Hard disk orientation...

[GTP]

For over 20 years I've installed racks and racks of servers of both drive orientations. Since servers are designed to run as trouble free as possible, 24x7x365, I would have faith in their designers knowing that "It doesn't matter if the drives are vertical or horizontal". Compaq/HP Proliants, Dell PowerEdges, IBM/Lenovo ThinkServers, SuperMicros, Synology NAS's....all the top brands do both.
If I had to think deep about it from an engineering and physics standpoint and make a choice, I'd wager that vertical has less wear and tear. But...the industry has proven it doesn't matter.
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I suspect what they're not telling you is how many times the drive has been dropped, tossed onto a desk or into a drawer, etc. Three different hard drives just don't fail like that without some sort of physical abuse.

Moving the drive about and especially when the drive is still spinning is just asking for a failure.

I have seen them do this on many occasions despite my protestations about damaging it!
They're in a hurry to get out of the office so they grab the box, yank the cords without going through the "safely remove" routine and just plonk it down on another desk....

Thanks all.
... both Seagate and WD say that "drives can be used in any orientation" so I think I have my answer. The abuse the drive (or more specifically) the whole unit gets from rough handling is the major issue.
Even though Seagate and WD replace them without question and I charge a good chunk for "fixing it" I still need to get the point across to them. The data they contain is backed up to NAS and cloud also, so it's not a door closing issue. The only tears are from the loss of the "private data" that's not supposed to be on it anyway!

 

[NJW]

Even though Seagate and WD replace them without question and I charge a good chunk for "fixing it" I still need to get the point across to them.

Well, you can't fix – or educate, apparently – stupid, so just increase your chunk by 15% every time. They just don't deserve nice things. Let's hope Seagate and WD aren't tracking your failure rate.

 

[Computer Bloke]

You can't fix stupid but you can work around it. The next time the HDD fails just replace it with a 2TB SSD and they can throw it around all day. Problem solved, huge profit made, customer taught a lesson - everybody wins.

(It's even possible that the price of a big SSD will make them realise that they don't actually need it at all. That'd be a win, too.)

 

[GTP]

Well, you can't fix – or educate, apparently – stupid, so just increase your chunk by 15% every time. They just don't deserve nice things. Let's hope Seagate and WD aren't tracking your failure rate.

I feel a bit guilty sending them off knowing that it is probably the rough treatment that causes the premature demise.
Surely they would be able to see the data even though the drives are effectively dead? One day I guess they'll say enough!
A better idea may be to get them each their own unit so that they are not throwing this one around! But I've still got the problem of one employee taking hers home everyday!

 

[Alexey]

Every time I have seen orientation mentioned in a manufacturer spec, it was plus or minus 5 degrees off any orientation.

 

[GTP]

You can't fix stupid but you can work around it. The next time the HDD fails just replace it with a 2TB SSD and they can throw it around all day. Problem solved, huge profit made, customer taught a lesson - everybody wins.

(It's even possible that the price of a big SSD will make them realise that they don't actually need it at all. That'd be a win, too.)

What a great idea! Next time it happens, I'll just tell them the whole thing is dead, not just the drive! I'll convince them to get 3 small SSD + enclosures (cheaper than one big SSD) so they can have one each and the rough handling becomes a non issue....
Until they just yank it out again......"USB Device not recognised...."

 

[mr m]

Platter orientation mattered back in the day when stepper motors were used for head positioning. Today they use voice coil actuators which could care less how they are oriented in space.

 

[Markverhyden]

LaCie's are horrible. I stopped recommending them several years ago. Way too many drive failures compared to the other external drive OEM's.

 

[lcoughey]

LaCie's are horrible. I stopped recommending them several years ago. Way too many drive failures compared to the other external drive OEM's.

Seeing that they were bought out by Seagate and stopped using HGST drives, it makes sense.

 

[johnrobert]

It's a cooling issue in cheap enclosure

 

[Diggs]

It's a cooling issue in cheap enclosure

Really? I've never found heat to be a problem. I've had drives too hot to touch that worked fine for months/years. I've found external drives parked/used on a radiator. I've found 4-drive externals units taped completely shut to keep dust/dirt out. All had been working in relative extreme heat with no issues.

Shock or motion is more of an issue in my mind.

 

[fencepost]

They're in a hurry to get out of the office so they grab the box, yank the cords without going through the "safely remove" routine and just plonk it down on another desk.

Tell them that you were discussing how they do things with some other techs and the response was

Well, you can't fix – or educate, apparently – stupid,

 

[GTP]

LaCie's are horrible. I stopped recommending them several years ago. Way too many drive failures compared to the other external drive OEM's.

So do you think it may be the enclosure's electronics that caused the failures rather than the rough handling?
This is the 3rd drive to go in this enclosure so, it will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

 

[GTP]

It's a cooling issue in cheap enclosure

It's got lots of vent holes in the bottom and sides so I don't think it's overheating. It does get "warm" though. The other consideration is that it's probably only on for about 15~20 minutes a day.

Tell them that you were discussing how they do things with some other techs and the response was

"Well, you can't fix – or educate, apparently – stupid,"
Oh, I'd love to. But they spend a good amount yearly so I'll hold my tongue!

 

[NJW]

Oh, I'd love to. But they spend a good amount yearly so I'll hold my tongue!

That's fine, until they're socialising with friends and an IT subject comes up:

"Oh, don't use our guy – he's always charging us for fixing our backup and it keeps breaking down."

 

[GTP]

That's fine, until they're socialising with friends and an IT subject comes up:

"Oh, don't use our guy – he's always charging us for fixing our backup and it keeps breaking down."

Here's the thing. They KNOW that rough handling the box is probably killing it and they KNOW that it will fail again because I keep telling them repeatedly to change their ways.
I've had this SoHo for many years, the "boss" is a friend as well, so if they were going to "badmouth" me they would have done it by now.
I think @Computer Bloke has the best option in either a large SSD, or my preferred option, 3 x 512GB SSD's so they have one each.
Now if I could just get them to click that little "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on the tray....

 

[LordIntruder]

just grab it, unplug it and place it on their desk before it even has time to stop spinning! (yeah, yeah, I know I've tried, believe me!)

Well, that problem can be solved simple: sell them SSDs.

 

[fencepost]

Perhaps a bit dated (2012, Win7) but this may be a relevant discussion re: utilities. One worthwhile note is the comment about NTFS being a lot safer due to the journaling. https://social.technet.microsoft.co...-line-to-safely-remove-a-usb-drive?forum=ITCG

This about scripting taking drives offline may also be relevant: https://social.technet.microsoft.co...a-hdd-offlineonline?forum=winserverpowershell
I glanced at stuff like the IcyDock, but that looks like the only real advantage would be an indicator light when activity is happening, and it'd mean having them dealing with bare drives. Might still be worthwhile for SSDs though.

 

[GTP]

Thanks @fencepost. Worth exploring I suppose. I'll read up tonight.
I really don't think they would go for docks.
Going to have a chat with Samantha on Friday about it.
I'll have some options to present to her.