Harddrive - Vertical or Horizontal
I saw an earlier thread discussing the question of whether hard drives are safer in a car mounted vertically or horizontally. There were strong opinions on both sides of the question. So I thought I would go directly to the source and ask Western Digital, my HD manufacturer, the question. Here is their response:
"As to whether or not the drive is mounted vertically or horizontally, no problem either way. Mounting a drive in a computer system in a car is probably going to be short-lived at best, however. The drives simply are not designed to handle the kind of shock that you will see in this type of environment. You may be able to configure something to lessen the shock to the drive, but this is something I certainly don't recommend doing; it's not so much the risk of failure with the drive but rather the matter of when it does. There are MP3 decks that you can mount in a normal car stereo slot available now; also, you can use a portable MP3 player like a Nomad or RIO plugged into an input jack on most newer car stereos. Either of these would be far more preferrable to using a computer in the trunk, and much more reliable."
I fully realize that this guy may not know what he's talking about and is simply towing the company line. In my post, though, I indicated that I'm willing to take the risk of hard drive crash, but want to minimize it so would like to know if mounting position makes a difference.
Other than placing my HD on some foam rubber I have not taken any special precautions to protect it. I've been using it in my car for about a week now and it hasn't even skipped. I'm curious as to the experience others in the group have had with respect to hard drive durability.
P.S.I'd like to see a Diamond Rio or Nomad store the 7,200 MP3s I'm currently playing in my car. Some people just don't get the MP3car concept
Kevin
Here's how I have (had?) mine set up. (I say had because my mobo died)
I have a removable HD rack, and it sits on the back (where the power and ribbon cables go). I've not had problem 1 with the HD. It too is a WD drive, 20gb to be exact. I don't have any kind of shock protection at all, save for being vertical.
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Venomous MP3!
CarMP3 system:
200mhz, 20gb hotswapable drive, 128mb, Winamp w/full-screen vizes, (upgrading to WinAmp3 in near future), 5" LCD screen, controled by numberpad, Sproggy PS under construction, custom mounting case under construction.
Well i dont know about others but i personaly had a HD that was mounted horizontaly without any shock system and i crushed (died) on me after few weeks of use in the car. The HD was Quantum 3.5gig IDE.
Well after having thats sort of problem i have designed a special 2D shock system.
It uses special screws with rubber spacers which used to mount the HD to the wall of the box and also 3cm diametor light spring goes under the HD. To test this system i got oldest Western Digital 400Mg HD and had it in the car for past 2.5 months now. And to be sure that drive is still in good working condition i take it out every forthnight and do a full analysis on it. And so far it looks alright. Im going to wait few more weeks and if everything is alright i will put the biger HD in.
So i guess if you make a shock system then you can mount it horizontly without a problem. i personaly couldnt mount the HD verticaly as my box is only 7cm high so wouldnt really know if it would be better way then horizontal.
The difference between having a shock system and not having one is determens the life span of your HD. So unless you want to change your drive every year get yourself a good shock system.
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Fosgate
Fosgate
System Comp V3 - In progress.
Low power MB with C7 CPU, DC-DC PSU, car ECU link, USB TV, GPS, 7" TFT, Wireless, Voice.
u guys are not setting it up right. take a look at my site, there is a picture of how i mounted mine.
abcd-1
abcd-1
Author of CobraI,II,III and now CobraIV.
You can contact me on AOL instant messenger....nick is cenwesi or cenwesi3
URL Cenwesi?
Good question, url?
here
ftp://picturesictures@128.8.187.126
go into setup1/final ...one of those pictures shows how i did mine.
abcd-1
abcd-1
Author of CobraI,II,III and now CobraIV.
You can contact me on AOL instant messenger....nick is cenwesi or cenwesi3
The link is broken and not able to see the pictures. Can anyone redirect or post the pictures
nice revival of a 6 year old thread
PC Components:
Lilliput; XPC/FLEX mobo; 1.7 ghz P4 Mobile;512 DDR; 160 gb HDD; opus 150; slot usb dvd-rw
My work log
Thats the oldest revival I've ever seen on these forums
CarPC install is starting to come along again...
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