A quick and pointless IIci question

[Scott Baret]

Is the old myth true that they can only be used one way or the other? I want to turn mine on its side so it's a "tower" yet I read in Mac Secrets that once they are put in one orientation they can't be changed.

 

[II2II]

Huh? I don't know where the can't be changed bit came from. You can flip them around as you please. Just take the rubber feet and move them to the side that you want to be the bottom (which, I believe, are the base and left side of the case when it is the horizontal postion). There are little slots that allow for the rubber feet to stay in place without being glued to the plastic.

 

[MacMan]

It can be used in either configuration and swapped at any time (probably best turn the machine off before moving it, so as to protect the hard drive). If using it in "tower" configuration then make sure that the power supply is at the top.

I have no idea where such a story could have come from but it is not true! :/ Maybe it's a slight misunderstanding...

 

[TylerEss]

I suppose that if you glued the feets into place, it might be a little less convenient to re-arrange it...

 

[Cory5412]

As scandalous as it may be, I even sometimes run my PowerMac 7300 in a vertical orientation, sometimes it's just more convenient like that.

I've also heard that it's actually better to run hard discs vertically at least that's what Western Digital's documentation about their external drives says, that one might just be a cooling issue.

 

[Unknown_K]

It would matter more on newer designes where the CPU and GPU generate much more heat then a IIci would.

 

[Patrickool93]

I remember hearing that you weren't supposed to do this because once you format the drive in one orientation, it shouldn't be turned. I don't personally believe that because I can turn my mini on its side and it even says you can in the manual. I don't know, I just remember hearing that.

 

[II2II]

Even the formatting thing doesn't make sense. The strength of the magnetic force used to move the drive head actuator is going to far exceed that of the force of gravity, so orientation shouldn't affect the position of the head.

 

[Scott Baret]

Well, when I get the IIci out of the mothballs next week I will try it and not worry!

I guess that teacher at the school I was once at who put an LC II on its side didn't really have to worry either.

 

[Unknown_K]

I never seen a "this way up" on a HD I ever had.

 

[LCGuy]

I've changed the orientation of my Q700 dozens of times...no problem whatsoever

 

[Flash!]

Me either, but I have heard the thing about formatting it 'in position'.... it does sound like an urban myth though...

 

[Unknown_K]

I have heard plenty of stories told by people who have no clue about what they are talking about.

 

[~tl]

I remember reading the formatting in position thing related to mounting the Xserve on it's side -- possibly on Marathon Computer's site, since they sold a stand to do that. Unfortunately, Marathon Computer has gone the way of the dodo, and archive.org hasn't cached their site, so I can't check.

 

[SiliconValleyPirate]

I remember hearing that you weren't supposed to do this because once you format the drive in one orientation, it shouldn't be turned. I don't personally believe that because I can turn my mini on its side and it even says you can in the manual. I don't know, I just remember hearing that.

Not changing orientation of drives after formatting is an old fable that dates back to really early hard drives. It's only something I've heard in relation to VERY early disks (read early to mid 80s) with inaccurately actuated heads and old fashioned bearings. If you turned the drive on it's side the 'slack' was in a different direction and the head read off the edge of each block slightly which could lead to data problems. It's never been something I've ever heard of in anything remotely modern though. as II2II says the accuracy and power of the actuators in modern drives are such that it makes very little odds.

I've only ever had issues with ex-server SCSI drives being used laid flat after being one edge in an array because the bearings in the spindle were shot out and the change of orientation caused the spindle to jam up or drag because of the uneven wear. That's not a formatting issue though and it's exceptional because of the wear circumstances. It doesn't happen (at least not to my knowledge) in modern drives because they all use fluid dynamic bearings, which can cope with extended operation, change of orientation, shock and temperature fluctuation much better.

I believe the recommendation hung around in hard drive documentation for many years after it stopped being an issue however.

 

[TheNeil]

Just to echo what everyone else has said, flipping a drive over is not going to cause any problems due to magnetic fields. On the other hand, a trip to a Comp USA store in Washington (business trip a couple of years back) resulted in the Apple sales guy showing me that if you flip a CRT display over, the display does get affected.

Just thought I'd throw that into the mix.

 

[porter]

....resulted in the Apple sales guy showing me that if you flip a CRT display over, the display does get affected.

Similarly CRTs are tuned for the earths latitude as well.

 

[Bolle]

...if you flip a CRT display over, the display does get affected.

rly? I´m going to try that tomorrow... }