HDD temperature too low?!

[Newt Lives]

OK, I just stopped by to ask this... Can a low temperature damage my
HDD?

I have a Maxtor 60GB 7200rpm HDD and, well, its temperature really
tends to get very high, even with an open computer case (you can
barely touch it, it's about 60 C, I guess). Since all my other
components also need a lot of cooling, I decided to leave the case
open and aimed a large fan (like the kind you use to keep the
temperature of entire room low) directly into the case. From the
distance of about 30cm. It, naturally, cooled everything down - the
CPU temperature dropped down to 28-29 C, temperature inside the case
dropped down to like 25 C. And HDD was not warm at all - actually it
was pretty cold.

But, then the problems begun after about a week - HDD would suddenly
stop rotating with a click sound. The HDD LED starts to blink, and
everything, including my mouse pointer freezes. Sometimes the only
thing I can do is turn computer off and then back on after about 2-3
minutes (if I turn it back on sooner, BIOS simply doesn't recognize
any drive). But sometimes it 'unfreezes' by itself after about 30-60
seconds.

Tonight it's been crashing the system like never before, every 15-30
minutes, and after I turned off the external fan, everything has been
OK for more than an hour now. Could this really be the problem?
Temperature too low? This happened to anyone?

But I already see - I will have to find another, less aggressive way
to cool down the system...

 

[Al Dykes]

OK, I just stopped by to ask this... Can a low temperature damage my
HDD?

I have a Maxtor 60GB 7200rpm HDD and, well, its temperature really
tends to get very high, even with an open computer case (you can
barely touch it, it's about 60 C, I guess). Since all my other
components also need a lot of cooling, I decided to leave the case
open and aimed a large fan (like the kind you use to keep the
temperature of entire room low) directly into the case. From the
distance of about 30cm. It, naturally, cooled everything down - the
CPU temperature dropped down to 28-29 C, temperature inside the case
dropped down to like 25 C. And HDD was not warm at all - actually it
was pretty cold.

But, then the problems begun after about a week - HDD would suddenly
stop rotating with a click sound. The HDD LED starts to blink, and
everything, including my mouse pointer freezes. Sometimes the only
thing I can do is turn computer off and then back on after about 2-3
minutes (if I turn it back on sooner, BIOS simply doesn't recognize
any drive). But sometimes it 'unfreezes' by itself after about 30-60
seconds.

Tonight it's been crashing the system like never before, every 15-30
minutes, and after I turned off the external fan, everything has been
OK for more than an hour now. Could this really be the problem?
Temperature too low? This happened to anyone?

But I already see - I will have to find another, less aggressive way
to cool down the system...

There is a lowest operating temp spec, it's in the documentation
for your dick on the manufacturers web site.

It's well below room temperature. Think about it. if the
mim operating temp was above room temp you's
have to put a hair drier to it before you
could start your machine up.. ;-)

A war story; I was the systems manager for a small mainframe for a
university in the nothern USA and we were in a hundred year old
building. The university went on an energy conservation campaign and
required the machine be shut down over weekends and on Mondays, after
a cold winter weekend, we found that the disks wouldn't spin up. (the
room remp was about 50F at 6 AM). We needed to run the CPU as a space
heater for 3 hours before we were back in business.

CPUs made good space heaters in those days.

 

[El Phantazmo]

I had a similar thing happen with a 20GB Maxtor 7200/100. Turns out at
lower temperatures, the lubricant would thicken, causing the head to stick.
(and click). Heat gun for about 1 minute and off it went (that or a solid
"bash")

Elp.

 

[S.Heenan]

OK, I just stopped by to ask this... Can a low temperature damage my
HDD?

I have a Maxtor 60GB 7200rpm HDD and, well, its temperature really
tends to get very high, even with an open computer case (you can
barely touch it, it's about 60 C, I guess). Since all my other
components also need a lot of cooling, I decided to leave the case
open and aimed a large fan (like the kind you use to keep the
temperature of entire room low) directly into the case. From the
distance of about 30cm. It, naturally, cooled everything down - the
CPU temperature dropped down to 28-29 C, temperature inside the case
dropped down to like 25 C. And HDD was not warm at all - actually it
was pretty cold.

But I already see - I will have to find another, less aggressive way
to cool down the system...

Since the case is at 25C. the harddrive is a little warmer than that, which
is fine. IDE hard drives are generally rated for a maximum operating
temperature of 50C, which it sounds like youy've exceeded. Your cooling
technique is not what I'd call too aggressive. Download the Powermax from
here and run the diagnostic utilities.
http://maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

 

[Ken]

OK, I just stopped by to ask this...
Can a low temperature damage my HDD?

Only if under the freezing point 0 C.
Operating temp is normally 0-50 C.
Around 25 C would be the best.

 

[Moonlit]

Hi,

Harddrives can be quite hot. I know in the past when I was unaware of I once
touched it and immediately pulled back my hand. I think it might be hot
enough to burn my hand ( I didn't retry for obvious reasons). However the
disk runs fine for a few years.

Regards, Ron AF Greve.

 

[Al Dykes]

I had a similar thing happen with a 20GB Maxtor 7200/100. Turns out at
lower temperatures, the lubricant would thicken, causing the head to stick.
(and click). Heat gun for about 1 minute and off it went (that or a solid
"bash")

Elp.

If a disk doesn't start at room temp (22C) it's faulty and you should
plan to replace it. IMHO.

If you look for the disk's spec sheet you will see a minimum temp
spec.

 

[Al Dykes]

Yes. Built a PC for my parents. In winter their central heating packed
up. Got a similar problem in the room the computer was in...the HDD
would appear to seize up. Moved it to a warmer room and it was OK.

I managed a small mainframe for a university in the northern USA, we
were in a 140 year old building (drafty). When the univ went on an
energy conservation binge we were told to shut down over weekends. In
the winter it took us 3 hours to warm up the washing machine-sized disk
drives (with the cabinet sides removed), using the CPU as a space
heater. At 6AM monday it would be 50F in the computer room.

 

[Ken]

If a disk doesn't start at room temp (22C) it's faulty
and you should plan to replace it. IMHO.

That's very true!

 

[El Phantazmo]

If a disk doesn't start at room temp (22C) it's faulty and you should

plan to replace it. IMHO.

Absolutely. If a drive makes the slightest click or stick it gets replaced
immediately.