HD HOT to the touch...

[Pastore]

Ive got a Maxtor 40 gig 7200 RPM hard drive... i have my case open today, so i feel my hard drive, and the meta casing is HOT on it, i mean i could barely touch it for more than 2 or 3 seconds... should i think about getting some cooling for this baby? or is this normal?

 

[johnjohn320]

What do you mean by the meta case? Anyway, I opened up my computer recently, nothing in there was hot, so whatever it is, if I had it then I would have to say that no, it is not normal. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[rhinox99]

I think that was a typo for metal casing.

You shouldn't need cooling of any kind except for maybe scsi drives that spin at very high speeds. If it'll give you peace of mind, then by all means spend a couple bucks for a hd cooler.

 

[Pastore]

so you guys are saying that it is normal for a hard drive to be HOT... by metal, i mean the side of the hard drive that has the label on it...

 

[johnjohn320]

Wait, do you mean the case itself that goes around your computer? Or is this something inside the hardware? Sorry, I'm just having trouble understanding. If it is the case around the computer, then hell no it's not normal. My computer's on 24/7 and it's still room temperature.

 

[Pariah]

It's ok for a drive to be hot to the touch. Though, if it is in an open case, it shouldn't be. Is the drive completely enclosed or stacked with other drives directly above or beneath it?

 

[Pariah]

He's talking about the hard drive itself john.

 

[johnjohn320]

Gotcha. Thanks, and sorry that I couldn't be of more help Beast.

 

[johnjohn320]

Nonetheless, when I opened my computer last, nothing inside was hot to the touch either. Just a thought. But these guys know what they're talking about a lot better than I do.

 

[Pastore]

nope, no drives around it... it is a dell setup so it is at the bottom front of the case all by itself... i try to keep the side of my case off at all times as to let air flow better...

 

[johnjohn320]

What cooling systems, if any do you have?

 

[Pastore]

just an exhaust fan by my CPU... nothing else... come on guys... this is a DELL we are talking about here... hehe

 

[Pariah]

Considering it is a prebuilt system, I wouldn't worry about it. If there was a chance of failure Dell would have changed the design.

 

[johnjohn320]

I'm talkin outta my ass here, but are you overclocking? Could that have something to do with it?

 

[madthumbs]

I used to think Dell was good based on all the praises I heard from magazines. After seeing a few in real life though, I'm glad I spent the time learning to build my own. I don't think it's normal for a HD to be hot, ist the FSB overclocked? Are you losing data, or getting corruption? Is the PC on a level surface?

 

[Pariah]

You can't overclock a hard drive. Overclocking a system corrupts the data on the way to the drive, but has no affect on the drive itself.

Actually, I need to append that, you can screw the drive up, but overclocking won't actually speed the drive up any, resulting in greater heat.

 

[Pastore]

nothing abnormal... its just HOT... and just to let you know, i could build a machine if i wanted to, but my insurance company bought me this thing, so im happy

 

[Slacker]

First thing I thought to myself when I read the title of your post was, "I bet he has a Maxtor"

My parents had two maxtor drives in one system, it started acting a little funny and I was checking stuff inside and noticed that the drives were warmer than I thought they should be, I moved them so they would get better airflow, but about a week later my folks called me up and said they were having more problems, on booting, the mobo was taking a looooong time to recognize the drives and they were getting weird errors, I told them I would be over shortly, by the time I got there they were dead (the hard drives, not my parents) , the mobo was still taking a looooong time to recognize the drives and when it tried to load the o.s. it gave the error "operating system not found" I opened it up and touched the drives and they were __HOT!!__.

It wasnt too bad though, Maxtor is really good about warranty replacement, just make sure you have your stuff backed up

 

[MinniePin]

mine heats up pretty hot, but I have SCSI w/ 10K rpm.

 

[larrymoencurly]

My 7200 RPM series 6800 Maxtor measured 50 Celcius with the thermometer probe stuck in the corner pocket, and the Lucent chip and the tiny chips at the front reached 70 during prolonged read testing, but Maxtor said that was OK. This was with the drive on the bench, actually several inches above, and the room temperature was about 22. Blowing even a little air on the chips cooled them below 50, but tilting the drive upright cooled them a lot too.