Hard drive heating up

[Kipper]

I have bought a new hard drive for my ageing PC. PC is 700mhz athlon, 256
meg ram, 15 gig old hard drive. Bought a 80 gig one because I ran out of
room on the old one. I want to keep the old one as primary and have the new
one as secondary.

First problem was the BIOS locked when I pressed auto detect. So I manually
entered the size of the 2nd hard drive as 65535 cylinders (max number I
could enter), 16 heads and 63 sectors. On the BIOS the new hard drive showed
up as about 30 (gig I meant sorry)

When windows opened the drive showed as 80 gig, so I didn't worry.

I left the side of the PC open. The next and main problem is that the new
hard drive seems to be getting very hot. Left it on about 4 hours and it was
red hot so I have disconnected it. Do I have to buy some kind of cooler for
it. The vendor and manufacturer's websites say nothing about this. The drive
is a 80Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 3.5inch IDE 7200rpm ATA133. I installed
it over the old hard drive and under the diskette. Maybe I could put it in a
5 and a quarter bay with those spacers you can get. Also I have only 1 screw
attaching the drive on each side, where there should be 2. Could this be the
reason for it heating up.

Cheers

Kipper

 

[Laurence Payne]

First problem was the BIOS locked when I pressed auto detect. So I manually
entered the size of the 2nd hard drive as 65535 cylinders (max number I
could enter), 16 heads and 63 sectors. On the BIOS the new hard drive showed
up as about 30 (gig I meant sorry)

Is this what the label on the drive said the settings should be?

When windows opened the drive showed as 80 gig, so I didn't worry.

I left the side of the PC open. The next and main problem is that the new
hard drive seems to be getting very hot. Left it on about 4 hours and it was
red hot

No it wasn't Drives do get hot. Was there space above and below
it, with some airflow? Sometimes airflow is better with the case ON.

so I have disconnected it. Do I have to buy some kind of cooler for
it. The vendor and manufacturer's websites say nothing about this. The drive
is a 80Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 3.5inch IDE 7200rpm ATA133. I installed
it over the old hard drive and under the diskette. Maybe I could put it in a
5 and a quarter bay with those spacers you can get. Also I have only 1 screw
attaching the drive on each side, where there should be 2. Could this be the
reason for it heating up.

No

 

[Kipper]

It didn't say this info on the actual drive. The Maxtor website said put
1024 cyclinders, which is about 500 meg.

I have experimented putting the drive cyclinders at 1024 (500 meg), 29795
(15 gig) and 65535 (30 meg), and it doesn't seem to matter, windows (ME)
still identfies it as a 80 gig drive.

It is the overheating aspect I am more worried by

 

[Laurence Payne]

It didn't say this info on the actual drive. The Maxtor website said put
1024 cyclinders, which is about 500 meg.

I have experimented putting the drive cyclinders at 1024 (500 meg), 29795
(15 gig) and 65535 (30 meg), and it doesn't seem to matter, windows (ME)
still identfies it as a 80 gig drive.

It is the overheating aspect I am more worried by

AS someone said, you need a BIOS upgrade. With any luck it's freely
available at the board maker's web site.

If you're worried about how hot it's getting, pump some air round it.
But drives DO get hot.

 

[Guest]

Bought a 80 gig one because I ran out of room on the old one.
the new hard drive seems to be getting very hot. Left it
on about 4 hours and it was red hot
Do I have to buy some kind of cooler for it. The vendor and
manufacturer's websites say nothing about this. The drive
is a 80Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 3.5inch IDE 7200rpm ATA133.

I installed it over the old hard drive and under the diskette.
Maybe I could put it in a 5 and a quarter bay with those
spacers you can get.

7200 RPM drives run much hotter than 5400 RPM drives and dissipate
about twice as much power at idle, roughly 7-9W. I would never mount
a drive closely to a closed surface, like another drive, and would
want at least 1/2" of space on each side, regardless that some
manufacturers say that 1/2 mm is sufficient. Furthermore for any 7200
RPM drive mounted horiziontally, I would have a fan blow air over it,
especially its electronics.

Also I have only 1 screw attaching the drive on each side,
where there should be 2. Could this be the reason for it
heating up.

Not one bit. Drives aren't cooled by heat conduction through the
sides. If the drive bay has supports under the drive, 2 screws are
enough, provided they're diagonally opposite, but otherwise don't use
fewer than 3 screws or you may end up shorting the electronics if the
drive slips.