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    External HDD Temperature Monitoring

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by lumberbunny, Sep 18, 2006.

  1. lumberbunny

    lumberbunny Notebook Evangelist

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    Are there any programs that can do it? NHC doesn't show it as an option. Just curious, really: it gets warm, but in a soothing way, not a scary one.
     
    lumberbunny, Sep 18, 2006
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  2. Brianj

    Brianj Notebook Geek

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    I had a temp probe on my multimeter. I used it to test the heat coming off my 100 GB 7200rpm WD External Drive - while it had the cover off. It was over 110* F. It failed within a year, but I was later able to recover the files. The replacement drive, WD 80GB 7200rpm only got around 85* IIRC.

    I was surprised by the amount of heat it put out. The enclosure didn't have any fans - just static venting, so I was always leary about it afterwards.

    You could always find one of those cheapo weather stations that have a temp probe on them and use that. It would work provided you don't exceed the maximum range.
     
    Brianj, Sep 18, 2006
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  3. lumberbunny

    lumberbunny Notebook Evangelist

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    Don't most drives have built in thermometers? Or do all notebooks have thermometers stuck right above the hard drive? Either way, it seems like measuring the on the outside of the drive wouldn't be the most indicative way to go.

    HDTune cannot tune into the S.M.A.R.T. features of the drive either. Any ideas?
     
    lumberbunny, Sep 18, 2006
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  4. ChangFest

    ChangFest Notebook Consultant

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    I’ve also wondered why I cannot access my external hard drive’s temperature readings. I think it may be a function of whatever chipset that is in the hard drive enclosure. The chipset in my external enclosure is by Prolific and it doesn’t allow any programs to access the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics from any drive I have in the enclosure. I am not aware of, and have had no experience with other chipsets used in external enclosures. I cannot comment past my experience with Prolific chipsets.
     
    ChangFest, Sep 19, 2006
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  5. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    There's also no real interface to send that data over the USB interface with the basic drive-mounting scheme systems use. You'd have to make a secondary connection to the drive somehow, or change the standard for communicating with USB storage devices, neither of which are terribly likely, especially for the exceptionally marginal market that it'd cater to. The drive controller electronics probably support it, there's just no way to communicate it with standard protocols.
     
    Pitabred, Sep 19, 2006
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