2.5" HD's overheat: Myth or Fact???

Hi,

A discussion thread long due..
Recently, my Samsung 100 GB HD (external) was giving problems while reading..i diagnosed the IDE to USB chip was damaged (donno why) & it cost me lot of Lost Data & Corrupted Transfers.. (lost lot of Movies)
Most likely Overheating was the culprit behind this damage... i also noticed the HD had acquired an oxidized tinge to it....another symptom that it was suffocating inside the Casing (cheap aluminium casing)

I bought a new Cooler Master X CRaft 250 Lite casing.. This Thing looks cool..it has grilling on the sides & a cypress Chipset for Safer transfers..
btw this is the Case i recently bought ..the Chip & vents are unique

 

My questions... Do HD's Actually Overheat (2.5" specifically)? Do we need Such cool (expensive) casings? & Does Overheating cause damage or overuse?

 

Typically, anything over 50-55C is really bad for HDDs. In this case, it sounds like an IC in the enclosure went bad...which is unrelated to the HDD.

ICs can normally take 80-100C perfectly fine, but maybe they were using cheaper parts .

 

Yup, it was the default chip..the cheapest money can buy..
Btw The Above casing has shock absorbers also...HD is mounted on Rubber Pads.

 

I've never had an external 2.5" HDD get more than warm. The metal casings are usually quite efficient at conducting the heat away better than for an internal HDD.

It's possible that a casing with rubber shock absorbers would have worse thermal contact but 2W to 3W isn't a lot of heat to get rid of.

I wonder whether the cause is that the power supply from USB was barely adequate. If the voltage dropped too much then there could be unwanted side-effects.

John

 

You can get drives with G-force protection, so no need for shock absorbers. As for the heat. 2.5" INTERNAL disks can get really hot and fail, however not by their own heat but from proximity to other hot components (CPU, GPU).

 

Every 10°C typically reduces life of components by half.

 

2.5" harddrives will melt on you in certain notebooks, but in an external case I am unaware of any heat related issues. I know in my Voodoo, before I put a more powerful hdd and memory fan in, my harddrive temps went up to 160-175F, which is extremely bad. I remodified the hdd bay, and I built a new caddy for my harddrives, which keeps them a bit more separated, so that more air can pass through them. I have two harddrives in my notebook, which is why it gets hot. After the mod, my harddrives never run above 125F, which is a significant drop in temperature, which was worth the 100 hours it took to mod the harddrive and memory bays.

K-TRON

 

Every component has rated absolute maximum temperature, but operating it below the temperature improves reliability.

With laptops, they have to make a compromise to keep it small and extend battery life at the expense of reduced component life.

 

I can't easily see how you'd diagnose a failed USB to ATA chip - I'd be very surprised if that were actually the case, though I can see how it might appear that way if the drive were itself faulty.

I suspect the expensive case needs ventilation precisely because of the rubber mountings. If the HD is in direct contact with the case, heat can be conducted away easily. If it's on rubber mounts, there would be a thin layer of air between the drive and the case, which would act as an excellent insulator. The vent holes allow the air to move.

If the disc has discoloured then it's getting too hot, no doubt about that. But it may simply be that the bearing was on its way out anyway, causing additional friction which in turn draws more power and generates even more heat. That's a vicious circle which can only end one way.

I think the lesson here is less to do with heat and enclosure design, and more to do with keeping backups

 

Strange. The hdd in my laptop rarely goes above 35C, and its enclosed in a tiny space. I don't see how it would overheat in an external enclosure made of aluminum that acts as a huge radiator.

 

Some clever design uses convection.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2932739#post2932739

 

nice. heat-proof, shock-proof, theft proof..... I wonder if its truck or bomb proof . Or idiot proof

my external hdd is in a vantec nextar 3 3.5'' enclosure. it doesn't have any vents, but i don't think it needs then sice the drive is in a caddie inside an aluminum case and it doesn't have any shock absorbers

 

I diagnosed the Chip problem by using the Same HD with a different Chip..

The Damaged Chip was preventing HD data from being read or transferred 'completely'...some sort of lost in translation

 

Aluminum case isn't as effective as direct cooling. Imagine you're outside on a cold windy day. You won't be as cold if you take shelter in phone booth, even if it was made of aluminum. That's exactly what an unventilated aluminum enclosure is. Although better than plastic, just like the analogy, the cold air has to cool the phone booth walls first, then the wall has to cool the stagnant air before it can finally cool you.

If there were vents on the top, hot air would escape, and bring the cold air in front below.
The caddie only makes contact with a small area of the drive and the thermal resistance is similar to that of a spoon handle in hot soup.

In a poorly designed case, drive can get too hot to touch.

 

My laptop HDD, never goes above 39c.