Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!coherent!dplatt
From: dplatt@coherent.uucp (Dave Platt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Can the MacII be used sideways
Message-ID: <84@coherent.uucp>
Date: 20 Jan 88 05:35:57 GMT
References: <666@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
Reply-To: dplatt@saab.UUCP (Dave Platt)
Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 20

A caution re turning the Mac II on its side:  it's possible that some hard
disks may have track-alignment problems if you format them while they're
positioned horizontally and then operate them while positioned vertically...
apparently changing the relative-direction-of-gravity can cause the heads or
head-positioning mechanism to drift a bit out of alignment.  I don't know if
this applies to any of the hard disks that are being used in Mac IIs these
days;  I do remember that the installation instructions that came with Sun 70-
and 140-meg shoebox disks recommended that the drives be reformatted if they
were switched from a horizontal operating position to a vertical position, or
vice versa.

So... it may not be necessary to dump/reformat/restore, but then again it may
be... and I don't imagine it'd hurt to do so, just in case.  Just be _sure_
you have a clean backup before you reformat!

-- 

Dave Platt
  UUCP:	...!{ames,sun,uunet}!coherent!dplatt
  Internet: coherent!dplatt@ames.arpa, ...@sun.com, ...@uunet.uu.net