Hard Drive failure and overheating?

[XPer]

I have a Gateway Pentium4 running XP in a mid tower case. It has 3
3.5" inch bays which I have filled with 3 hard drives. For the second
time one of the HD's (not the boot drive) has gone bad.

I have noticed that when I touch any of the HD's they are extremely
hot and always have been. Like almost too hot to keep your finger
there for more than a few seconds. Even if I disconnect two of the
drives the boot drive still is just as hot.

I am sure this is contributing to my HD losses... so I need a
solution. There are two 5.25" bays that house a CD-RW and a DVD
drive. The HD's fill all three 3.5" bays and are all close together.
The only power supply cable I have left is one small one (like plugs
into the floppy drive).

So please offer me some solutions on what I need to cool down my PC.
I know most HD fans require they be in 5.25" bays, and don't they
require more power supply connectors that I don't have?

Any help would be appreciated.

XPer

 

[Charles Hammond]

If you are going to use 3 hard drives you need a premium case where the
hard drives are not stacked one on top of the other and have a fan blowing
on them. I would not stack 2 CDROMS in a case right on top of each other
either. The heat has to go somewhere you need to expell the heat out of
the case faster than it builds up. An awful lot of cases were not
designed to be a server case and were only really designed with a one hard
drive set-up in mind. I like how the Sonata has room enough to separate
the hard drive. There are many cheap cases with more hard drive bays to
facilitate this kind of setup. Overheating is a symptom of bad case
design and bad air flow.

 

[John]

So please offer me some solutions on what I need to cool down my PC.
I know most HD fans require they be in 5.25" bays, and don't they
require more power supply connectors that I don't have?

Any help would be appreciated.

Ive always been conscience of that - heat. I always try to leave a
space between my drives and think thats one of the reasons Ive never
had problems with hard drives. Of course I get rid of alot of hard
drives quickly but also had a few Ive had forever. I have my first
Maxtor 120 meg and it still runs though I quit using it long ago. Had
seagate and other moldy oldies that I gave away long ago too but had
running a long time. I have a Maxtor 6 gig laying around that I use
for testing My PC once in a while too.

Ive noticed too that my 7200 drives get HOT. I dont have active
cooling though but I keep my case open all the time.

If you dont want to get a case though that the best way to go - you
can get power Y plugs. Just small Y plugs that plug in to an end and
add another plug - you know a Y shaped plug where one end turns into
two on the other end.

Also Compusa and maybe other small PC stores sell - these extensions
to your 3.5 bay. Actually they are small steel bars with holes
drilled in them. You screw them into your current bay and they dangle
down from the bay and you screw the hard disk into the steel bars via
the hole in them - extending the number of devices downward, I was
thinking of this route when I had 5 smaller hard disks - 60 gigs that
I kept adding but as usual I sold many off and bought two large ones
instead so I dont have that problem. Obviously you need space below
your 3.5 inch bay to do this.

That way you might be able to squeeze in a hard disk cooler tray - the
kind that screw on the bottom of your HDs. They are around $15 at
Compusa. Too bad you missed the 50% off sale last week - the coolers
were going for $7.50 there. Another idea might be using a hole saw to
cut a hole into the side of your PC case near the HDs and CD drives
and mount a 5" fan.

Of course theres no room INSIDE the case the bays usually fill up the
space so youll have to mount the fan on the outside. Theres a good fan
at COmpusa - PC toys for $10 . Moves 50+ cfm it says on the package
and is clear , looks good and has those gaudy leds built in and comes
with a grille you screw on the fan. So it doesnt look that bad outside
the case. I mounted one on the side of the PC I gave to someone who
had heat problems . They were running the really hot 1.4 gig older
athlon and the case had poor air flow.

 

[kony]

I have a Gateway Pentium4 running XP in a mid tower case. It has 3
3.5" inch bays which I have filled with 3 hard drives. For the second
time one of the HD's (not the boot drive) has gone bad.

I have noticed that when I touch any of the HD's they are extremely
hot and always have been. Like almost too hot to keep your finger
there for more than a few seconds. Even if I disconnect two of the
drives the boot drive still is just as hot.

I am sure this is contributing to my HD losses... so I need a
solution. There are two 5.25" bays that house a CD-RW and a DVD
drive. The HD's fill all three 3.5" bays and are all close together.
The only power supply cable I have left is one small one (like plugs
into the floppy drive).

So please offer me some solutions on what I need to cool down my PC.
I know most HD fans require they be in 5.25" bays, and don't they
require more power supply connectors that I don't have?

Any help would be appreciated.

XPer

Often a 5.25 inch bay cooler will have a pass-through connector, so
you plug it into another device and plug the power supply plug into
it... no extra plug needed. That would help one drive, and having a
gap between the other two would help them as well, particularly if
this front 3.5" bay has air inlet holes in front of it, as many GW
cases I"ve seen do. Then if the two lower drives still aren't cool
enough you mind find a way to increase air intake though (or under)
the front bezel, so the exhaust fans are sucking more air in though
that bay. It might also help to swap in faster fans in the rear, but
that will definitely increase noise levels.

The alternative might be cutting out stamped-in grills on the back to
increase airflow of the fans you already have, or cutting a hole in
the bottom front of the case, putting a fan there, and mounting a HDD
cage from ao old case (check local mom-n-pop computer shops) directly
behind that fan... requires cutting metal, drilling holes, the hardest
solution but most beneficial and quietest.

Of course you could just get a case more suited to multiple drives as
another poster already mentioned.


Dave

 

[Olav]

I have a Gateway Pentium4 running XP in a mid tower case. It has 3
3.5" inch bays which I have filled with 3 hard drives. For the second
time one of the HD's (not the boot drive) has gone bad.

I have noticed that when I touch any of the HD's they are extremely
hot and always have been. Like almost too hot to keep your finger
there for more than a few seconds. Even if I disconnect two of the
drives the boot drive still is just as hot.

I am sure this is contributing to my HD losses... so I need a
solution. There are two 5.25" bays that house a CD-RW and a DVD
drive. The HD's fill all three 3.5" bays and are all close together.
The only power supply cable I have left is one small one (like plugs
into the floppy drive).

So please offer me some solutions on what I need to cool down my PC.
I know most HD fans require they be in 5.25" bays, and don't they
require more power supply connectors that I don't have?

Any help would be appreciated.

XPer

We use Revoltek fans installed underneath each hard disk to keep them cool and
stable.
They add about 1cm to the bottom of the drive.

hth

 

[John]

Ive always been conscience of that - heat. I always try to leave a

Or maybe I mean "conscious".

 

[XPer]

thx for all the comments and suggestions. Another question or two
though.

After chatting online and doing some investigating I found I only have
a 250W power supply. I was told that I need to upgrade for all that I
am running and that this lack of power may part of the reason for the
HD overheating.

Is there any truth to this? Also, does using a Yjack on a power
connector still supply ample power to each split?

Thanks again for all the advice, it is much helpful.

XPer

 

[kony]

thx for all the comments and suggestions. Another question or two
though.

After chatting online and doing some investigating I found I only have
a 250W power supply. I was told that I need to upgrade for all that I
am running and that this lack of power may part of the reason for the
HD overheating.

A P4 CPU plus 3 hard drives and the optical may be around the limit of
the Gateaway PSU on it's 12V rail, but generally won't cause
overheating, at least not directly... a drop on the 12V rail can
reduce fan RPM, lower airflow, but the primary problem with your case
arrangement, power supply, may be it's cooling design. I'm unsure
exactly what you have, but some used a fan under the power supply to
cool the whole system, didn't provide a fan for the rear fan mount.
If that's the situation then your system had merely adequate cooling
originally, now has not only restricted airflow around the drives but
also increased heat production.

The main issue is likely as you first suspected, the drives need more
airflow, better cooling.

Use of a voltage meter may determine the voltage levels from the power
supply. If any voltage rail is dropping significantly then it would
be an indicator of an inadequate power supply which needs replaced.

Is there any truth to this? Also, does using a Yjack on a power
connector still supply ample power to each split?

There may be a slight voltage drop across the connector but usually
it's not signficant, especially when only one Y-splitter is used, and
when nearer the power supply itself or if the power supply has
reasonable gauge wire. In other words, the system should have enough
of a power margin that a Y-adapter or two shouldn't matter, they can
and are used successfully in such situations.



Dave