External HD orientation?

Question

Hi everyone. I have a technical question about my Western Digital 500GB External MyBook Essentials hard drive. I currently have it standing up straight, but I would like to be able to put it on its side. The instructions don't seem to tell you which side to put it on so that the read/write head is above the spinning platter. I'm not about to take it apart, and I don't want to risk damaging it. I have heard some reviews saying that this particular hard drive has been dieing on some people a few weeks after purchase. I have had mine half a year now, with no problems! It's about half full, and has never been more full than that.

Simply put, which side should I lay it on so that the read/write head is ABOVE the disk?

One of the reasons I want to put it on its side is because I would figure that gravity wouldn't be acting so hard on the disk's arm, because it is moving horizontally. I don't know where the arm is located, but I'm pretty sure it could take a little pressure off of it. Also, it may speed up access time up by a few milliseconds. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

ejn63 · Answer

Makes no difference - the heads never touch the platters when the drive is operating, and it's perfectly find to operate the drive upside down or right-side up - no difference.

bassmann710 · Answer

Thank you very much! Just to clarify, I'll ask this. Even though the platters would be above the read/write head, this wouldn't produce any more "wear and tear" on the device than it would flipped the other way?

Also, I forgot to ask one question in my first post: What are the expected lifetimes for these external drives?

Thanks again!

ejn63 · Answer

The heads never touch the platters in normal operation.   Hard drive lives vary more from environmental factors than anything else.  All hard drives have a 5-year design life.

bassmann710 · Answer

Well, I ran some speed tests (HD Tune) on my hard drive when it was in three different positions.

1. On its right side - Average access time = 13.6ms

2. On its left side - Average access time = 13.6ms

3. Standing up (original skeptical position) - Average access time = 13.5ms

I guess these things are designed with everything in mind. I actually shaved .1ms off of the access time by leaving it in its original position! (like that matters :smileywink: ).

It seems that gravity is not a factor here!

bassmann710 · Answer

Thanks again! I will try it on the side and see if I notice any speed increase.

But wow, a 5-year life? I thought it would be more like 50!

I have a WD 80GB hard drive in one of my computers and I can't even remember how old it is. My guess is that it's way past the 5 year mark. I used the heck out of the thing, and it still works great, despite being a little loud!

bassmann710 · Answer

That's good to know. I would assume that the life is also affected by how much you actually use the drive. Also, magnets do wear out over time. Though, the magnetic platter would most likely die out long after the mechanical parts of the drive stop working.

ejn63 · Answer

The bearings are quite robust, yes.  And while many drives will last longer than five years, that's still the design life of the components - that figure hasn't changed in over 20 years.

Storage, Drives & Media

External HD orientation?

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