What's a safe hard disk temperature?

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Seeker

I have HDD Health monitoring my drives' SMART and temperature. I just
installed a new drive (120 GB Seagate). The way my case has them
they're very close together. HDD Health reports both disks in the 48-
50 degrees Celsius.

Is this safe? What can I do if it isn't?
 
What can I do if it isn't?
Click to expand...

First thing to do, if indeed they're too hot, is remove the
2nd drive.

Next determine if you can mount it elsewhere, like in a 5
1/2 bay with an adapter and a front vent or fan (like a
drive caddy or some similar DIY opening) or if you can add a
pusher fan in front of the drive rack. Sometimes a case
will not have room in the rack, but a fan might fit (hole
cut out if there isn't a mostly open fan mount there
already) if mounted on the outside of the metal case frame
and behind the front plastic bezel. These things have to be
considered on a case-by-case basis.

Of course if there is no good solution for your current case
then you would need another case.
 
I have HDD Health monitoring my drives' SMART and temperature. I just
installed a new drive (120 GB Seagate). The way my case has them
they're very close together. HDD Health reports both disks in the 48-
50 degrees Celsius.

Is this safe? What can I do if it isn't?
Click to expand...

The truth is, you can't really use the reported temp to
determine that it's running within a safe range. You can
only use the reported temp to know for sure if it were
running too hot.

The reason for this is that the reported temp is only of one
chip on the PCB. It doesn't tell you what the temp is of
the bearings, or the motor controller, or many other chips
more subject to failure. It's kinda like a "if we see X
temp can we or can't we assume anything about the temp of
the other components", situation.

Don't put them very close together. There should be at
least 1 cm between them if you have an active, fan cooled
drive rack, and more space if there is only a large passive
air intake in front of the rack. Don't run them without at
least the large passive intake in front of the rack, and in
that case, a large % of the case intake being through that
rack. If there is a lot of intake through the front that
doesn't pull the air through the rack it becomes even less
effective.

This is presuming somewhat average conditions- average case
airflow, average ambient (room) temp, average modern drives.
A properly cooled drive will not feel more than mildly warm
to the touch, you can touch-test them and not even need the
temp report, or use the two in conjunction as they are of
different places on the drive.
 
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