External Hard Drive Temp Cause for Concern?

[Shin555]

Hi,

I have just bought a Hitachi Touro 4Tb USB 3.0 External Hard Drive. When i hooked it all up, and turned on my PC the temperature of it was around 46 Celsius. It has slowly been rising and it is now at 60 degrees Celsius. (According to CrystalDiskInfo)

Is it ok for it to be running at these kinds of Temperatures? I am quite alarmed. I also have an Old 1TB WD MyBook which is connected via eSATA, but I am unable to find out the Temperature of that, so I don't really have a reference point.

The Hitachi Drive is located out of sight behind my TV (on my desk), but i has a decent amount of space around it. The only space where space is restricted are the Sides (2 inches one one and 4 inches the other) but there are no vents on said sides.


Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Shin.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Holy crap even my cpu and gpu do not run at that. Hitachi drives do run extremely hot though. Hot enough to melt plastic. I have a bunch of Hitachi's I use as backup drives using a drive dock and they've actually melted part of the dock, I had to rig a 120mm fan on it.

Make sure the drive has plenty of air flow. You may need to modify the enclosure. You should be able to wire up a fan to the 12vdc line inside the enclosure.

 

[Elixer]

I didn't think SMART data was available on USB drives...

Did you touch the external HD, to see if it was really that hot, you could tell that just by feeling the case.

It also seems like your C drive is on the way out...

 

[Dessert Tears]

That seems very hot to me. I found this thread about a user with the same drive seeing 55 degrees after 30 minutes of idling.

I didn't think SMART data was available on USB drives...

I think it depends on the USB/SATA bridge. If I remember correctly, a recent release note for CrystalDiskInfo mentioned USB support.

 

[tweakboy]

That is extremely hot for a HD. To give you a idea mine are in twenties.

Take off the side of the case and put a house fan against the rig. Just IMO that is what I would do... gl

It can run at that temp but its lifespan will be shorter. One day boom HD blows up!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Just checked my servers' drives for fun:

[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdb | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   118   101   000    Old_age   Always       -       29
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdc | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   118   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       29
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdd | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   118   105   000    Old_age   Always       -       29
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sde | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   117   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       30
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdf | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   115   104   000    Old_age   Always       -       32
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdg | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   116   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       31
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdh | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   115   109   000    Old_age   Always       -       32
[root@borg ~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdi | grep -i temperature_celsius
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   176   176   000    Old_age   Always       -       34 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/60)
[root@borg ~]#

I'm running a backup job right now (sdi being the backup drive, and happens to be a Hitachi) so they are working a little harder. I'm also probably due to clean the dust filters on the server.

The nice thing with hard drives is they can tolerate heat to some extent. Google has done studies and they actually realized that they can get away with running their data centers at something high like +25C without more failures. I would hate to be working in one of those data centers though but imagine how much they save in cooling. Most server people work in an office anyway and only go in the data center part for physical intervention such as deploying equipment and it's not as expensive to keep an office at 20c than it is to keep a data center there.

 

[bryanW1995]

Vvv

 

[Shin555]

Hi,

Just an update.

It was quite hot but not super hot to touch, so something had to be done about it.

A lot of responses mentioning altering the enclosure, since I have just bought it, and it still has a 2 year Warranty, for now i'd like to keep it unaltered. Otherwise I would have just cracked it open and stick it in my PC.

So the next thing I tried was to think how I could cool it without opening. I had some old Noctua 80mm fans lying around, and a spare port on my Fan Cooler with my NZXT Phantom case. So i extended the Cables of the Fan by using some cables iI clipped from a dead PSU.

And I came up with this:

So it is blowing air Straight into the open Vents.

The Temperature has improved a lot, starting at 32c from a cold boot, and now not going over 40c. Right now it is idle at 39c.

You can see the big improvement when I hooked it all up, below:

My only concerns now is:

1. Dust, no doubt more than usual will get in there with the direct airflow.
2. Misleading results, as admittedly I am not as knowledgeable about this stuff compared to you guys, i am not sure where the Temperature sensor is. As if it is on the outside then the results could be way off.

3. Quite unrelated, but it is my C Drive a (very old) 74Gb WD Raptor, but I only have my OS on there so nothing too important, but for those of you interested as to what is causing the Yellow alert:

So does everything seem ok with the External Drive now? It is slightly cool to touch, but I suppose that is to be expected.


Thanks.

Shin.

 

[corkyg]

In the past year, I have read several accounts regarding the inaccuracy of and bugs in S.M.A.R.T. data, especially with respect to USB attached drives and RAID arrays. I would be inclined to put an independent temp sensor in the external drive case.

 

[kbp]

What is it sitting next to?
and, how much heat is coming out of the vent right next to it?

 

[Edgy]

I've had several Seagate externals and they were ok-ish IF only used to store data accessed rarely (i.e., turned ON only when needed - ironically the sole exception was a Maxtor external since this is the "value" brand for Seagate - and this drive hasn't failed me for 5 years now even under heavy usage).

But if used more actively always ran super hot and started to exhibit symptoms toward failure or just broke down if usage prolonged.

Well, I've pulled those drives OUT and used some as internal (works great even now) for my system OR

used one of the more robust aftermarket enclosures (preferably metal with active cooling) which works great even now.

I can't speak for external HDD from other brands but for crying out loud, I wish Seagate would concentrate MORE on functionally effective enclosures rather than aesthetically pleasing ones that fail.

On a side note, I've developed a habit for great pricing on external drives with clearance pricing (like recent Seagate 3TB external for 119 bucks) and just pulling the drive to be used as internal system drive. Voids warranty but been lucky so far with none DOA.

 

[Shin555]

What is it sitting next to?
and, how much heat is coming out of the vent right next to it?

Hi, It is behind my 40" TV, and I can't really feel any heat coming out of there.

 

[Emulex]

Most of my external drive failures are due to consumer drives. Drives for AV are engineered for abuse (DVR). Most people aren't taking el-cheapo 3/4TB drive and copying off-site data using esata/usb3 all day long. This really heats up the drive.

Eventually the MO of failure is the old usb disconnects/reconnects. Almost as if the power supply or chipset is failing. Sometimes you can even transplant or let it cool off - but I usually RMA the drive.

I'd prefer active cooling or a big-azz heatsink myself.

 

[Shin555]

So what's the verdict guys, should the Fans blowing into the Drive (as seen above) be sufficient enough?

It has dropped the temp by at least 22c.

 

[Dessert Tears]

So what's the verdict guys, should the Fans blowing into the Drive (as seen above) be sufficient enough?

40°C max seems acceptable to me.

i am not sure where the Temperature sensor is. As if it is on the outside then the results could be way off.

CrystalDiskInfo displays the SMART data that should be coming directly from the hard drive. If it were 60°C on the outside, you would have burned yourself.

 

[Old Hippie]

I didn't think SMART data was available on USB drives...

Me either, but they must be getting around it somehow.