jerryc41 wrote:
A couple of years ago, I made a wooden box to hold two hard drives for doing backups. I can switch each one on individually, and I can also turn on a fan. These drives have never gotten hot - until now.
I've been doing a lot of copying from my computer to the drives, and I noticed that one gets hot, but the other doesn't. It's the drive that sitting below the other one that gets hot, even with the fan on. It's only when I'm copying files for a long time that it gets hot, but the upper driver never gets even to 100°. I can't give you a time for "a long time," but I do have to keep my eye on it and let it cool if it gets to 114°.
I do long copying so infrequently that it probably isn't necessary to make a new box, but I just thought I'd pass this along. I use CrystalDiskInfo to check the temperature of the drives. The SSD is always cool.
A couple of years ago, I made a wooden box to hold... (
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If the original top drive never gets hot with prolonged writes, while the bottom one does, then I'd suggest swapping the drives' positions in the box and see if the problem moves. If the "hot" drive stays hot, then maybe it's not the ventilation. If the problem moves, then it's the ventilation.
You might consider a stronger fan. I use SilverStone FM121-B 120mm Case Cooling Fans, though no longer available via Newegg. 800-2400 RPM Max, 110.03 CFM, 17-39.5 dBA. Not exactly quiet at top speed, but having worked in server rooms and computer labs for 25 years, I don't notice fan noise anymore. Besides, what I can hear is just white noise. I bought a number of them when they were available so use them for front case fans for my 8 drive bay desktop cases.
I know what you mean about poor ventilation in 4 bay drive boxes. My solution was opening the front doors, removing the front grills, with SilverStone fans at the front controlled with a SilverStone FP33S Aluminum 3.5-Inch Drive Bay/Expansion Slot with Independent Fan Controllers (again no longer available). The fans are powered by a Monoprice PCI Power Panel (back panel expansion slot) with (3) 5.25 4-Pin Power Connectors (102372) in my old desktop. Not really elegant, noisy, but very functional. Never got around to cleaning things up as I'm more of a "function over form" type. Besides I have a number of these boxes, and easy to move the fans when I had them holding media.
I know you once posted you didn't have good luck with a Rosewill RX-358 case (noisy and didn't keep the temps down), but I think you must have gotten a bad one. I have a number of these single drive external cases, and they do work with no noise (I have to look inside the top grill to see if the fan is spinning). I just bought 2 more of these, now work with 8TB drives (Newegg reviewers have reported using with higher capacity but I'll stick within the stated specs). I always provision my HDD's (long format, full chkdsk, and a StableBit full scan, one right after the other, 24 hr reads/writes and a RX-358 does keep it cool. Currently doing one now, and it's 95 degrees in a 76 degree room 6 hours in).
I'm a big fan (pun) of Hard Disk Sentinel (paid) for keeping an eye on temps. What I like is you can set audible alarms with adjustable thresholds and actions (as in a system shutdown if the temps get too hot). Convenient when the computer is working and you don't need to be around to monitor. I had a Buffalo external drive, no fan, and to keep it cool, used a 6" desk fan. If I forgot to switch on the fan, the audible alarm would remind me. Has worked with every external HDD case, both case and toaster docks, as long as the case provides the temp via USB connection. Also provides health info, drive info (as in S/N which makes it easy to copy and paste into the drive's volume label without having to get out the magnifying glass), various tests, and a nice overview. I have the program on every computer; pack pricing is available. Well maintained and author responsive.
And thanks for your many posts recommending the UltraStar drives. I'm a big fan of HGST drives; one in my HTPC has been running for 5 years+, basically 24/7. Shame they got bought. But based on your recommendations, saw that NewEgg marketeer was having a sale on 8TB new UltraStars, bought one, verified it was new, and just bought another. Will put my photos on them as the HGST 4TB NAS drives are getting full (I'm a pack rat). Thanks.