Hard drive overheating problem

[riddellcomp]

Just lately my screen will lock up and the hdd light will stay on. A reboot usually fixes this until the next time which went on for a day or two then stopped. But now a few weeks later its happening again. I suspected a hdd on its way out and today it happened again but even a few reboots wouldnt fix the problem. As soon as it booted to XP it would lock up again.

I removed the hdd and noticed it was very hot. It does sit directly above another hdd and below the floppy drive.

I plugged it back in whilst it was out of the pc and it worked and is still working several hours later.

So obviously the problem was caused by the hdd getting too hot. My question is should I continue to use this drive but make sure its installed where it cant get too hot? (I could remove the floppy as I dont use it anyway and put the hdd in its place.) or would the damage perhaps already be done and its only a matter of time before this drive gives up altogether??

[NooNoo]

Impossible to tell... I would treat the drive as suspect from now on.

[Gabriel]

I would treat the drive as suspect from now on.

Do treat it with suspicion - HDDs don't usually heat too much (unless it is 15K RPM and above)

Nevertheless, you can cool the HDD by using a HDD cooling solution (which IMHO is very good solution if you care for your Hard drive life expectancy - I install it in all my computers) - Product are very in performance and Price - Examples:

ZM-2HC2 - Passive cooling solution for HDD
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...dx=74&code=019

Cooler Master Cool Drive 6 - active cooling solution
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.ph...&other_title=0

This are just two - there are many more, And I highly recommend on adding such device to the computer becuase it will prolong HDD life and make it more reliable.

Cheers,
Gabriel

[riddellcomp]

Thank you for the replies. Might buy a new 500gb sata drive as a replacement.

[scott]

I use HDDLIFE Pro software to keep check on hard drives, it cost around 30$ but I think it is worth it. The new 3.0 version will support USB drives also.


http://www.hddlife.com