Scott Baret
Well-known member
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.
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 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.
Similarly CRTs are tuned for the earths latitude as well.....resulted in the Apple sales guy showing me that if you flip a CRT display over, the display does get affected.
rly? I´m going to try that tomorrow... }...if you flip a CRT display over, the display does get affected.