atfphotography@gmail.com wrote:
So, here's the part I need some feedback on: If I turn the drive upside down, the power connector clears with plenty of room to spare. What I am not sure about is the wisdom of operating the drive long-term in this orientation. In years past, drive vendors specified orientation as one of the physical mounting parameters, but I cannot find anything on the Conner CP3104 that gets to that level of detail. I believe Seagate bought out Conner, but they have next to nothing on their website under Conner and absolutely nothing on this model. Any opinions on running the drive upside down?
I remember seeing pictures of the Seagate ST-125-A 20 megabyte drive that specifically showered _not_ to run the drive upside down. It's not the same model but at least something similar of the period.
That's what I'm afraid of. There were usually warnings about orientation. Generally right-side-up or 90-degrees.
Would it be possible to get one of the molex connectors that is a 4 pin with the right angle? I remember some of my external hard drive cases have these so they can get the drives to fit.
I tore through all my junk drawers and bins looking for a shorter form-factor connector. No joy. Don't recall ever seeing a right-angle cable connector, although some hard drives had the PCB mount male standing up at right angles to the board. Unfortunately, there's not enough clearance to do this with the Conner drive.
At this point, I'm thinking I'll unsolder the PCB connector from the drive and tack on the power leads directly. Inelegant, but it will permit me to mount the drive rightside up.