ExT USB drives that dont run HOT.

[Penguin Man]

I have 2 Seagate drives, one the tall black type 320g and one the
Silver but I have it laying flat.

These both to me get very Hot the Silver one has got up to 52C and now
reports 5 reallocated sectors and only one year old.

The other one has got up to 53C


These are both at normal winter times at around 18-20C room temp.

They get up to 50C after say 2 hours of running..

These drives are a utter Joke no forced ventilation and only incased in
a Plastic case, no ware for the heat to dissipate..


They are both mounted on a shelf with plenty of space around them.


Are the WD drives any better.?

 

[mscotgrove]

I have 2 Seagate drives, one the tall black type  320g and one the
Silver but I have it laying flat.

These both to me get very Hot  the Silver one has got up to 52C  and now
reports 5 reallocated sectors  and only one year old.

The other one has got up to 53C

These are both at normal winter times at around 18-20C room temp.

They get up to 50C  after say 2 hours of running..

These drives are a utter Joke no forced  ventilation and only incased in
a Plastic case, no ware for the heat to dissipate..

They are both mounted on a shelf with plenty of space around them.

Are the WD drives any better.?

WD Green drives are much cooler - but also slower.

52C is too hot.

Michael
www.cnwrecovery.com

 

[Arno]

WD Green drives are much cooler - but also slower.

My observation also. Does not matter that much with USB2 though.

Are these figures with heavy disk load?

52C is too hot.

Definitely.

Arno

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I have 2 Seagate drives, one the tall black type 320g and one the
Silver but I have it laying flat.

These both to me get very Hot the Silver one has got up to 52C and now
reports 5 reallocated sectors and only one year old.

The other one has got up to 53C


These are both at normal winter times at around 18-20C room temp.

They get up to 50C after say 2 hours of running..

Believe it or not, that's normal for a Seagate, running in an external
case! I have a lot of internal and external drives, so I can compare. I
have one running at 61°C right now, and it's been running that way for 2
years with no problems.

These drives are a utter Joke no forced ventilation and only incased in
a Plastic case, no ware for the heat to dissipate..


They are both mounted on a shelf with plenty of space around them.


Are the WD drives any better.?

I also have a double case with fans, which hold a couple of 1.5TB
drives, one a Seagate, one a WDC. The Seagate definitely gets hotter
than the WDC, side-by-side.

I wouldn't worry about the temps.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

Penguin Man wrote

I have 2 Seagate drives, one the tall black type 320g
and one the Silver but I have it laying flat.

These both to me get very Hot the Silver one has got up to 52C
and now reports 5 reallocated sectors and only one year old.

The other one has got up to 53C

These are both at normal winter times at around 18-20C room temp.

They get up to 50C after say 2 hours of running..

These drives are a utter Joke no forced ventilation and only
incased in a Plastic case, no ware for the heat to dissipate..

They are both mounted on a shelf with plenty of space around them.

Are the WD drives any better.?

The samsung green drives are.

 

[Rod Speed]

Why do these external USB HDDs always get hot?

The 'designers' are incompetant fools.

Don't companies make them to keep them cool?

Hardly any do.

Do they expect users not to use them for a long time? Ugh. It is like we need to get special enclosures and regular
HDDs to customize.

I just use HD docking stations and green drives. Those arent even warm to the touch.

 

[Ed Light]

I have a WD external 3.5" "Elements" 1 Gig drive that never gets hot,
although it's fanless. It has the "AV" drive in it.

If you want to concoct an external drive with a bare drive that gets hot
you can use that Antec case with the quiet fan in it.
--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Related:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Arno]

Why do these external USB HDDs always get hot? Don't companies make them
to keep them cool? Do they expect users not to use them for a long time?
Ugh. It is like we need to get special enclosures and regular HDDs to
customize.

Well, my suspicion is that they did not fire the guy that
messed up the Maxtor external disks (which died often and
early from heat), but instead let him design these newer
models as well.

My underlying suspicion is that there are marketing results
that indicate that dying external USB drives are not detrimal
to sales numbers or may even increase them. That would then
be a combination of consumer stupidity and an ethically
challenged vendor.

Arno

 

[Yousuf Khan]

You can take the HDs out of the fanless cases and put them into
external cases that have a built-in fan. There will be a wall-wart
power supply ("adapter") to power the fan and the HD (a plus,
IMHO).

Actually the ones that I have that are individuals were bought not as
enclosures but as integrated externals, so it voids their warranty in
the first year at least. I have opened one up after the warranty expired
and found that it's packed in there rather severely. Very hard to pry
them out. But regardless, it's been sitting in that case for a couple of
years now, so it's not had any problems.

Kingwin makes a broad range of these external cases.
For IDE HDs:
http://kingwin.com/products/cate/enclosures/bjk_35usbi.asp

Looking at this one, I don't see where they put the fan.

For SATA HDs:
http://kingwin.com/products/cate/enclosures/3_5_sata.asp
These have built-in interfaces for USB connections.
Check Nextag.com for current street prices using the model
no. of the case you're interested in.

I've checked a few of the Kingwins on Ebay too.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Ed Light]

If you want to concoct an external drive
with a bare drive that gets hot
you can use that Antec case with the quiet fan in it.

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0MjIx

--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Related:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Robert Nichols]

My observation also. Does not matter that much with USB2 though.

Are these figures with heavy disk load?


Definitely.

The temperature ratings on some of the newer drives is really surprising
to anyone who grew up with drives that failed every time the air
conditioning hiccuped. I have a Hitachi 1TB drive (Deskstar 7K1000.B
series) that is spec-ed for operation in an ambient temperature up to
60C. The Western Digital WD10EARS drives have that same max temperature
spec, though it's not clearly stated as "ambient".

Even with those ratings, though, I have one external drive with a case
that pushed the drive temperature (that's the drive itself, not the
ambient) well above 60C, at least until I made the simple change of
enlarging the ridiculously small ventilation holes.

 

[Ed Light]

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0MjIx

Be sure you don't get an old one as they could only take 750 Gig drives;
the new ones take 2 Tb.


--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Related:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Arno]

The temperature ratings on some of the newer drives is really surprising
to anyone who grew up with drives that failed every time the air
conditioning hiccuped.

Hmm. The problem with the Maxtors that did this was that they were
rated for 55C and the datasheet said that the failure rate would
not go up up to 60C. That was clearly wrong, but could be a reason
for their hot and nunreliable external drives.

I have a Hitachi 1TB drive (Deskstar 7K1000.B
series) that is spec-ed for operation in an ambient temperature up to
60C. The Western Digital WD10EARS drives have that same max temperature
spec, though it's not clearly stated as "ambient".

Also not new. It is just possible that dirves got better at living up
to their specs.

Even with those ratings, though, I have one external drive with a case
that pushed the drive temperature (that's the drive itself, not the
ambient) well above 60C, at least until I made the simple change of
enlarging the ridiculously small ventilation holes.

I think the primary advantage for WD is that thay do not get
this hot anymore as power consumption has gone wat down. However
in a recent survey from a russaon data recovery firm (which
I cannot find anymore, anybody has a link?) on disks they get
with defective hardware vs. sales numbers, WD was only in the
middle, while Hitachi was best by a fair margin. If I remember
correctly, Seagate was at the bottom, again by a fair margin.

Arno

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I think the primary advantage for WD is that thay do not get
this hot anymore as power consumption has gone wat down. However
in a recent survey from a russaon data recovery firm (which
I cannot find anymore, anybody has a link?) on disks they get
with defective hardware vs. sales numbers, WD was only in the
middle, while Hitachi was best by a fair margin. If I remember
correctly, Seagate was at the bottom, again by a fair margin.

Any idea what proportion of the Seagate failures were due to the bad
firmware with which some were shipped -- that bricked them after a
certain number of operations?

Perce

 

[Robert Nichols]

Also not new. It is just possible that dirves got better at living up
to their specs.


I think the primary advantage for WD is that thay do not get
this hot anymore as power consumption has gone wat down. However
in a recent survey from a russaon data recovery firm (which
I cannot find anymore, anybody has a link?) on disks they get
with defective hardware vs. sales numbers, WD was only in the
middle, while Hitachi was best by a fair margin. If I remember
correctly, Seagate was at the bottom, again by a fair margin.

I tried putting a WD "Green" drive (WD10EADS) in that case. It still
got close to 60C, though that's not as hot as the Hitachi drive that
was supplied with the case (68C reported by the drive, IIRC).

 

[Arno]

I tried putting a WD "Green" drive (WD10EADS) in that case. It still
got close to 60C, though that's not as hot as the Hitachi drive that
was supplied with the case (68C reported by the drive, IIRC).

Hmm. I see 10C over ambient without load on these drives.
With load I see up to 22C over ambient, but not more for a
case mounted WD10EAVS. The power specs are exactly the same
as for the EADS. Is something elase heating the case up?
What is your ambient temperature?

Arno

 

[Robert Nichols]

Hmm. I see 10C over ambient without load on these drives.
With load I see up to 22C over ambient, but not more for a
case mounted WD10EAVS. The power specs are exactly the same
as for the EADS. Is something elase heating the case up?
What is your ambient temperature?

It's sitting at the back of a desk in an air conditioned house, at least
1.5" free space on all sides, nothing above, no nearby heat sources.
Thermal history shows the drive at about 30C shortly after power is
turned on. There is just very little way for air to enter at the
bottom of the case. It's a Buffalo DriveStation HD-CD1.0TIU2-US.
Here's a link to a newer model that's the same externally:


http://www.buffalotech.com/products/desktop-hard-drives/drivestation/drivestation-combo-hd-ceiu2/

From the description I'd say there have been some thermal improvements
over the "HD-CD..." model. The only way for air to enter is through
some fairly small holes in that arched portion of the bottom of the
case. Enlarging those holes and drilling a row of additional holes
near the bottom of the side not shown in the pictures made a big
improvement, but I'm replacing the enclosure anyway with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173043

Got it on sale for $29.99 with free shipping. Includes both USB and
eSATA cables as well as a nice SATA to eSATA adapter bracket.

 

[Ed Light]

It's sitting at the back of a desk in an air conditioned house, at least
1.5" free space on all sides, nothing above, no nearby heat sources.
Thermal history shows the drive at about 30C shortly after power is
turned on.

It shouldn't start up hotter than ambient. Are you monitoring it with HD
Sentinel or equivalent? Maybe the sensor is off.

--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Related:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Robert Nichols]

It shouldn't start up hotter than ambient. Are you monitoring it with HD
Sentinel or equivalent? Maybe the sensor is off.

The bridge chip in the enclosure does not allow smartctl or hdparm to send
the needed commands to the drive. The only way I can see what happened
w.r.t. temperature is to remove the drive from the enclosure, hook it
directly to an SATA port, and use "smartctl -l scttemphist" to see the
recorded temperature history. It appears that the drive runs for 1 minute
before the first recorded value, so it has had a chance to heat up slightly.

The Hitachi drive that was originally in that enclosure is now the primary
drive in my PC. Temperature as reported by smartctl is currently 33C, and
the lifetime min/max is "23/67". Looks like the sensor is right on.

 

[Robert Nichols]

Robert Nichols wrote:
[...]
I tried putting a WD "Green" drive (WD10EADS) in that case. It still
got close to 60C, though that's not as hot as the Hitachi drive that
was supplied with the case (68C reported by the drive, IIRC).

Hmm. I see 10C over ambient without load on these drives.
With load I see up to 22C over ambient, but not more for a
case mounted WD10EAVS. The power specs are exactly the same
as for the EADS. Is something elase heating the case up?
What is your ambient temperature?

It's sitting at the back of a desk in an air conditioned house, at least
1.5" free space on all sides, nothing above, no nearby heat sources.
Thermal history shows the drive at about 30C shortly after power is
turned on. There is just very little way for air to enter at the
bottom of the case. It's a Buffalo DriveStation HD-CD1.0TIU2-US.
Here's a link to a newer model that's the same externally:

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/desktop-hard-drives/drivestation/drivestation-combo-hd-ceiu2/

It has no fan - ventilation by convection only.

The description under the "Technology" tab mentions a "Fanless Heat Sink
chassis design." The model I have has nothing that could remotely be considered
a heat sink. Also, mine would get no air circulation at all
if placed horizontally, and the description for the current model
specifically states that horizontal orientation is allowed. _Something_
has apparently been changed, hopefully for the better.

[........]
I'm replacing the enclosure anyway with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173043

Got it on sale for $29.99 with free shipping. Includes both USB and
eSATA cables as well as a nice SATA to eSATA adapter bracket.

It also includes an 80mm fan with a wall wart power supply (i.e. "adapter").
The forced air draft from the fan should greatly improve the cooling situation.

The Buffalo DriveStation also has a wall wart for power. Hard to run
a 3.5" HDD with just the power from a USB port. Even harder to run
one from just a FireWire connection.