# Hard drive temperature limit

## lovecraft

Hello,

This might be a bit off-topic, but this seems the best forum.

I had a gentoo installation on a VIA EPIA ME6000, which I used as a music server.  It sat in my stereo rack, with perhaps less cooling than is desirable.  Don't know for sure.  What I *do* know is that after less than 2 years, the hard drive crashed.  Was it due to high temperature?

I got the drive replaced under warranty, and am installing the latest and greatest Gentoo (nice!).  While I'm waiting for the base system to recompile, I'm measuring the hard drive temperature with an external thermometer - one of those Radio Shack devices with a probe at the end of a wire.

The probe is taped to the drive and the case is closed up as in real operation.  I get about a 10-12 C difference between external and internal, with the drive temp now at 38 C.

Question 1: will 38 C cause accellerated failure?  What is the max temp I should be running a drive at?

Question 2: another alternative is to replace the HD with a USB flash disk and craft a system around that, using NFS for access to my massive MP3 library.  Can a flash disk do this?  Will it be "dog-slow"?  (I imagine yes, since I don't have USB 2.0)

Question 3: the new drive is a brand-new Samsung 60 GB 2.5" drive (5400 RPM).  I'm familiar with hddtemp.  Does anyone have experience with the accuracy of its reporting?

Thanks for your time,

lovecraft

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## John R. Graham

Go to the manufacturer's web site and look at the drive specifications.  They will include normal operating temperature range.  If you're operating outside the allowed range, then reduced reliability can be expected.  That all having been said, 38°C is  C is a very modest temperature for a modern hard drive.  Personally, I think you just had bad luck.

- JohnLast edited by John R. Graham on Wed Jun 14, 2006 6:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## energyman76b

Hi,

harddisks are very temperature sensitive.

The higher the temperature, the shorter its lifetime.

That said, 38°C IS pretty high.

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## John R. Graham

Well, true, mostly, with qualifications.   :Smile:   There is a relationship between operating temperature and reliability.  However, a typical upper limit for the normal operating range of a non-industrial hard drive is at least 50°C.  38°C is just barely above body temperature; to the touch, the drive would merely feel tepid.

Bottom line, so long as you operate the drive within its normal environmental operating range, it should meet its normal life expectancy.  Although cooler is better, 38°C is nothing to worry about.

- John

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## lovecraft

Thanks for the info...

I dug up the specs on the drives in question - both are spec'd at 5 to 55 C operating.  So the next step is to see how hot it gets once I put it back in the stereo cabinet.  I think I'll need to somehow put another fan in the case...

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## brucebertrand

I've had laptop drives die on me after a short period.  I found that something (probably poor system logger config) was causing something to be written to the drive every 20-30 seconds or so....just long enough for the drive to "park" its heads.  The drive didn't spin down.  The head parking cycle just occurred much more frequently that it should have.  I could hear a slight ticking (you know...hard drive data writing noise) every time it happened.  I was able to monitor the times the drive was accessed via some standard Linux magic, but I don't remember exactly how, and am far too lazy to dig up my old notes.

In any event, I think I ended up shutting down my system logger (sacrilege...I know), and eventually reconfiguring it (and restarting it).

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## energyman76b

 *lovecraft wrote:*   

> Thanks for the info...
> 
> I dug up the specs on the drives in question - both are spec'd at 5 to 55 C operating.  So the next step is to see how hot it gets once I put it back in the stereo cabinet.  I think I'll need to somehow put another fan in the case...

 

they CAN operate in that range, but they SHOULD NOT go as high ass 50°C or above.

The menufacturers usually measure their specs like MTBF measured at 28-30°C.. or similar shenanigans.

And every degree higher reduces the lifetime a lot.

Try a good cooling solution.. even if your drive can do 38°C well, it can do better at 30°C.

Btw, 38°C is pretty hot on touch. Skin temperature is around 27°C if you touch something warmer than that, it will feel warm to hot. Everything above 45°C starts hurting (except you have destroyed your sensoric nerves by overheating them in the past). Everything above 60°C starts damaging.

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## brucebertrand

 *energyman76b wrote:*   

> Btw, 38°C is pretty hot on touch. Skin temperature is around 27°C if you touch something warmer than that, it will feel warm to hot.

 

No!  You're off by 10°C.  38°C is about 100°F and is just above normal skin temperature.  A drive should have no problem operating at that temperature!

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## lovecraft

Hi all,

Thanks for the various tips.  Syslog thing seems like a possibility.  But I'm still thinking it's a temperature issue.  I put the unit in the stereo cabinet and did a kernel compile.  Hard drive temp went up to about 46 C.  Good news: hddtemp reports a degree or so higher, so this seems like an accurate indicator (at least for my Samsung drive).  Bad news is I think 46 C is a wee warm.

So I'm considering alternatives, like boot from USB flash and NFS mount.  Fans are noisy, and I'll have to figure out how to fit it in the small case.  This link looks pretty darn useful.

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## lovecraft

 *lovecraft wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ...
> 
> So I'm considering alternatives, like boot from USB flash and NFS mount.  Fans are noisy, and I'll have to figure out how to fit it in the small case.  This link looks pretty darn useful.

 

FYI: It looks like the IDE cable was blocking airflow.  I managed to turn the drive around and the temperature dropped to 37 C in the cabinet.  I sing the praises of hddtemp, which, for this modern drive, is very accurate.

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## clintpatty

I have 2 identical drives.  One is in a bay with a weak 120mm in front of it and a weak 120mm behind it; also, another hard drive with a fan is blowing its hot air on it.  It normally runs about 37 or 38.  The other identical drive is in a cooler spot in the case and has a 5000rpm 120mm in front of it and stays about 10 cooler.  Loud fans for a music server might disturb the quiet parts of your music, though.  I had an 80286 with on a PSU fan.  The 25MB Seagate hard drive was always quite hot to the touch, and it has lasted at least 20 years.

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