Hard drive temperature - how high is too high

[fendel]

Having some trouble finding solid facts on hard drive temperatures -- what's normal? What's too high?

Spec sheets for my Maxtor drives say max operating temperature is 55C. The HD monitoring software I installed has the "critical temperature alarm" set by default at something like 44C, and the "overheating shutdown" temperature at 70C. Right now all three drives that the software sees (the fourth drive isn't SMART-compatible, I think) are running at 40-44 degrees C.

I just had a hard drive failure last week, so I'm feeling a little wary. Help?

FWIW - homebuilt system, ATX midtower case, one intake fan in front, two exhaust fans in back, Antec 400W PS, four HD, one CDRW... kinda crowded, but I now have the drives spaced out so there's an empty bay between all of them.

 

[jjyiz28]

i dont knwo the except temps, but i do know that anything less than 7200 rpm, you sholdn't really have to worry bout temps too much. the 7200 rpm and ups are when the high heat comes to play.

also, don't clump your harddrives togethor in your case so that it touched one another, i nearly burned off my fingher just touching it briefly.

i use a hadrdrive cooler for my 7200, my slower HD don't get hot.

 

[amdskip]

I use a program called Dtemp to monitor my hard drive temps. My maxtor is running at 25c right now so I would say yours is a little too warm and it surely cannot help the life of the hard drive.