The side profile of a hard drive assembly may be configured with one or more open areas to allow cooling air to pass side-to-side through a lateral flow channel provided by a cavity defined in the base portion of the hard drive assembly. Corresponding and complementary open areas may be also be defined in mating drive carrier assembly side components to allow passage of lateral side-to-side cooling air through the base portion flow channel of a hard drive assembled to the drive carrier assembly to form a mountable hard drive system that is installed into a storage enclosure. The at least partially aligned open flow areas of the assembled hard dive assembly and drive carrier assembly may cooperate to reduce air flow impedance across multiple rows of hard drive systems through a storage enclosure.