Porsche-design la Cieexternal disk overheating.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robin Bignall
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Robin Bignall

I've got one of those nicely-designed Porsche-style La Cie external USB3
drives, 2T. Used solely for backup. On some days it runs at about 30
degrees Celsius, like my other HDDs. Other days it runs at 56 degrees
or more. There is no difference between its usage on cool days versus
hot days.

This is weird behaviour. There is no cooling fan or anything else to
break down, and no apparent explanation why sometimes it runs hot,
sometimes cool. Any ideas?
 
Robin said:
I've got one of those nicely-designed Porsche-style La Cie external USB3
drives, 2T. Used solely for backup. On some days it runs at about 30
degrees Celsius, like my other HDDs. Other days it runs at 56 degrees
or more. There is no difference between its usage on cool days versus
hot days.

This is weird behaviour. There is no cooling fan or anything else to
break down, and no apparent explanation why sometimes it runs hot,
sometimes cool. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

See if a disk monitor utility will show you there is lots of disk
activity when you notice the drive is running hot[ter]. A constantly
spinning disk doesn't produce much more heat than a spun-down one.
It's acess that generates heat. A couple of spinning hard disks in a
duplicator dock will be cool but sometime after starting the cloning
process at full speed the drives will feel hot. That you aren't using
the hard disks doesn't mean that something else is not. You might
have enabled indexing on that external drive. Maybe you have a
scheduled backup running, or one that runs when the computer is
otherwise idle [of user activity]. If the drive is getting hot, it is
being constantly accessed for awhile.
 
Robin said:
I've got one of those nicely-designed Porsche-style La Cie external USB3
drives, 2T. Used solely for backup. On some days it runs at about 30
degrees Celsius, like my other HDDs. Other days it runs at 56 degrees
or more. There is no difference between its usage on cool days versus
hot days.

This is weird behaviour. There is no cooling fan or anything else to
break down, and no apparent explanation why sometimes it runs hot,
sometimes cool. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

See if a disk monitor utility will show you there is lots of disk
activity when you notice the drive is running hot[ter]. A constantly
spinning disk doesn't produce much more heat than a spun-down one.
It's acess that generates heat. A couple of spinning hard disks in a
duplicator dock will be cool but sometime after starting the cloning
process at full speed the drives will feel hot. That you aren't using
the hard disks doesn't mean that something else is not. You might
have enabled indexing on that external drive. Maybe you have a
scheduled backup running, or one that runs when the computer is
otherwise idle [of user activity]. If the drive is getting hot, it is
being constantly accessed for awhile.
Click to expand...

All excellent stuff, Vanguard, and thanks. It's actually only accessed
on Sundays, when I consolidate the hourly incremental backup images
taken during the week into a full image.

The actuality was unusual for the UK: we had a power cut and the disk
switched itself off. We so rarely get power cuts here that it didn't
occur to me. It didn't get detected by Hard Drive Sentinel, either,
which was reporting that it was working! That's weird.
 
I've got one of those nicely-designed Porsche-style La Cie external USB3
drives, 2T. Used solely for backup. On some days it runs at about 30
degrees Celsius, like my other HDDs. Other days it runs at 56 degrees
or more. There is no difference between its usage on cool days versus
hot days.

This is weird behaviour. There is no cooling fan or anything else to
break down, and no apparent explanation why sometimes it runs hot,
sometimes cool. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

130F tops is within a hotter expected range of computers and
associated components. Good cooling, of course, just the price of
doing processing. Not that I like seeing it, except while the CPU is
aggressively utilized, and, along with hotter support MB chipsets
including video. Certainly not the HDs, closest to external edges of
the case and a dedicated fan. 90F is actually indicative of ambient
temperatures in a base sense, a derivative closer where the human body
is comfortable. Although the HDs at times may range from 100F and a
few degrees more. I really don't like them approaching 110F if
avoidable with today's case designs, as that's pointing to air
circulation at less than an optimal. Wrapped in a shroud of
Porsche-styled metal, appearances withstanding, simply and
indicatively negates most all above. Rather like the CPU, at
potentially 130F, except without its fan attached to massive
heatsinks. Proportionate to processing done, energy consumed and
exchanged for released heat, 130F on your HD is at something less,
above 180F, say were I to remove the fan from the CPU to accomplish
most anything by CPU engagements. For a leeway, then, at 130F at tops
by accomplished HD magnitudes

About what I also get with my external drives. Factoring out USB3, if
at all at any appreciable imposition of higher current and thruput,
over three black plastic, ungainly looking USB2 docking stations,
their wallwarts, and bare internal drives for slotting up and into
their innards.

With an eco green, or 7200 black, both over time invariably will serve
for additive accumulators of heat in retaining more overall than a
capacity to release heat. To a point within a graphical analytic
function as characteristic of operability. I'd rather a personal fan
over them, 4" axle blades at 115V/AC to break the skew. And, yes, I'm
sure they'll adequately match your 56C, all in a matter or over so
much time to displace temperature.

(FWIW. I've structured data in such a way as a brunt of viable
changes involving reoccuring backups will fall to an onus handled by a
USB flashstick. A marginal factor to particulars and circumstances
for equating how much influx, not backed up, might invalidate the
churing over of modifications and differentials to what already is.)
 
Flasherly said:
130F tops is within a hotter expected range of computers and
associated components. Good cooling, of course, just the price of
doing processing. Not that I like seeing it, except while the CPU is
aggressively utilized, and, along with hotter support MB chipsets
including video. Certainly not the HDs, closest to external edges of
the case and a dedicated fan. 90F is actually indicative of ambient
temperatures in a base sense, a derivative closer where the human body
is comfortable. Although the HDs at times may range from 100F and a
few degrees more. I really don't like them approaching 110F if
avoidable with today's case designs, as that's pointing to air
circulation at less than an optimal. Wrapped in a shroud of
Porsche-styled metal, appearances withstanding, simply and
indicatively negates most all above. Rather like the CPU, at
potentially 130F, except without its fan attached to massive
heatsinks. Proportionate to processing done, energy consumed and
exchanged for released heat, 130F on your HD is at something less,
above 180F, say were I to remove the fan from the CPU to accomplish
most anything by CPU engagements. For a leeway, then, at 130F at tops
by accomplished HD magnitudes

About what I also get with my external drives. Factoring out USB3, if
at all at any appreciable imposition of higher current and thruput,
over three black plastic, ungainly looking USB2 docking stations,
their wallwarts, and bare internal drives for slotting up and into
their innards.

With an eco green, or 7200 black, both over time invariably will serve
for additive accumulators of heat in retaining more overall than a
capacity to release heat. To a point within a graphical analytic
function as characteristic of operability. I'd rather a personal fan
over them, 4" axle blades at 115V/AC to break the skew. And, yes, I'm
sure they'll adequately match your 56C, all in a matter or over so
much time to displace temperature.

(FWIW. I've structured data in such a way as a brunt of viable
changes involving reoccuring backups will fall to an onus handled by a
USB flashstick. A marginal factor to particulars and circumstances
for equating how much influx, not backed up, might invalidate the
churing over of modifications and differentials to what already is.)
Click to expand...

Eschew Obfuscation....
 
Robin said:
I've got one of those nicely-designed Porsche-style La Cie external USB3
drives, 2T. Used solely for backup. On some days it runs at about 30
degrees Celsius, like my other HDDs. Other days it runs at 56 degrees
or more. There is no difference between its usage on cool days versus
hot days.

This is weird behaviour. There is no cooling fan or anything else to
break down, and no apparent explanation why sometimes it runs hot,
sometimes cool. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Drives with no cooling fan, use spindown when they're not in use.
That's how they attempt to control heating inside the enclosure.
The spindown is not in response to the heat (which would make sense),
rather, the spindown detects inactivity.

If any program is "pinging" the disk at regular intervals,
that "keeps the disk awake" and prevents the heads from unloading
or whatever. And that will cause the average power level to soar,
and the temperature to climb.

Did I mention that this is a dumb idea ? And for the reasons you've
just discovered. Any slight misbehavior of your software, is enough
to defeat their "thermal design principle".

*******

Some drives have shipped from Seagate, with the aggressive spindown
behavior on internal disk purchases. Some users report up to 400
spindown operations per day. Modern drives are rated for about
300,000 load/unload operations, so it probably doesn't affect the
life, but it's still a bad approach. Seagate should not have
enabled that, on drives intended for installation inside a user's
PC. When I read of that, I selected a Seagate drive known not to
do that. While Seagate offered a firmware to stop that from
happening, the users were not completely happy with the firmware
(they could not be sure it wasn't still fooling around).

A better idea, is to use a fan for cooling, and only do head
unload and spindown if the drive has been idle for an hour. That
would be good for people who leave an enclosure connected to the
computer, and powered 24/7. If the user shuts down the PC, then
the drive would eventual shut itself down. In that case, spindown
is being used to extend bearing life, rather than as a thermal
control mechanism.

Now you know why my enclosures here, always have a fan.

Paul
 
Drives with no cooling fan, use spindown when they're not in use.
That's how they attempt to control heating inside the enclosure.
The spindown is not in response to the heat (which would make sense),
rather, the spindown detects inactivity.

If any program is "pinging" the disk at regular intervals,
that "keeps the disk awake" and prevents the heads from unloading
or whatever. And that will cause the average power level to soar,
and the temperature to climb.

Did I mention that this is a dumb idea ? And for the reasons you've
just discovered. Any slight misbehavior of your software, is enough
to defeat their "thermal design principle".
Click to expand...
The La Cie comes with a Desktop Manager that allows you to set a time
for when the drive goes into the 'eco' mode of standby. This is a power
feature that must, I presume, mean spindown. It doesn't always work,
and maybe Hard Disk Sentinel itself keeps pinging the drive.
*******
[Seagate -- it ain't one]

A better idea, is to use a fan for cooling, and only do head
unload and spindown if the drive has been idle for an hour. That
would be good for people who leave an enclosure connected to the
computer, and powered 24/7. If the user shuts down the PC, then
the drive would eventual shut itself down. In that case, spindown
is being used to extend bearing life, rather than as a thermal
control mechanism.

Now you know why my enclosures here, always have a fan.
Click to expand...
I can't find any mention of a fan in the specs -- maybe there isn't room
for one. I haven't found any picture of the HDD with its case open.
 
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