Cool Hard Drives: I'm copying lots of files (pictures) to an external drive, and its temperature increases over time. I've been shutting it off when it gets to 104°. Now I have a...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm copying lots of files (pictures) to an external drive, and its temperature increases over time. I've been shutting it off when it gets to 104°. Now I have a better solution - defrosting plates. I put one of these on top of the horizontal drive, and the temperature dropped from 104 to 95.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=meat+defrosting+plate&i=garden&gclid=CjwKCAjwv-GUBhAzEiwASUMm4sNWIy9yFwN9oftGztV9E6uVeARJ1DAV07UUL4Y4Zr8WGBHH4Ti0jxoCvLMQAvD_BwE&hvadid=568511217591&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9004811&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12970013637474094416&hvtargid=kwd-314658447265&hydadcr=15278_10334878&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_7pto2oio2o_e

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I just use my drives.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Longshadow wrote:

I just use my drives.

Me too!! I have 6 internal and 4 external drives for backup. I have no idea what their temperatures are. I do not have a "NAS" system. I do manual redundant backups every Sat night. My data is important, but it is not my life. That's really important!
Mark

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

markngolf wrote:

Me too!! I have 6 internal and 4 external drives for backup. I have no idea what their temperatures are. I do not have a "NAS" system. I do manual redundant backups every Sat night. My data is important, but it is not my life. That's really important!
Mark

I have a USB external dual drive dock, that sits in front of a window, gets the afternoon sun, and has no fan on it.
When I do a backup, it runs actively for about three hours.
Does it get warm?
Probably.........

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Longshadow wrote:

I have a USB external dual drive dock, that sits in front of a window, gets the afternoon sun, and has no fan on it.
When I do a backup, it runs actively for about three hours.
Does it get warm?
Probably.........

Wow!! "An enlightened, warm external"!
Mark

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

markngolf wrote:

Wow!! "An enlightened, warm external"!
Mark

IF the system drive monitor software monitors the drive temp for those (My WD pocket drives are), it has never given me a temp warning on the dock bay drives.
The pocket drives sit on the desk without benefit of added ventilation. I haven't been warned about those after running for three hours either.

Besides, when <good> drives are burned-in at the factory, they run powered and exercised in an oven at a temp one would not anticipate or ever have at home.
(Where I used to work we used to burn-in certain ICs to weed out early life failures. They ran HOT in a burn-in ovens for a few DAYS.)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

markngolf wrote:

Me too!! I have 6 internal and 4 external drives for backup. I have no idea what their temperatures are. I do not have a "NAS" system. I do manual redundant backups every Sat night. My data is important, but it is not my life. That's really important!
Mark

CrystalDiskInfo (free) will give you the temperature.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Longshadow wrote:

img src="https://static.uglyhedgehog.com/images/s... (show quote)

I can pretty much guarantee that except for (small) samples from production for QA purposes, drives are not “burned in”. They are powered up, current is checked, and read-write is checked at most. If it’s an external, a file system may be installed.

Heat is the enemy of drives and enterprise level companies that build enclosures do both calculated and measured IR heat maps of the drives in the enclosure under continuous load. On the other hand, if you buy a consumer grade external enclosure for $40 or a multi bay JBOD or NAS, odds are, there haven’t been extensive tests done. Lots of airflow (fans) are one answer to long drive life (unless you want to add peltier device cooling plates).

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

TriX wrote:

I can pretty much guarantee that except for (small... (show quote)

I have a query in to WD.
I thought I read a long while back on one of the WD flyers that the Gold were burned-in. (Not someone's opinion on the internet...) I quit believing most reviews/opinions years ago when people were giving products a bad review because the delivery service (ie. USPS, UPS, FEDEX) was slow/stunk.....

I can understand efficient cooling for drives that run (access) 24/7 with many in a cage, but my computer at home I'm not worried about. I don't put fans on my pocket drives either, even though they run constantly during a 3 hour backup.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Longshadow wrote:

I have a query in to WD. br I thought I read a lon... (show quote)

MAYBE the enterprise drives, but not the consumer class $50-$100 drives. I’ve been to too many production lines in my career and have been the QA manager for an aerospace company for the last few years to believe that. We build ISO 9000/AS9003 flight qualified components and our QA is on-site audited regularly by companies such as Lockheed Martin. We sample our production per Mil STD and ANSI specs and we only test 1-3 out of a hundred products off the assembly line. There’s no way you can afford to do 100% QA and burn in on a $100 part.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

TriX wrote:

MAYBE the enterprise drives, but not the consumer ... (show quote)

Oh No!, not the cheapies!!! That's why they are cheap.
Yes, I was referring only to the Gold Enterprise drives.
The Gold are what I like to use as they have a 2+million hour MTBF.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Longshadow wrote:

Oh No!, not the cheapies!!! That's why they are cheap.
Yes, I was referring only to the Gold Enterprise drives.
The Gold are what I like to use as they have a 2+million hour MTBF.

Enterprise drives are money well spent!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

TriX wrote:

Enterprise drives are money well spent!

BTW - I appreciate your QA background!
I was a QA Test Program Engineer for over 25 years, responsible for test program generation/failure analysis for ICs and Semiconductors for Incoming Inspection.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Longshadow wrote:

BTW - I appreciate your QA background!
I was a QA Test Program Engineer for over 25 years, responsible for test program generation/failure analysis for ICs and Semiconductors for Incoming Inspection.

Just finished our ISO 9000 & AS 9003 audits/certification, and we passed! Honestly, didn’t change our processes at all - just lots of extra documentation, but it prevents filling out quality surveys and hosting constant on-site inspections. It did cause us to change from MIL STD 105E sampling to the newer ANSI standard, and now if a part fails any spec (we use automated optical scanning), we now reinspect the entire batch for that dimension. The Keyence inspection machines cost as much as the Robotic CNC mills that made the part.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

TriX wrote:

Just finished our ISO 9000 & AS 9003 audits/ce... (show quote)

Congratulations!

Yea, ISO is a stickler for documentation!