harddisk position

[lallous]

Hello,

Can someone tell me or point me to a tech. link where I can find an
answer to:

Is connecting and running the harddisk vertically healthy ?

I have unplugged my drive and plugged it into another PC just to share
some data, I placed it vertically and started to copy files.
After 20 minutes as I was copying, I got: "CRC errors"..I skipped this
problem.
Later when I plugged my HDD back, I noticed bad sectors and lots of
lost files had appeared.

Please advise,
Elias

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

[This followup was posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage and a copy
was sent to the cited author.]

Hello,

Can someone tell me or point me to a tech. link where I can find an
answer to:

Is connecting and running the harddisk vertically healthy ?

I have unplugged my drive and plugged it into another PC just to share
some data, I placed it vertically and started to copy files.
After 20 minutes as I was copying, I got: "CRC errors"..I skipped this
problem.
Later when I plugged my HDD back, I noticed bad sectors and lots of
lost files had appeared.

By vertically, do you mean on a side, or 'hanging' down. Generally, flat
or on side is OK. I think most current drives will also work vertically.

Did you ever move the drive while it was running? How careful were you
at anti-static control?

Generally, any modern drive shouldn't be too affected by the angle. The
track position information is on-disk and used to keep the head properly
positioned. Many old drives back in the MFM/RLL era relied on physical
positioning tolerances. If you changed a drives orientation, you often
needed to do a low-level format.

 

[Tom J]

Hello,

Can someone tell me or point me to a tech. link where I can find an
answer to:

Is connecting and running the harddisk vertically healthy ?

I have unplugged my drive and plugged it into another PC just to share
some data, I placed it vertically and started to copy files.
After 20 minutes as I was copying, I got: "CRC errors"..I skipped this
problem.
Later when I plugged my HDD back, I noticed bad sectors and lots of
lost files had appeared.

I'd say it's time to get another drive, because once it starts chewing up
sectors it just keeps spreading. My guess is the drive would have been fine
if left where it was. Turning it to the different angle disturbed some kind
of particles that were loose inside, so now it's chewing it's self up. I
don't even "store" my laptop in any position other than the way it's normally
run.

Tom J

 

[Eric Gisin]

If a drive is not firmly attached you will have longer seeks and more seek
errors. Seek errors on write result in uncorrectable errors.

You can get rid of the bad sectors by wiping the drive, there is no permanent
damage.

| Hello,
|
| Can someone tell me or point me to a tech. link where I can find an
| answer to:
|
| Is connecting and running the harddisk vertically healthy ?
|
| I have unplugged my drive and plugged it into another PC just to share
| some data, I placed it vertically and started to copy files.
| After 20 minutes as I was copying, I got: "CRC errors"..I skipped this
| problem.
| Later when I plugged my HDD back, I noticed bad sectors and lots of
| lost files had appeared.
|

 

[CJT]

I'd say it's time to get another drive, because once it starts chewing up
sectors it just keeps spreading. My guess is the drive would have been fine
if left where it was. Turning it to the different angle disturbed some kind
of particles that were loose inside, so now it's chewing it's self up. I
don't even "store" my laptop in any position other than the way it's normally
run.

Tom J

The different cabling and mechanical vibration from not being
permanently mounted could have been more of a problem than position.

 

[Nick]

Hello,

I assume there's nothing wrong with using the harddrive vertically, at
least the modern ones (as to say nearly all the IDE and SCSI)

Regards,
Nick