Mounting HD upside down

[Cgil1987]

Would having my hard drive mounted upside down cause problems? I currently have mine mounted horizontally withe the exposed circuitry facing up and the label facing down. I have had it like this for some time but I've been getting some disk read errors at start up and am having second thoughts. The sata and power clips are attached securely so I'm not sure what else it could be. HD is a 500 GB Western Digital 7200 rpm.

Thanks

 

[Hawkeye22]

It shouldn't matter which way they are mounted as long as they are secure. I have servers with drives that mount on their sides.

 

[popatim]

I would not mount a drive upside down. I don't have any proof but to my thinking heat flows up so 'upside down' would heatsoak the controllerbd which isn't good at dissipating heat and repeated overheat cycles could cause damage esp in the solder connections.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Would having my hard drive mounted upside down cause problems? I currently have mine mounted horizontally withe the exposed circuitry facing up and the label facing down. I have had it like this for some time but I've been getting some disk read errors at start up and am having second thoughts. The sata and power clips are attached securely so I'm not sure what else it could be. HD is a 500 GB Western Digital 7200 rpm.

Thanks

I would not mount a drive upside down. I don't have any proof but to my thinking heat flows up so 'upside down' would heatsoak the controllerbd which isn't good at dissipating heat and repeated overheat cycles could cause damage esp in the solder connections.

That's what cooling fans are for. Most drive cages have an area to mount a fan. Not to mention, the circuitry faces up when the drive is upside down.

 

[popatim]

I dont think you see the problem the way I see it. The heat would get trapped in between the hdd housing (metal and good at dissipating heat) and the controller board (fiberglass and good at blocking heat) so the components on that inner side of the board are going to get unusually hot and no fan is going to cool it adaquately because airflow thru that area would still be minimal I think. Cooling off the outer side of the board isn't an issue.

 

[Cgil1987]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the input. I currently have the drive mounted right side up and one spot lower in the case than it was before. It's now getting more air from the intake fan than it was before. So far I haven't had a single boot error after around 10-15 start-ups.

 

[popatim]

Awesome news!