Solved Recently purchased external HDD is overheating (Intenso/Toshiba)

[Xenoid]

Hello,

I have recently purchased Intenso Memory Center 3.5" 3TB USB3 (Toshiba DT01ACA300 inside). It's temperature is 49 degree Celsius, when idle and went up to 57, when I was formatting it.
As far as I know, temperature 50 and above are dangerous for hard drives and my oldest one, Seagate ST3320620AS, doesn't go above 48 during full defragmentation process.
I have installed fan cooler on it, making it's idle temperature going down to 42 and load temperature down to 49. After monitoring it's SMART readings for a week, I have not encountered any errors or problems.
What bothers me is additional electricity consumption by fan and possible data loss in the future due to it's heating. Should I contact my supplier warranty service for replacement and would they bother with this problem? Or it is safe to use it and I shouldn't bother with customer service red tape?

Thank you for your replies in advance.

 

[paul1149]

Here's the data sheet on that drive: http://www.storage.toshiba.com/docs/product-datasheets/dt01aca.pdf

It says operating temps can go up to 60C. That's very high, and I wouldn't want to be there chronically. And 57C is almost there. Was the format a long format? Then that's probably as bad as it gets. Does it easily get to 49C? If so I would be concerned. Also consider the current ambient temperature of the room.

 

[Xenoid]

Here's the data sheet on that drive: http://www.storage.toshiba.com/docs/product-datasheets/dt01aca.pdf

It says operating temps can go up to 60C. That's very high, and I wouldn't want to be there chronically. And 57C is almost there. Was the format a long format? Then that's probably as bad as it gets. Does it easily get to 49C? If so I would be concerned. Also consider the current ambient temperature of the room.

Hello paul1149,

First of all, thank you for your reply. I haven't thought to check operating temperature myself and I guess, that answers my question about warranty service, since it's within announced range they won't do anything. I haven't dealt with Toshiba drives much, and the other one I have (Toshiba MQ01ABD100) was never that hot.
I performed full format of the drive, but I don't remember how long exactly it was. All I can tell it was over 16 hours.
Current room temperature is 24 degrees and drive is on floor in external case. The Seagate drive, I was referring in my previous post, is hottest of all my other drives, located inside computer case, next to power supply and has no direct ventilation, yet it gets at worst to 48 degrees.

I am going to perform some tests in order to measure temperatures and will report the results later.

 

[Xenoid]

I have performed some tests and here are the results:

• 24°C - room temperature
• 26°C - weather temperature
• 43°C - HDD idle with fan cooler attached
• 45°C - writing large files, total size 200 GB with fan cooler attached
• 49°C - writing small files, total size 200 GB with fan cooler attached
• 47°C - HDD idle
• 50°C - writing large files, total size 200 GB
• 56°C - writing small files, total size 200 GB

 

[paul1149]

Nice set of tests. That last number is pretty high. But I see no reason why it would go any higher, except for a) serious fragmentation, and b) my last point below.
"On the floor" means not carpet, correct?
The question is whether these numbers reflect the drive or its enclosure.
The other thing is the ambient temperature range. If it's Winter where you are and the place isn't air conditioned come Summer, whatever difference the room sees will be added to what you're seeing now.

 

[Xenoid]

Yes, on the floor without carpet, I have parquet flooring.
I use HDDScan to measure the temperature and I have removed upper part of drive enclosure for better ventilation from fan, but it doesn't make much difference, it still goes to 56°C. Lower part has ventilation holes and legs.
It's summer here right now and weather temperature is falling. I do not have air conditioner in the room.
The drive I was coping files from, external Seagate ST1000LM025, didn't go hotter than 46°C during entire process. Seagate ST3320620AS, that I mentioned previously is in most hot condition in my room, without ventilation next to power supply and gets to 48°C when used. My system drive is WDC WD5000HHTZ and 39°C is it's hottest temperature today. I use CPUID HWMonitor to monitor all devices temperatures, CPU was 56°C and GPU 64°C.
Compared to other hard drives I have, temperature difference is too great in my opinion.

 

[paul1149]

I wouldn't be happy about it either. Throw a few degrees onto the ambient temperature and you'd be over limit. Not good for a new drive. I see the enclosure comes apart. The next test I would do is the drive on an open USB adapter, to see if the drive itself is running hot.

 

[Xenoid]

Hello again paul1149,

Unfortunately, I can remove only top and bottom panels safely, one of the screws has warranty seal and removing it would cause drive warranty void. Removing both panels didn't change temperatures significantly, it's still above 40°C all the time.

I was planning to use the drive for steam games. I will perform some surface tests and if everything works smooth I'll start using it.

Thank you for your help.

 

[paul1149]

Last thing I can suggest is to put taller feet under the case for more airflow. Hope that works for you, Xenoid.