However, I should mention that once you have a drive in a certain position, you should always keep them like that throughout it's life because changing a position after a long time of use can shorten the life of the hdd due to the way the ball bearings are worn. But yeah, they should be in a 90° angle.
ok... My hdd´s are not brand new, nor expensive... Should they crash i finally got a reason to buy new bigger ones..
Yep go ahead, change the position and give it a whirl, new hard drives are cheap now and every website store stocks them... just then you are moving them do it slowly, you dont want the arm to strike the platter or become damaged by moving it quickly or negotiate it into position.
Is there a way to lock the heads? for example when movin the computer from one house to another, when shutting down, make the heads sit off the platter or in the centre or somethin like that?
Old school drives used to have a dos util named park that would do that, but modern drives park automatically. No real concern if they are handled with some respect. You can see in my Colossus thread my drives are mounted vertically and show no signs of ill effect.
I always wondered what that did. Once I had 'parked' the drives, I could safely turn off the PC. After all these years, I am finally enlightened...
Orientation should not matter at all Bearing wear is a very minor issue, and the chances of seeing any significant wear due to gravity is the lifetime of the drive are not great. If orientation mattered, more notebook drives would be dead because they are built on all the same technology, just with smaller parts. The way a modern head array works is very, very simple, and there is a spring force that automatically parks the heads in a structure that keeps the heads stationary when power is off. This structure places the heads so they are not over the platter. Shock is the big issue with drives, but when they are off, they are pretty tough so long as you don't physically damage any part of the drive.
