Hard Drive Too Hot?

[nissanman]

Hello I recently got a 20gig (7200RPM) hdd to replace my older 10gig (5400RPM) drive. I installed the drive and installed Windows XP. After windows had installed i downloaded Astra32 which shows my system info aswell as my hdd temp. The temp was at 45 degrees. Is this normal? or is my drive getting too hot?

Cheers, Nissanman.

 

[Rick]

Well, 45* Celsius is pretty warm, but not unusual.

Somewhat surprisingly, "old" 7200 RPM drives like that just run really hot. I don't think there's anything here that would set off alarms, but you may want to check out your case and see how you can improve its airflow if you are really concerned. Moving air through the case will help a lot.

 

[nissanman]

what would happen if i was to run the drive at that temp all the time?, would i cause any damage to the drive?

 

[raybay]

You have a drive that had a average lifetime of about two to three years... perhaps the heat was part of the reason... now they warranty a lot of drives for five years, and they run more cooly.
A 7200 rpm drive runs hotter than a 5400 rpm. 40 and 60 GB drives with the newer technology run more cool than the old ones... and are quite cheap nowadays.
But 45 Celsius is not excessively hot at 113 Farenheit. Just save your data frequently.
Heat is usually a big factor in computer component failure, but you are using an "old" drive.
Good luck to you.

 

[Tedster]

Just back up often. Your temps are not unusual. With proper care you should get a few more years out of the drive. If you wish, you can buy HD coolers.

 

[Rick]

You have a drive that had a average lifetime of about two to three years...

If you have facts which support your guess, then please share it with us.

Otherwise: Storage Review reliability database

I don't know about you, but I see a lot of 5-7 years posted there. I also took the liberty to average the numbers for you - Just under 5 years was the average. And in this case, since infant mortality is ruled out, the median would be a more accurate representation of life expectancy - not the average. According to the data above, it wouldn't be unlikely for this drive to last 6 years.

Now, this is hardly scientific, but if you can provide better data - please do.

 

[raybay]

We have tracked all the computers and and all the drives we have installed in our shops in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. We have always provided a three year warranty... rare in this business. We now provide a five year warranty on computers with a new Seagate drive installed. What we state is what we have learned in our repair and service business.
It does vary by drive, with Seagate as tops, Toshiba second, Western Digital as third most reliable laptop drive. But the very high failure rates of Hitachi, IBM Travel Star, Samsung, Tri-Gem, Maxtor, and Fijitsu bring the overall rates down.
Seagates last, on average, 44 months. Western Digital 32 months, Hitachi and IBM Travelstar 28 months, and all others come down to 23 months for 20 GB drives. 6 GB, 10 GB, and 12 GB drives are much higher.
We do see drives that last 7 years. We see a lot more which do not last a year. And many Hitachi drives do not last 7 months.
We install 11 drives per week, to a variety of customers.
We do have databases on all products and failure, which in general we are contracted not to release.
The highest failure rates have been in Western Digital and Hitachi 40 GB drives in the 7200 rpm category. Lowest rates have been in the Toshiba 20 GB and Western Digital 20 GB drives. Consistent high failure rates have been in Fujitsu and Samsung, but we do not buy enough of them to make an accurate comparison
We are now seeing extremely high failure rates on drives larger than 80 GB, and any drives over 60 GB with 7200 rpm.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

We have tracked all the computers and and all the drives we have installed in our shops in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. We have always provided a three year warranty... rare in this business. We now provide a five year warranty on computers with a new Seagate drive installed. What we state is what we have learned in our repair and service business.
It does vary by drive, with Seagate as tops, Toshiba second, Western Digital as third most reliable laptop drive. But the very high failure rates of Hitachi, IBM Travel Star, Samsung, Tri-Gem, Maxtor, and Fijitsu bring the overall rates down.
Seagates last, on average, 44 months. Western Digital 32 months, Hitachi and IBM Travelstar 28 months, and all others come down to 23 months for 20 GB drives. 6 GB, 10 GB, and 12 GB drives are much higher.
We do see drives that last 7 years. We see a lot more which do not last a year. And many Hitachi drives do not last 7 months.
We install 11 drives per week, to a variety of customers.
We do have databases on all products and failure, which in general we are contracted not to release.
The highest failure rates have been in Western Digital and Hitachi 40 GB drives in the 7200 rpm category. Lowest rates have been in the Toshiba 20 GB and Western Digital 20 GB drives. Consistent high failure rates have been in Fujitsu and Samsung, but we do not buy enough of them to make an accurate comparison
We are now seeing extremely high failure rates on drives larger than 80 GB, and any drives over 60 GB with 7200 rpm.

Raybay, how do you come up with this sh*t? You should write sketch comedy or something.

In my own studies, I have discovered that any HDD manufactured in China with the vowels u and i in the company name will always fail on the first humid Tuesday of the year. That does not apply if Pluto, Jupiter and Earth are aligned due to outstanding gravitational pull on the disk. This increases endurance by 30% which is substantial enough to counter the manufacturer's defects.

The number 30 is significant because u is the 21st letter and i is the 9th letter 21+9 = 30. Now, if you subtract the sum of the rest of the vowels based on their position in the alphabet, you get the number 9 (a 1, e 5, o 15 = 21). 30-21 = 9. As you see these numbers are reoccurring and there is a good reason. They are major numbers in Chinese black magic and I suspect that they are plotting to take over the world through HDD failures.