Like tmoney, I question letting your little notebook drive spin on its side.
I would NOT recommend spinning a DVD in there!!!
So ...you are saying that a drive designed for mobile applications I.E., being moved all around the place and being able to absorb small knocks ...won't be able to handle spinning on its side... Right ...
Someone should mention this to the engineers at apple. Those idiots have been doing that for years in the iMac!
Then again maybe the hard drive companies actually design the drives so it doesn't matter which way they are orientated...
As for the CD drive... someone also better mention this to the designers of the G4 cube which had a top loading, vertical CD-Drive.