Upside down hard drive :/

[Furius92]

Oh this is sort of embarassing, but I'd rather be embarassed and have it fixed. I have come to the conclusion that my recent system slow down is due to having my hard drive mounted upside down for roughly six months, and then recently turning it right side up. Now, if reformatting it does not work, might this void the Maxtor warranty?

I don't want to continue to run the drive upside down because it will probably only get worse. Ah well, I have some money saved that I was going to spend on my computer. If I can't get it replaced I'll pick up a Western Digital 80GB 8MB cache drive, that'll be nice.

[morriswindgate]

Upside down, on end, on side, or right side up should not affect the performance of the drive.

[PardeGT]

Although I have heard drives that have been run in one position start to make quite a bit of noise when they are placed in another position. Maybe they wear a certain way when in one position.

Initially though, Morris is right as manufactures say they can be mounted in any position.

[old dog]

Yes turning a drive over after it has spent all of its life upside down can cause slow performance in a system, usually turning it back over will restore the performance. I think Cricket posted on this a while back.
old dog

[TwoRails]

HI Furius92

If it's only been 6 months, installing it anyway you want should more than be OK. It shouldn't even be "broke-in" in that short of time.

Althought I do feel that any moving-parts component should be kept in the same orientation (as gravity is a mighty powerful thing), I have to admit that I've never experienced trouble when going from vertical HDs to hoz., like when upgrading cases.



TwoRails

[Furius92]

Good to hear. Thanks guys, I'll turn it over as soon as my computer gets power. That's a whole other issue.

I don't know if you guys care or anything, but here I go. Actually, forget it. Basically, the circuit breaker that connects to my computer has to be off for a few days, cause of unreliable wiring in another part of the house. Unfortunately that part is on the same breaker as my computer, and by bedroom. Thanks again.

[morriswindgate]

I have a friend that a bad breaker took out his CD-RW drive and did some strange thing to the OS install.

[HAL9000]

Check this thread out. Yes, taking a drive that has been previously running in one orientation and then changing it, CAN affect performance.

[ZANEY123]

no wonder why when i cleaned and moved a couple things around(hd included and yes it went from standing up to laying down)in my buddies computer it is slower than what it was before i am going to change it back to see if any better,,,

thanks for the tip!!!!!!!!

[Cricket]

Hey HAL9000, I remember that thread by Toaster...it was a really interesting one, covered lots of topics (from the upside down hard drive to system performance factors and finally car radiators and thermostats ). Did they put that one in the Hall Of Fame?

Cricket

[lil Jimmie]

Yeah, that one was interesting, man I miss Toaster being around.

[Furius92]

Well that's the other possibility. There have been some recent power outages, but not power surges. The reason I know is because none of the circuit breakers in my house tripped. If it doesn't run well upside down again, I think I'll contact Maxtor and perhaps start the RMA process. Too bad there's no way to just get my money back, I want an 8MB cache