How to cool hard drives?

[YoungBlade]

I've got some older hard drives that I use mainly for backups. I use these drives in an external USB docking station, so they are mostly exposed to air. Today, I got a refurbished Seagate Constellation 4TB drive and set up a 1TB transfer from my 1.5TB drive. After a bit of time, I saw that they both reached 48C when under that load. I put my hand near them and could feel the heat coming off of them. So, I got a desk fan and pointed it at them; their temps dropped to 36C.

 

Does anyone have any better tips on how to keep these drives cool when I do large backups? Or should I just plan on having that desk fan as part of my backup routine going forward?

[Deslumo]

Isn't 48C fine for hard drives and within their operating temperature?

[YoungBlade]

3 minutes ago, Deslumo said:

Isn't 48C fine for hard drives and within their operating temperature?

Both drives have a rated max of 60C, but I turned the fan on them as soon as I saw that temp. I don't know if they would've gone higher if I'd let them be. They're down to 31C and 28C now, so that's definitely working to cool them off.

 

I thought that hard drives were particularly susceptible to failure if they got too hot because of thermal expansion since they have moving parts. I'd been told that you should try to keep them under 45C. Was I misinformed?

[svrhub]

23 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

Both drives have a rated max of 60C, but I turned the fan on them as soon as I saw that temp. I don't know if they would've gone higher if I'd let them be. They're down to 31C and 28C now, so that's definitely working to cool them off.

 

I thought that hard drives were particularly susceptible to failure if they got too hot because of thermal expansion since they have moving parts. I'd been told that you should try to keep them under 45C. Was I misinformed?

nah ive heard this too, doesnt hurt to keep under 45C, SSDs are opposite super cold is bad for the NAND flash.

[Vishera]

Never had this issue,and i have 5 drives in an array very close to one another.

[YoungBlade]

6 hours ago, Vishera said:

Never had this issue,and i have 5 drives in an array very close to one another.

Well, my 1.5TB Seagate drive has always been a little on the warm side. It's a Barracuda 7200RPM drive from 2009 that's packed full of platters, because that's what you had to do back then to get 1.5TB. The "new" 4TB Constellation drive feels equally heavy. I'm guessing its the shear amount of stuff moving around inside that makes them get so hot, because my 1TB WD drive is way lighter and never gets as hot.

When not sitting right next to that 4TB drive, the highest I'd seen the 1.5TB drive get was 41C when docked with the WD drive, and getting that hot was rare.