Minimum operating temp - hard drives

[AmberClad]

~ We normally don't have the heat on during the day when nobody is home, to conserve energy.

This has happened a couple of times after I've come home from work -- when I've turned the system on, the POST speed is normal, but the time to load Windows into the logon screen seems a bit sluggish. It's fine during the weekends when the heat is always on.

Next time this happens, I'll have to remember to jot down the hard drive temps. But I do have CoreTemp as a startup process, and the days that this had happened, the core temperatures were around 6C upon startup. So, I would assume that the ambient temperatures were somewhere between 0C and 6C.

So I suppose the question is -- is there a minimum operating temperature for hard/optical drives? I'm flipping through the Seagate documentation to see if it's listed anywhere in the specs, but feel free to chime in if you know.

 

[MarcVenice]

I think it's between 20-50 degrees celsius. But I'd love to hear some expert opinions on this as well. Dun wanna sound stupid hehe, but I do know the HD's get lubricated with grease. I think the grease might be 'solidifying' a little when the temperatures get that low and hence might not work as fast ? Probably sounding dumb hehe, so I'm curious as well...

 

[thorin]

Just lookup the datasheet on the manufacturer's website.

For Example Seagate barracuda 7200.9 (http://www.seagate.com/docs/pd..._barracuda_7200_9.pdf) states the following:
Operating Temp: 0 to 60 C (That's 32 to 140F)
Non-Operating Temp: -40 to 70 C (That's -40 to 158F)

 

[corkyg]

Apple specs their minimum HDD operating temp at 50 F. Lenovo cites 5 C. Bother are pretty much equal. They are also minumum humidity specs of about 8%.

Looks like Seagates stand cold better.

Don't leave the heat off so that you get below 50 F. You might be wasting energy. In other words, it may take fewer BTUs to maintain 70 F in a well insulated house than to heat up from 50 at once.

 

[AmberClad]

I saw that earlier, but I'm a little concerned that they're rounding that temperature range for convenience. Because on another page, they have the drives listed as operating between 5C and 55C. Which would be borderline in my case.

 

[thorin]

Amber I'm not sure if that PDF is the same model of drives or not. Either way what I posted was just an exemplar, you'd have to find out exactly what's in your system and check the docs.
If you find conflicting information then you have three options:
1) Call the manufacturer and get a statement from them (jot down the agent's name, the date and time, and the number you called).
2) Print the docs and file them away, along with the URLs and Navigation paths (web site clicks).
Both of which provide you with ammunition should you ever find yourself in a RMA situation for the devices in question.
3) Trust the more conservative information. (See below)

Personally just as a gutt reaction I'd say trust the 5 to 55C (41 to 131F) because it's a more conservative range and 0C (32F) is freezing. If they've published both they can't argue if one is a subset of the other, ie: 5-55 fits within 0-60 therefore if you stay within 5-55 how can they argue? If it was 5-55 vs 0-50 it might be a different issue.
We (the forum and industry) know that freezing drives has an effect on them as this is often brought up as a temporary solution to getting data of a failing or failed device.