on 9/1/04 4:59 PM, Jonathan Newman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Sep 1, 2004, at 2:29 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I've heard that once a hard drive has been "broken in" in one >> orientation (horizontal or vertical), you're not supposed to use it in >> another orientation, or if you do you're supposed to do a low lever >> format. I dont' know how true this is. >> > > Nope, I can guarantee you that is in no way shape or form the case! > But as a matter of practice, desktop Hard Drives should never be moved > while in operation. If they are off it's okay to move them around. Also > it should be noted that 2.5" drives and smaller we designed with > movement in mind, so they work just fine while getting moved around.
I think the argument was that the movement of the read/write heads may become less precise and "looser" over time, (like the steering wheel in my 1990 Nissan) as the various mechanical bits of wear out, and so if you go from horizontal to vertical mounting, gravity may pull the read/write heads in a different direction, and the alignment between the heads and the tracks on the disk could be thrown off. I think this advice may be from the days of 5 MB hard drives the size and weight of concrete blocks though... > As for the CD drive getting affected with the change of direction, I > don't think it's a problem, it's already designed to work vertically, > and the inject/eject mech. is just that completely mechanical and not > gravity actuated, therefore I think the only real problem is your > speakers will be in a weird location. One other thing that I just thought of is cooling, I saw a graphic on apple's website showing hot air rising out of a vent on the top of the back of the new iMac. I know there are cooling fans in this iMac (unlike some earlier G3 models) but if some of the cooling system is still based on "hot air will rise" it might not be a good idea to change which side of the computer is up. And the downward facing speakers are designed to bounce sound off your desk to your ears, so if you point them off to the side, the sound might not reach you as well, unless you give it something to bounce off of. -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
