Harddrive - Vertical or Horizontal

Kevin · 05-04-2000, 10:42 PM

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

adder · 05-05-2000, 06:51 AM

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!

Fosgate · 05-05-2000, 10:35 AM

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

cenwesi · 05-05-2000, 09:05 PM

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

Kevin · 05-05-2000, 09:43 PM

URL Cenwesi?

Brain · 05-07-2000, 12:09 AM

Good question, url?

cenwesi · 05-07-2000, 03:50 PM

here
ftp://pictures

ictures@128.8.187.126
go into setup1/final ...one of those pictures shows how i did mine.

abcd-1

nemo1 · 07-03-2006, 10:50 PM

The link is broken and not able to see the pictures. Can anyone redirect or post the pictures

Peoples · 07-03-2006, 11:31 PM

nice revival of a 6 year old thread

Grayscale · 07-04-2006, 12:30 AM

Thats the oldest revival I've ever seen on these forums

Quattro · 07-04-2006, 12:32 AM

whoa, I haven't seen Grayscale post in a long long time.

0l33l · 07-04-2006, 12:51 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Quattro

whoa, I haven't seen Grayscale post in a long long time.

!

wizardPC · 07-04-2006, 01:36 AM

hey, at least he's searching.

edit: at the time of the original post, this was perceived to be an issue. Since then, we have learned that modern hard drives are really not all that sensitive to "normal" car vibrations. Driving around town, you are not going to kill your drive no matter what position you put your drive in. Now, if you were to go all "dukes of hazzard" with your computer running, you might have issues. But even if you didnt have a carputer, that still would be an expensive proposition.

Eternalodyssey · 07-04-2006, 01:41 AM

Dang this post is old-skool. Rather then mulling over the pros and cons of mounting your hard drive, just to sum it all up, there is not conclusive results as to mounting your HD horizontally or vertically. The only theory that exists that mounting your HD horizontally MAY introduce vibrations which can cause the internal plates within the drive to move, getting scratches from the read/write heads in the process. I can attest to this being a possibility because I had a non-flash based MP3 player crap out on me when I used to take it running a couple years ago. That was when they first came out and I just had Creative replace it. But my vertically mounted hard drive has never suffered any skips or problems. Mount horizontally if that is what works best for you. But most seem to prefer verticle. But again, nothing concrete says either way is best.

0l33l · 07-04-2006, 01:49 AM

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