Sage-Tips

Is it normal for external hard drives to get hot?

Hard drives generate a little heat when in use. An external hard drive being warm is normal; but if it gets hot to the touch, then you have problems. External hard drives are usually ok with being run 24/7, some models even have a small fan inside them to keep them cool, while others don’t.

How hot should an external hard drive get?

What is the optimal temperature for hard disk drive operation? Most hard drive manufacturers specify a normal operating temperature between 0 °C to 60°C (32°F to 140°F).

Is a hard drive supposed to be hot?

Overheating is one of the most common causes of hard drive failure. Hard drives use motors to rotate their platters and, as they’re capable of turning them at speeds of as much as 15,000 revolutions per minute, heat is an inevitable by-product. Excess heat is bad news for hard drives.

How do I know if my external hard drive is bad?

External Hard Drive Symptoms of Failure

1. Failure to Mount or Recognize.
2. Excessively Loud Operation.
3. Clicking, Whirring or Grinding Sounds.
4. Disappearing Files or Folders.
5. File Corruption Error Messages.
6. Extremely Slow Drive Access Times.

How do you fix a overheated external hard drive?

Fix Hard Drive Overheating

1. Lighten the loading burden. Maximumly reduce the number of large-size applications that assume high CPU resources and disk memory in Task Manager.
2. Check and remove malware and virus.
3. Check bad sectors and prepare for the worse.
4. Regularly do some hard drive cleaning.

How do you take care of an external hard drive?

External Hard Drive Care

1. Reduce the Risk of Physical Damage.
2. Be Cautious of Temperature.
3. Don’t Power Off Your External Hard Drive too Often.
4. Use a Surge Protector.
5. Use Caution When Traveling with an External Hard Drive.

Why do hard drives get warm?

Common reasons for hard drives to generate extra heat include: Blocked Air Flow – Air needs to be able to flow into the computer so the fans can do their jobs. Malfunctioning Fans – When a fan gets dirty, it has to work harder to keep a proper temperature and causes your hard drive to overheat.

How do you fix a overheating hard drive?

How can I cool down my hard drive temperature?

Use passive or active cooling device(s) to keep the drive in green or yellow temperature range (even during intensive disk operations). Even positioning a simple fan over an external hard disk (to cool down the external hard disk case) may reduce the hard disk temperature with 5-10 Celsius degrees.

Can overheating cause hard drive failure?

Hard drives can sustain serious damage when overheating, so turn off your computer if you notice excessive heat. Make sure that the hard drive has adequate ventilation and check that your computer has functional cooling mechanisms. Never attempt to boot a hard drive that is warm to the touch.

What happens when external hard drive fails?

Typically the data stored on an external hard drive is only stored there as a backup, meaning that if the drive fails, the data can usually be recovered from its secondary storage space. But when the data on your hard drive is stored exclusively on that hard drive — a drive crash can mean losing your files for good.