Maximm Safe Temperature For An Internal Hard-drive

[chevykanteve]

In this instance, the internal HDD is a Seagate 80 gig. What is, generally, a safe maximum (operating) temperature-range?

Edited July 25, 2007 by chevykanteve

[Crossy]

I wouldn't want my drives to run over 45-50C, the manufacturers seem to set the panic shutdown temp at 65-70. There are a number of shareware drive thermometers around that use the SMART interface of the drive to monitor.

The cooler it runs, the longer it will live

Have a look here for some thermometers http://www.dirfile.com/freeware/temperature.htm

Edited July 25, 2007 by Crossy

[chevykanteve]

I wouldn't want my drives to run over 45-50C, the manufacturers seem to set the panic shutdown temp at 65-70. There are a number of shareware drive thermometers around that use the SMART interface of the drive to monitor.

The cooler it runs, the longer it will live

Have a look here for some thermometers http://www.dirfile.com/freeware/temperature.htm

Hey, thanks Crossy, this is very useful info. I'm now running at 46 degrees Celsius (and the air-con has been on for two hours now, in addition to the fans. Maybe I need some type of extra cooling equipment for the case itself. But what???

Edited July 25, 2007 by chevykanteve

[autonomous_unit]

Actually, there was a recent study of hard drive failure rates in datacenters and it found that there was no increase in failure based on temperature of the drives!

While grossly overheating may indeed cause a problem, I wouldn't worry about temperatures in the 30-50 C range in Thailand. More worrying would be that the temperature is going up unexpectedly on a particular drive. Also, it is not surprising if the temperature goes up when the ambient air temperature is higher...

A much bigger source of hard drive failures would be vibration/physical shock or marginal power supplies.

[Crossy]

Actually, there was a recent study of hard drive failure rates in datacenters and it found that there was no increase in failure based on temperature of the drives!

While grossly overheating may indeed cause a problem, I wouldn't worry about temperatures in the 30-50 C range in Thailand. More worrying would be that the temperature is going up unexpectedly on a particular drive. Also, it is not surprising if the temperature goes up when the ambient air temperature is higher...

A much bigger source of hard drive failures would be vibration/physical shock or marginal power supplies.

Agreed on the latter points, particularly iffy power, always a killer

Do you have a link to the failure study? Not that I don't believe you, just that as an engineer I always learnt that the cooler hardware runs to more reliable it is

To the OP, run your machine in the same way as you usually would, if the drive temp goes over about 50C start looking at case ventilation, more fans.

Edited July 25, 2007 by Crossy

[Veazer]

Actually, there was a recent study of hard drive failure rates in datacenters and it found that there was no increase in failure based on temperature of the drives!

While grossly overheating may indeed cause a problem, I wouldn't worry about temperatures in the 30-50 C range in Thailand. More worrying would be that the temperature is going up unexpectedly on a particular drive. Also, it is not surprising if the temperature goes up when the ambient air temperature is higher...

A much bigger source of hard drive failures would be vibration/physical shock or marginal power supplies.

I'm interested to hear more about this study as well. I've had two external drive cases that were completely sealed and felt rather hot when used. Both failed with 12-18 months. You'll often see drive cases advertising some 'thermal convection design' or similar BS but I've yet to see it work. In both of my cases I found unused fan mounts inside! A vented case, preferably with a fan, will always run cooler imho.

I can see why a marginal power supply would cause data loss and general unreliability but I'm surprised to hear it caused permanent physical damage. I've seen loads of hard drive failures and most of them a fair amount of warning. The 'CLICK-click....CLICK-click.....CLICK-click....' of a drive trying to to read itself while it pauses the system is a warning to start a full backup and replace the drive. It seems that a failure caused by a bad PS would be quick. Then again, intuition doesn't always work for pc issues...

[Richard-BKK]

As this is about a Seagate hard disk, it would be helpful if we know the model number, but say it is a Seagate ST380811AS this is a early Barracuda 7200rpm drive of the series 9. This drive has a operational temperature of 0 to 60c degree.

If the drive is a Seagate (Maxtor) Diamondmax 16 80GB the operational temperature is 5 to 55c degree.

For Western Digital drives of the Raptor family the temperature can even be much higher (probably because 10.000rpm)

[chevykanteve]

As this is about a Seagate hard disk, it would be helpful if we know the model number, but say it is a Seagate ST380811AS this is a early Barracuda 7200rpm drive of the series 9. This drive has a operational temperature of 0 to 60c degree.

If the drive is a Seagate (Maxtor) Diamondmax 16 80GB the operational temperature is 5 to 55c degree.

For Western Digital drives of the Raptor family the temperature can even be much higher (probably because 10.000rpm)

Thanks for the reply. The model is a Seagate ST380011A.

[pete_r]

There is a thread on the study about hard disk reliability by Google here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=108369

Direct link to the report:

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

[Veazer]

There is a thread on the study about hard disk reliability by Google here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=108369

Direct link to the report:

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

Very informational, thanks for that link Pete.

My only complaint would be the conclusion that heat is not a large factor in failure except in 'extreme' cases. In the real world outside a nice aircon server room I think we would see much higher temperatures reached in normal usage. We can see from the graph, as they note, that failure rates start to increase steadily after 45-46° C but their data stops at about 53°. Like I discussed previously, many external cases are outright hot to the touch - way beyond the temperatures they reached. I think we can expect some pretty high failure rates as we head into those higher temps. If someone uses an external case on a warm day is that really 'extreme use'?

I was very surprised about the increase in failure as temperatures decreased below 37-38°. Like Crossy, I always assumed that lower temperatures corresponded with increased drive life but their data shows quite the opposite. I would have never guessed that a drive running at 31-2°C is twice as likely to fail as drive at 38°C. and a drive at 25-26°C is more than three times as likely to fail than the drive at 38°. I've been in server rooms so cold they were probably shortening drive life.

[elkangorito]

Most electrical/electronic equipment is designed to operate safely & reliably in a maximum ambient temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius, as per most 'standards'.

[Crossy]

Most electrical/electronic equipment is designed to operate safely & reliably in a maximum ambient temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius, as per most 'standards'.

True.

The temperatures shown in the report and that we are discussing here come from the SMART data from the drive, i.e. an internal temperature. Whether the sensor is in a standard location on the drive is doubtful but I would think we're looking at a mechanical location inside the platter housing.

[elkangorito]

I was very surprised about the increase in failure as temperatures decreased below 37-38°. Like Crossy, I always assumed that lower temperatures corresponded with increased drive life but their data shows quite the opposite. I would have never guessed that a drive running at 31-2°C is twice as likely to fail as drive at 38°C. and a drive at 25-26°C is more than three times as likely to fail than the drive at 38°. I've been in server rooms so cold they were probably shortening drive life.

Well, I guess that 7 200 RPM is not exactly slow. Imagine how much 'wear & tear' the moving parts would suffer if they were kept 'tighter' i.e. at a lower temperature. All this aside, it's usually a change in temp that causes the most problems i.e. running a motor vehicle without a thermostat for a year or so (engine running cold) & then re-installing a thermostat. The result is usually blue smoke closely followed by a major overhaul. HDD's in datacentres, which are constantly kept at the one temp, usually do not have problems.

[Richard-BKK]

The Seagate ST380011A has a maximum operating temperature of also 60c degree. It is, in tropical country like Thailand, it is common that it operates around 50 to 55c degree. As you state that your drive is operating at 46c degree I will say it runs pretty cool.

This information is 100% based on information given by the manufacturer (Seagate). It is never proven that hard drives least longer if they run cooler, matter of fact, some coils in a hard disk need to be at a specific temperature to work/perform efficient. (See it as doing a cold start in Sweden with your car, then we also wait for the motor to get warm enough)

I can remember the stories about more heat means less lifespan, but less is true. The true enemy of electronics is the difference between cold and hot, or on and off. This translated back to hard drives, new power-saving settings, that spin down the hard drive effect the hard disk lifespan by years. If we look at the hard drive in question, the Seagate ST380011A has a limited amounts that it can do a contact start/stop (around 50.000)

[chevykanteve]

The Seagate ST380011A has a maximum operating temperature of also 60c degree. It is, in tropical country like Thailand, it is common that it operates around 50 to 55c degree. As you state that your drive is operating at 46c degree I will say it runs pretty cool.

This information is 100% based on information given by the manufacturer (Seagate). It is never proven that hard drives least longer if they run cooler, matter of fact, some coils in a hard disk need to be at a specific temperature to work/perform efficient. (See it as doing a cold start in Sweden with your car, then we also wait for the motor to get warm enough)

I can remember the stories about more heat means less lifespan, but less is true. The true enemy of electronics is the difference between cold and hot, or on and off. This translated back to hard drives, new power-saving settings, that spin down the hard drive effect the hard disk lifespan by years. If we look at the hard drive in question, the Seagate ST380011A has a limited amounts that it can do a contact start/stop (around 50.000)

Thank you so very much for your kind reply. Whenever the temperature hit around 44 degrees I kept getting messages from a program (HDD Health) saying the HD has reached a critically-high temperature. This had me worried. I suspect now that the temperature standards used by that program to signal those messages may not necessarily have related to the reality of the actual HDD model in question. Anyhow, I just deleted that program.

[elkangorito]

Attached is the product manual for your HDD. I got it from the Seagate website www.seagate.com

The manual provides some good, detailed info about your drive.

[chevykanteve]

Attached is the product manual for your HDD. I got it from the Seagate website www.seagate.com

The manual provides some good, detailed info about your drive.

This info is much appreciated. Thanks!

[PattayaDavid]

I've got 3 hard drives installed in my computer, Western Digital WD3200YS 320GB SATA-II 16MB, NCQ (Raid 1 with additional backup drive). How can I check and monitor my hard drive temperatures? This is the first PC that I have owned in a long time. I've been using laptops exclusively since about 1996.

Also, my processor (Q6600) and motherboard (ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi) run temperatures of 43 and 44 when not under heavy usage, any problem at that level?

Pattaya Dave

[chevykanteve]

I've got 3 hard drives installed in my computer, Western Digital WD3200YS 320GB SATA-II 16MB, NCQ (Raid 1 with additional backup drive). How can I check and monitor my hard drive temperatures? This is the first PC that I have owned in a long time. I've been using laptops exclusively since about 1996.

Also, my processor (Q6600) and motherboard (ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi) run temperatures of 43 and 44 when not under heavy usage, any problem at that level?

Pattaya Dave

For hard drive temperatures, I'm using HDDlife Pro (Google it for download). I would also like to know what to use for monitoring motherboard and processor temps.