IDE Hard drive formating

Some time ago I remember reading that you should not install ahard drive in a vertical poition if it was formatted in a horizontal position. If you do you will eventually corrupt data stored on the HDD or worse, cause a head crash. The same senario applies to putting a desktop computer on its vertical position (as done when a desktop is placed on the floor in a rack like a tower) or a tower on its side because the HDDs are mounted horizontally and formatted in that position. Is this still true or have today’s HDDs overcome this problem and computers can be installed in either orientation?
Dave