What's a good operating temperature for hard disks?

[Yousuf Khan]

Well, decided to set the alert temperatures on my HD Sentinel configs.
By default HDS has the green setting set to 40C or less, yellow is
between 40-50C, while red is above 50. I'm thinking these are
conservative. My internal drives typically operate just below or just
above 40C, even while idle. And they get upto at most 48C when really
active. I have an external USB drive which is typically above 50 at
idle, and is above 55 under mild loads; it will get above 60 under heavy
load, but that's not what a USB drive is typically used for.

So I'm thinking I'm going to set all the alert levels up by 5C. Instead
of between 40-50C, it'll be between 45-55C? Think I'm taking too much of
a chance?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Arno]

Well, decided to set the alert temperatures on my HD Sentinel configs.
By default HDS has the green setting set to 40C or less, yellow is
between 40-50C, while red is above 50. I'm thinking these are
conservative. My internal drives typically operate just below or just
above 40C, even while idle. And they get upto at most 48C when really
active. I have an external USB drive which is typically above 50 at
idle, and is above 55 under mild loads; it will get above 60 under heavy
load, but that's not what a USB drive is typically used for.

So I'm thinking I'm going to set all the alert levels up by 5C. Instead
of between 40-50C, it'll be between 45-55C? Think I'm taking too much of
a chance?

Yousuf Khan

Given that most drives have an absolute maximum rating of 55C, I
think these values are not very conservative, but realistic.
A drive that gets to 60C or above is inadequately cooled and
may die early.

My advice would be to aim for 50C or below for normal operation
and accept peaks of up to 55C but not more.

Arno