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When working on a PC Chassis with the Hard Disk drive installed, one may find it easier to lay the Chassis flat rather than work on it vertically. This will also change the orientation of the mounted hard disk drive. Is this safe for the hard disk drive or is it advisable to remove the hard disk drive first?

Also for laptops with hard disk drives, is it safe for hard disk drives to operate at an angle with laptop stands that allow you to change the angle of the laptop while the laptop is running or will this damage the hard disk overtime?

Titled Laptop

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It is perfectly safe to use hard disks at any angle or orientation. When it comes to spinning hard drives, you need to avoid moving it with excessive acceleration while in operation and avoid strong vibrations. These can cause the heads to crash in the platters.

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  • Even then, failure is unlikely. My experience is anecdotal, not empirical but I have been using HDDs at every angle imaginable for over thirty years and never had a problem. Even moving them around (a lot!) while spinning.
    – Señor CMasMas
    Apr 17, 2021 at 15:08
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Older larger drives with bigger rotating discs and motor had a tendency to take a set - horizontal or vertical. It did not matter when new - if the issue occurred at all, it occurred after some time (many months or years in one orientation).

Laptop drives are smaller, lighter and have less rotating mass. They also tend to operate in multiple positions. I have never had any issues with laptop position over many years (3 decades).

No issue for laptops and only a small issue for larger, older desktop drives.

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