What is the normal temperature of a hard drive and why should you monitor it? Normal hard drive temperature: how to achieve the optimal temperature

This time we will talk about hard drives. In this material you can learn about the normal temperature of a hard drive, how to check the temperature, and also how to lower it if necessary.

In order to check the temperature of your hard drive, you will need a special program to view the characteristics of your computer. There are a lot of such programs now, both paid and free. In this article, we'll look at some of the most popular free programs that you can use to get information about the temperature of your hard drive and more.

HWmontor () is one of the most famous and popular programs for viewing temperature information. Using HWmontor is extremely easy. All you need to do is run this program on your computer and find your hard drive in the list of components. This program displays the current temperature value, as well as the minimum and maximum recorded value. This allows you to find out to what temperature the components of your computer warm up under load or during idle time. The only drawback that can be noted is the lack of graphs.

Speccy () is a program for viewing computer characteristics from the company that developed the CCleaner program. With Speccy you can find out almost any information about your system, including the temperature of all components. For example, in order to find out the temperature of the hard drive you just need to run this program. On the first screen of the program you will see the “Data Storage” section. There will be a list of hard drives, as well as their current temperature. If necessary, you can view a graph of recent temperatures.

CrystalDiskInfo() is a program designed for . Using S.M.A.R.T. technology This program receives information about the status of the hard drive and displays it in a user-friendly form. In addition, in the CrystalDiskInfo program you can see all the main characteristics of your hard drive: firmware version, serial number, supported technologies, etc. And, of course, CrystalDiskInfo can show the temperature of the hard drive.

What is the normal temperature of a hard drive?

It is quite difficult to say unambiguously what temperature of a hard drive is normal. Hard drive manufacturers usually specify an operating temperature range of 0 to 60 degrees Celsius. Obviously, this is the temperature range in which the hard drive is guaranteed to operate. And the tests that can be found on the Internet confirm this. In some tests, hard drives continued to operate up to 100 degrees Celsius. But such extreme operating modes cannot have a positive effect on the life of the hard drive. Therefore, if you want to maximize the life of your hard drive, then you should keep its temperature within more adequate limits.

We recommend keeping the hard drive temperature within from 20 to 45 degrees Celsius. This range can be considered the normal hard drive temperature. As long as your hard drive's temperature is within this range, nothing bad should happen to it.

How to reduce hard drive temperature

If the temperature of your hard drive is outside the normal range, then you can try to lower it a little. We suggest you use the following tips:

Remove dust from the system unit and the top of the hard drive (the part covered by the metal plate). Dust impedes air movement and complicates heat transfer. So this is the first thing to do. If you have a laptop, then it is better to contact a service center to remove dust.
If you have several hard drives, try to place them further away from each other so that they do not heat one another.
If you have one hard drive, then try to place it as low as possible in the system unit. Warm air rises, so it should be a little cooler below.
Install an additional cooler to cool hard drives. An additional cooler aimed at hard drives is guaranteed to reduce their temperature.
If you have a laptop, then you can purchase a special cooling pad with a cooler that will pump air into the bottom of the laptop and cool the hard drive.

The hard drive is the component that stores all the information on a computer. Therefore, the hard drive can be considered the most important component of a computer. In order to prevent loss of information from the hard drive, it is necessary to monitor its condition. One of the important parameters of a hard drive is its temperature. In this article we will talk about how to find out the temperature of your hard drive.

Programs for monitoring hard drive temperature

One of the most convenient programs for monitoring the temperature of computer components is the HWmonitor program. This program allows you to find out the temperature, voltage and other parameters of computer components.

Working with the HWmonitor program is very simple. All you need to do is run the program and find your hard drive in the list of components.

The HWmonitor program is completely free and can be downloaded from the official website.

But the HWmonitor program has one drawback: it only displays the hard drive temperature. If you need more information about the status of your drives, CrystalDiskInfo is a good option. Like the previous program, CrystalDiskInfo is distributed completely free of charge.

Using the CrystalDiskInfo program, you can find out not only the temperature of the hard drive, but also its other parameters. Let's look at the main features of the CrystalDiskInfo program:

View technical specifications of hard drives;
View information about the temperature of hard drives;
View information about the technical condition of hard drives;
View information about hard drive temperatures from the notification panel;
Work with external hard drives, RAID arrays, SSD drives;

You can download the CrystalDiskInfo program on the official website.

Hard drive temperature

So, we found out the temperature of our hard drive, now let's figure it out. Hard drive manufacturers usually indicate that their drives can operate between 0 and 60 degrees Celsius. Moreover, tests show that the hard drive will operate at higher temperatures. But, if you want your hard drive to last as long as possible, then it is better to keep its temperature within a narrower range. The optimal temperature range for a hard drive can be considered to be from 20 to 45 degrees Celsius.

If the temperature of your hard drive is currently outside these limits, then you can try to reduce it, for example:

If you have more than two hard drives installed, try to place them as far apart as possible. This will significantly improve their cooling.
Install an additional cooler. The simplest and most reliable way. Install the additional cooler so that it blows air over the hard drive.

The service life of a hard drive whose operating temperature is outside the standards stated by the manufacturer is significantly shorter. As a rule, the hard drive overheats, which has a detrimental effect on its performance and can lead to failure, including complete loss of all stored information.

HDDs produced by different companies have their own optimal temperature ranges, which the user needs to monitor from time to time. The indicators are influenced by several factors: room temperature, the number of fans and their speed, the amount of dust inside and the degree of load.

Since 2012, the number of companies producing hard drives has decreased significantly. Only three were recognized as the largest manufacturers: Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba. They remain the main ones to this day, which is why most users’ computers and laptops have a hard drive installed from one of the three listed companies.

Without being tied to a specific manufacturer, we can say that the optimal temperature range for HDD is from 30 to 45 °C. This stable indicators of a disk operating in a clean room at room temperature, with an average load - running inexpensive programs such as a text editor, browser, etc. When using resource-intensive applications and games, active downloading (for example, via torrent), you should expect a temperature increase of 10 -15 °C.

Anything below 25 °C is bad, despite the fact that disks can usually operate at 0 °C. The fact is that at low temperatures the HDD constantly experiences changes in heat generated during operation and cold. These are not normal operating conditions for the drive.

Above 50-55 °C is already considered a critical figure, which should not exist at an average level of disk load.

Seagate drive temperatures

Old Seagate drives often became quite noticeably hot - their temperatures reached 70 degrees, which is quite high by today's standards. The current performance of these drives is as follows:

Minimum: 5 °C;
Optimal: 35-40 °C;
Maximum: 60 °C.

Accordingly, lower and higher temperatures will have a very negative impact on the operation of the HDD.

Western Digital and HGST drive temperatures

HGST is the same Hitachi that became a division of Western Digital. Therefore, further we will talk about all disks representing the WD brand.

The drives produced by this company have a significant jump in the maximum limit: some are completely limited to 55 °C, and some can withstand 70 °C. The averages are not very different from Seagate:

Minimum: 5 °C;
Optimal: 35-40 °C;
Maximum: 60 °C (70 °C for some models).

Some WD drives can operate at 0 °C, but this, of course, is highly undesirable.

Toshiba drive temperatures

Toshiba has good overheat protection, however, their operating temperatures are almost the same:

Minimum: 0 °C;
Optimal: 35-40 °C;
Maximum: 60 °C.

Some drives from this company have a lower limit - 55 °C.

As you can see, the differences between drives from different manufacturers are almost minimal, but Western Digital is still better than the rest. Their devices can withstand higher temperatures and can operate at 0 degrees.

Temperature Differences

The difference in average temperature depends not only on external conditions, but also on the disks themselves. For example, Hitachi and the Black line from Western Digital, according to observations, heat up more noticeably than others. Therefore, under the same load, HDDs from different manufacturers will heat up differently. But in general, the indicators should not deviate from the standard of 35-40 °C.

More manufacturers produce external hard drives, but there is still no significant difference between the operating temperatures of internal and external HDDs. It often happens that external drives get a little hotter, and this is normal.

Hard drives built into laptops operate in approximately the same temperature ranges. However, they almost always heat up faster and hotter. Therefore, slightly higher values of 48-50 °C are considered acceptable. Anything higher is no longer safe.

Of course, often the hard drive operates at temperatures above the recommended norm, and there is nothing to worry about, because writing and reading occur constantly. But the disk should not overheat during idle mode and under low load. Therefore, to extend the life of your drive, check its temperature from time to time. This is very easy to measure using special programs, for example, the free one. Avoid temperature changes and take care of cooling so that the hard drive works long and stably.

What should the hard drive temperature be for its reliable operation? What is the normal temperature of a hard drive? How to avoid overheating and HDD failure? Is it possible to somehow control and lower the temperature of the drive if such a need arises? What to do if your hard drive overheats? To answer these questions, first of all, you need to understand the nature of HDD temperature fluctuations.

For many years, it was believed that the drive should not get very hot, but there were no serious studies that could confirm or refute this theory. Google then published a research paper that helped users learn to understand the anatomy of an HDD and figure out why a hard drive gets hot. Based on this work, the following conclusions were drawn: + - temperature 45°C means that the risk of breakdown increases significantly; - temperature 25°C or less also increases the risk of failure; - drives that have been used for 3 or more years often break down at temperatures of 40°C and above.

Based on Google data, small independent studies and user reviews on technical forums, the following conclusions can be drawn: temperature 25°C or less - too cold for an HDD; +25…+40°С - optimal; +41…+50°С - permissible; temperature 50°C or more is critical. Manufacturers often state that the operating temperature of a hard drive can range from 0...+60°C. In fact, such statements are not true. An HDD can operate in this range, but the problem is that it won’t last long if it alternates between heating up and experiencing severe cold.

Continuing to replenish our MegaReview portal with key information on hard drives, we cannot help but dwell in detail on such parameters as capacity, data transfer interface and operating temperature. Perhaps these are the key questions that arise in the user's mind either before purchasing a hard drive or after it is in his hands.
Volume
Speaking about the volume you can select, it should be noted that on the market, at the time of writing, the maximum volume is 4 TB. Moreover, these are often hard drives from the same manufacturer under different brands of Western Digital and Hitachi. Why one manufacturer? Because Western Digital absorbed Hitachi and now produces hard drives under two different brands, albeit with almost the same content. The cost of these hard drives is in the region of 270-400 dollars, that is, it is difficult to find a 4 TB hard drive for less than eight thousand rubles.

Seagate only has hard drives with a maximum capacity of 3 TB. Competitor WD has succeeded in this field and also offers a “scattering” of hard drives of this size. A copy of the Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 3 TB hard drive has an average cost of $150, or three and a half thousand rubles. Simple calculations allow us to understand that when purchasing a 3 TB hard drive, the user saves, and at that, significantly. The cost of 1 TB of free space on these hard drives will cost an average of $50, and 1 TB of space on a 4 TB hard drive will cost a minimum of $67.5. Thus, when buying a 3 TB hard drive, the user saves 35% of its cost on each terabyte. Agree, not bad savings - more than 1/3 on every terabyte?

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The next most popular are hard drives with a capacity of 2 TB. These hard drives are represented by all manufacturers, the cost of universal hard drives is approximately the same and is around $100 per copy (at the time of writing this is how much a 2 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 copy cost). Thus, in this case we also get the average cost of one terabyte of free space equal to $50. The conclusion suggests itself - when buying a 3 or 2 TB hard drive, there is no difference - everything is limited only by your requirements and budget.

Until recently, the most popular hard drives were 1 TB hard drives. Today, the cost of universal hard drives of this volume is around $70, the same price as Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000, Seagate Barracuda 7200.14, Western Digital Caviar Blue. Thus, when purchasing a 1 TB hard drive, you overpay $20 per terabyte of free space, or 40% of the cost than you would buy a two or three terabyte hard drive. Even buying a 4 TB hard drive is a less expensive decision than buying a 1 TB product.

They may start criticizing us - 1 TB products are needed to create Raid arrays in a stripe, etc. Yes, perhaps someone else is creating Raid-0 arrays on universal hard drives. But these calculations clearly show that it is better to create them on hard drives with a capacity of 2 or 3 TB - this will not change the performance much. And the extra $30 paid for each hard drive will allow you to comfortably work with 4 TB of free space, and not 2 TB. We recommend that in the 21st century we move away from Raid-0 arrays based on universal hard drives - their performance still does not reach the performance of even a single solid-state drive. Considering the increasing life expectancy of solid-state memory cells - today many solutions allow you to completely rewrite them every day for five years and not think about any problems - hard drives in Raid arrays of home users will not last long. Raid arrays are again becoming the prerogative of servers.

Hard drives of even smaller capacity should not even be considered for purchase. For example, 750 GB hard drives from both manufacturers WD and Seagate cost the same $70, but have no obvious advantages.

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Hard drive interface
An interface refers to a type of hard drive controller for transferring data to the motherboard controller. Let us immediately note that if you purchase a hard drive with an old IDE interface, where the maximum throughput reached only 133 MB/s, you are better off turning to the secondary market - bulletin boards, government organizations. This is due to the fact that these hard drives are already extinct and computer stores only sell their stock. At the same time, their cost will hardly please you. For example, a 160 GB Western Digital Caviar Blue hard drive costs $75, and a 320 GB hard drive costs $80. Everything is sold at cost, but expensive. It is better to consider the possibility of replacing old hardware or purchasing a SATA II controller to connect a modern hard drive.

The main discussion will focus on the SATA II and SATA III interfaces. The latest data transfer interface has appeared recently and allows data transfer at a speed of 6 Gbit/s, while the previous one is limited to 3 Gbit/s.

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There are hard drives of both this and this format on the market. Their cost is almost the same. But when buying a hard drive with an old SATA II interface, you run the risk of buying an old generation hard drive that has been lying on the counter with all its problems that have been corrected in subsequent generations. For example, Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives also have a SATA II interface, but they have earned a reputation for being extremely unreliable and problematic, so buying them is highly not recommended. The current generation of Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 hard drives does not have the obvious problems encountered with the previous generation; it supports the SATA III interface, which is backward compatible with the SATA II data transfer format.

Yes Yes. When buying a hard drive with a SATA III interface, you can connect it to a SATA II port and it will show similar performance. Why similar? Because modern hard drives have a maximum read speed from platters of about 195 MB/s. The throughput of the SATA II interface is about 300 Mb/s, which means that hard drives need to grow and grow in order to completely fill this channel.

The SATA III interface was created for solid-state drives, which at peak values show performance of 480-500 MB/s when reading. Considering the fact that in theory the maximum throughput of the SATA III interface is about 600 Mb/s, very soon we may see the SATA IV interface, since the capabilities of SATA III will be completely exhausted.

In the case of working with hard drives, the choice of SATA II or SATA III operating mode does not play any role. The SATA III and II connectors are identical in shape, and the cables for connecting devices are also completely interchangeable. However, some manufacturers have managed to stand out and release products that do not work reliably with SATA II controllers. The Hitachi brand stood out with its VIA SATA III controllers, so it’s difficult to call them universal.

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Operating temperature of hard drives
Speaking about the operating temperature of hard drives, it should be noted that the degree of heating of the hard drive depends on the following key factors: the number of platters, the operating speed of the spindle, the activity of energy-saving technologies and ventilation in the case. As a rule, hard drives do not need additional cooling - the main thing is to organize simple air exchange for them in the case. If it is constrained on one side by the CPU cooler, on the other side by the video card cooler, and the second hard drive is tightly adjacent on top, there is no need to talk about the optimal operating temperature.

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The maximum operating temperature of modern hard drives is 60 degrees Celsius. As a rule, no modern product reaches these values if it is correctly placed in the housing. For example, our 1 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 hard drive operates at a temperature of 32 degrees Celsius without any additional cooling.