Modding Hard Drive and DVD Drive question

hey guys im working on a case mod and had a question

If i mount a Hard Drive or DVD Drive at a 45 degree angle in my case will it damage the disc while its spining?

 

Most current HDDs and opticals can be mounted flat, upright or anything in between. Old drives from the Triassic needed to be flat only. More better now.

john

 

I think a hard drive would be OK, but that sounds like it may damage DVDs and CDs.

 

My unopened Liteon DVD writer with Lightscribe says on the box:
Horizontal/Vertical Installation Angle.

john

 

I would think as long as your not moving it wile it was running you would be fine

 

If it helps, I made a couple of desk mounts for my laptop, one at home and one in the office. They hold the laptop up vertically while attached to a desktop dock. The screen ends up vertical and the main unit ends up sitting at about 70 degrees. I've had no problems reading and writing disks from the built in drive at this angle.

 

But laptop drives are different in the way that they load discs, either by a slot loading mechanism or a tray in which you attach the disc to the spindle. These drives ensure that the disc is secure inside the drive in case of movement such as tilting. Desktops are in a fixed position, so the drives have a different way of loading discs, where the disc is just placed loosly on the tray, with nothing there to secure it until it's actually inside the drive.

 

Most dvd drives have little grooves on the tray, to allow for vertical mounting, and slot loading drives have internal guides to allow for vertical mounting. Once loaded, in either drive, the disc is clamped in a floating posistion.

At an angle, there is a less downwards force compared to vertical, so the drives are fine. You don't generally see "angle mount ok" on dvd drive specifications, because there generally aren't any cases funky enough to offer this option.

HDD's are absolutely fine at an angle, and dvd drives will run perfect at an angle, provided they are capable of running vertically.

Try it for yourself and see, lean it on a couple of books or whatever

 

thanks for the input

 

Empirical testing is in:
I just grabbed a standard, full size, tray loading DVD drive I had floating. Works judt fine in all three axes, there are little notches around the sides of the tray to keep the disk in place.