Using a laptop on its side

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Capetonian

Using a laptop on its side

#1 Post by Capetonian » Thu Nov 21, 2019 3:47 pm

I run one of my laptops on my desk and in order to save desk space it sits vertically, behind the screen, closed, and on its front edge.

It doesn't overheat or make any odd noises, but a friend came round and commented that it's very bad for the computer. It hasn't got a SSD, it's a Lenovo, about 8 years old and runs as cool, quiet, and fast as the day I bought it.

Is there any harm in doing this?
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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#2 Post by ian16th » Thu Nov 21, 2019 4:44 pm

It seems as though your friend is concerned about the orientation of the HDD.

They are designed to operate horizontally, and will probably operate longer in that plane.
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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#3 Post by izod tester » Thu Nov 21, 2019 4:51 pm

My current and previous desktops have their HDDs mounted vertically. It looks like dust is not too much of a problem where you have it, which can build up over the vents and cause overheating. On the other hand, if it is the original HDD and 8 years old, I would be concerned about its continuing to operate if it has important, non backed up data on it.

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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#4 Post by unifoxos » Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:29 pm

The only potential problem is cooling, and if it's not running hot then there's no problem. Those disc drives will run in any orientation.
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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#5 Post by llondel » Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:31 pm

Most HDs are OK horizontal or vertical. What used to kill the early ones very quickly was running them upside down. Even slightly past 90 degrees could be enough, presumably because the bearings weren't designed to cope with pressure in that direction. Modern drives are much better and can usually be operated in any orientation.

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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#6 Post by Capetonian » Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:46 pm

Thanks for input, that's helpful. I think will leave it as it is. Everything important is backed up anyway.

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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#7 Post by Rwy in Sight » Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:00 pm

Capetonian wrote:
Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:46 pm
Thanks for input, that's helpful. I think will leave it as it is. Everything important is backed up anyway.
If it is backed up, chances are it would work ok for a very very long time.

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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#8 Post by jimtherev » Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:04 pm

In fact, cometothinkofit, small-format desktops are designed to operate standing either on side or base. Manufacturers obviously don't think orientation is any problem.

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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#9 Post by zarniwoop » Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:41 am

It seems as though your friend is concerned about the orientation of the HDD.

They are designed to operate horizontally,
That used to be true of the older mechanical drivers, I was always told it was due to the type of motors used (voice coil motors?), these haven't been used for years now so mounting the drive vertically is not a problem, just look at the number of disk based portable MP3 players which are designed to be hung vertically from a belt.

There are plenty of hot swap disk caddys that are often used for data recovery or disk cloning where the drive sits vertically with the connector at the bottom so doesn't seem to be a problem.

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Re: Using a laptop on its side

#10 Post by boing » Mon Dec 09, 2019 5:10 am

Time for a new desktop computer system so I thought I would get a more up-to-date but not the latest model. This machine has provision for a device called an "M2 NVMe" drive, a replacement for hard-drives, that is amazingly fast and relatively cheap. It looks like a short memory array, weighs nothing and takes up no space and they are presently made up to 2TB capacity. I believe they are being fitted in the latest mobile computers so they could be positioned in any orientation you wished.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2899351 ... -nvme.html


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