Is it safe to mount a hard drive upside down? I'm attaching a 3rd HDD to my server box, just a 2 gig, but I don't have anymore room except to mount it upside down under the hard drive bay. The screw holes line up, but I'm not sure if that's actually for another piece of hardware, or a another hard drive bay. I'm not sure if a hard drive is supposed to be upside down I guess is the question.

there shouldn't be problem, in fact, some computer manufacturers (Compaq for example)put hard disks upside down in certain computer models.

Personally I would not attempt this, even though it would probably work, but for how long. The reason I say this, is that hdd's are designed to work in a certain plane, and the bearings etc. reflect this. I have seen metal pressings sold at pc fairs etc. that provide additional internal mountings for both 5.25" and 3.5" devices. Once in a different plane I feel hdd life could be reduced. A particular worry is in the case of a desktop pc which is positioned on its side beside rather than on the desk. Good luck - keep us posted.

I think it's worth a shot - I wouldn't try it with a new drive though. My brother opened up his gf's computer and a harddrive was loose as well as upside down. She never had any problems with it.

Gateway, Compaq, Dell does not have a problem mounting up-side down side-ways etc. I have worked on some really old machines with the orginal harddrives turned in all sorts of position.

As far as I know, gravity is not taken into consideration in hd design.

I have tested this for the last week. No problem at all on an isolated machine. I say go for it.