Stacking External Hard Drives

[dizolit]

This may be a stupid question but:

Is there anything wrong with stacking external hard drives on top of each other? I have a Seagate FreeAgent http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/freeagent_desk/ along with a Western Digital Elements http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=762 . I'm really just worried about heat/vibration issues, especially because both enclosures have pretty much no ventilation.

On the same topic, is there anything wrong with orienting them in the vertical position? The disk would have to counteract gravity since its axis would be horizontal, but is the force of gravity significant enough to affect the external's lifespan? I realize the more expensive WD models are all oriented vertically but haven't seen my Elements external oriented that way anywhere.

 

[Old Hippie]

Is there anything wrong with stacking external hard drives on top of each other?

Those enclosures cook your drives and I wouldn't stack anything. They claim that the case transfers heat to the outside so covering any surface would hinder heat transfer.

On the same topic, is there anything wrong with orienting them in the vertical position?

Drives don't care which way they are positioned.


If your drives aren't the units that spin down after a period of inactivity, I'd suggest turning them off while not in use.

 

[Elledan]

Drives don't care which way they are positioned.

Horizontal or vertical is recommended.