn't make a difference.

That being said, if the drives are >3 years old, they're at a higher risk of failing when you move them AT ALL, so make sure you got a backup before you move cases.
Click to expand...

The P300 is phasing out the older WD (keeping it in use for redundancy) but I will re-purpose the Seagate once I feel the P300 has has enough on time with no issues. P300 is only a few months old. As long as they're firmly secure and don't move while on I shouldn't see any decrease in life though right?

Going forward, I think I will only get external HDDs and internal SSDs.
 
Flogger23m said:
The P300 is phasing out the older WD (keeping it in use for redundancy) but I will re-purpose the Seagate once I feel the P300 has has enough on time with no issues. P300 is only a few months old. As long as they're firmly secure and don't move while on I shouldn't see any decrease in life though right?

Going forward, I think I will only get external HDDs and internal SSDs.
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I'm just speaking in general, not about any specific brand or model of drive. The older hard drives get and the more power-on hours they have, the more susceptible they are to shock and vibrations. So if you have really old drives that have been mounted in one case for years, the shocks they'll experience being moved to a new case won't be good for them. 99% of the time they'll probably be fine, but if it was me, I'd have a backup of the data just in case. Plus they're all probably out of warranty by now, so that's something to consider.
 
Bandalo said:
I'm just speaking in general, not about any specific brand or model of drive. The older hard drives get and the more power-on hours they have, the more susceptible they are to shock and vibrations. So if you have really old drives that have been mounted in one case for years, the shocks they'll experience being moved to a new case won't be good for them. 99% of the time they'll probably be fine, but if it was me, I'd have a backup of the data just in case. Plus they're all probably out of warranty by now, so that's something to consider.
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What would you consider a really old drive? One of the WDs has many power on/offs and many on hours, certainly a well used drive. The Seagate is the oldest, but has few power on hours as it was mainly a backup drive only plugged in when needed. Other WD is a few years old now and was used as a boot drive for a bit. This is my main HDD and the only one constantly powered on:
http://i.imgur.com/P08xShg.jpg

P300 is very new with about three weeks of on time so I doubt that would be an issue.
 
Flogger23m said:
What would you consider a really old drive? One of the WDs has many power on/offs and many on hours, certainly a well used drive. The Seagate is the oldest, but has few power on hours as it was mainly a backup drive only plugged in when needed. Other WD is a few years old now and was used as a boot drive for a bit. This is my main HDD and the only one constantly powered on:
http://i.imgur.com/P08xShg.jpg

P300 is very new with about three weeks of on time so I doubt that would be an issue.
Click to expand...

I'm not telling you any of those drives will fail any time soon, or they're going to fail when/if you move them. I'm just saying have backups.

But I'd also say have backups of data even on brand new drives. There's just no telling exactly when a drive will fail.
 
Just did a build in an InWin 303, same mounting system, haven't had any issues so far, same thing, moving mechanical drives from a horizontal to vertical position.
 
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