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Some general tips for preventing Hard Disc failu

Turn the disc over every few months. This prevents uneven wear on the
bearing (apparantly!)
Keep it cool - good airflow inside your computer and around your drives is
important.
Perform a full format on new discs (rather than a quick format) and a
thorough surface scan to ensure no inherent problems waiting to creep up on
you.
Don't perform loads of unnecessary scans etc unless you have a specific
problem that may be cured by such a scan.
Back up your data. This prevents Murphy's Law from being imposed.

Touch wood I've only experienced one HD failure in 10 years and many discs.

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Hi,

In message , Keith G
writes

Now that you mention it, I've had 2 hard disks fail on a leased Dell (at the
rate of about one per year) - replaced without question (as was the
motherboard on one occasion - unnecessarily as it turned out). I reckon
these were both IBM Deskstars.......

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/22446.html

....just one of many such stories that I remember hitting the media at
around that time. They weren't too hot about admitting the problem.
Hoping it would just go away, I suppose.

--
Regards,
Glenn Booth

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On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 20:29:18 -0000, just me wrote:


Keep it cool - good airflow inside your computer and around your drives
is important.

Is there evidence to support this? My drives are hotter than usual because
they're decoupled from the case. 40 degrees or so is hot but the the
manufacturers' max temperatures are 55 and 65

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

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On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:33:05 -0000
Jim H wrote:

40 degrees or so is hot but the the
manufacturers' max temperatures are 55 and 65

if you measure 40 degrees some parts could be much hotter internally.


--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

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Keep it cool - good airflow inside your computer and around your drives
is important.

Is there evidence to support this? My drives are hotter than usual because
they're decoupled from the case. 40 degrees or so is hot but the the
manufacturers' max temperatures are 55 and 65

A good aluminium case will act like a heatsink to a modest degree, however
if you have several drives mounted one atop the other, the heat from each
one rises up to the next. Without adequate cooling, the drives (particularly
those on top) will get toastier and that has the potential to shorten their
lives. Most case airflows run from the bottom front to the top back, pulling
in cool air near the ground, passing over the CPU and MB and out near the
top. Often this airflow doesn't serve HDs well (excepting cases where HDs
are mounted at the bottom). This problem can be exacerbated by using wide,
flat, non-aerodynamic IDE cables which block efficient airflow. You can swap
these for rounded cables or fold the existing cables in two twice over and
strap them in the folded shape, or you can switch to Serial ATA.

There are many arguments about what temps are acceptable. Usually there's a
trade-off between cooling noise and acceptable temps, but there are many
solid cases and low noise fans about. Personally I've found 40 degrees to be
quite acceptable for a HD temp (also for a CPU temp too), although the
ambient case temperature should be much lower!

Like much else, these things will *contribute* to a healthier PC and to a
longer component life.

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On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 23:06:44 +0000, Ian Molton wrote:

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:33:05 -0000
Jim H wrote:

40 degrees or so is hot but the the
manufacturers' max temperatures are 55 and 65

if you measure 40 degrees some parts could be much hotter internally.

I'm relying on the drive mesuring itself, which is well known to be
inacurate, but IIRC the manufacturers build allowances for the
probe into their max temperature specs.

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

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On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 23:17:43 -0000, just me wrote:

Keep it cool - good airflow inside your computer and around your
drives
is important.

Is there evidence to support this? My drives are hotter than usual
because
they're decoupled from the case. 40 degrees or so is hot but the the
manufacturers' max temperatures are 55 and 65

A good aluminium case will act like a heatsink to a modest degree,
however
if you have several drives mounted one atop the other, the heat from each
one rises up to the next. Without adequate cooling, the drives
(particularly
those on top) will get toastier and that has the potential to shorten
their
lives. Most case airflows run from the bottom front to the top back,
pulling
in cool air near the ground, passing over the CPU and MB and out near the
top. Often this airflow doesn't serve HDs well (excepting cases where HDs
are mounted at the bottom). This problem can be exacerbated by using
wide,
flat, non-aerodynamic IDE cables which block efficient airflow. You can
swap
these for rounded cables or fold the existing cables in two twice over
and
strap them in the folded shape, or you can switch to Serial ATA.

There are many arguments about what temps are acceptable. Usually
there's a
trade-off between cooling noise and acceptable temps, but there are many
solid cases and low noise fans about. Personally I've found 40 degrees
to be
quite acceptable for a HD temp (also for a CPU temp too), although the
ambient case temperature should be much lower!

Like much else, these things will *contribute* to a healthier PC and to a
longer component life.

I have the drives at bottom front, but on foam, not screwed in to reduce
noise.
CPU is way up in the 70s, but I've not had a system in 18 months so I'm
fine
with that.

On a hot day the Baracuda might touch 48, but it's speced for 65 so,
again, I'm
not worried.

Has anyone ever actually done a study showing hot drive fail sooner?

--
Jim H jh
@333
.org

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Keep it cool - good airflow inside your computer and around your
drives
is important.

Is there evidence to support this? My drives are hotter than usual
because
they're decoupled from the case. 40 degrees or so is hot but the the
manufacturers' max temperatures are 55 and 65

A good aluminium case will act like a heatsink to a modest degree,
however
if you have several drives mounted one atop the other, the heat from
each
one rises up to the next. Without adequate cooling, the drives
(particularly
those on top) will get toastier and that has the potential to shorten
their
lives. Most case airflows run from the bottom front to the top back,
pulling
in cool air near the ground, passing over the CPU and MB and out near
the
top. Often this airflow doesn't serve HDs well (excepting cases where
HDs
are mounted at the bottom). This problem can be exacerbated by using
wide,
flat, non-aerodynamic IDE cables which block efficient airflow. You can
swap
these for rounded cables or fold the existing cables in two twice over
and
strap them in the folded shape, or you can switch to Serial ATA.

There are many arguments about what temps are acceptable. Usually
there's a
trade-off between cooling noise and acceptable temps, but there are many
solid cases and low noise fans about. Personally I've found 40 degrees
to be
quite acceptable for a HD temp (also for a CPU temp too), although the
ambient case temperature should be much lower!

Like much else, these things will *contribute* to a healthier PC and to
a
longer component life.

I have the drives at bottom front, but on foam, not screwed in to reduce
noise.
CPU is way up in the 70s, but I've not had a system in 18 months so I'm
fine
with that.

On a hot day the Baracuda might touch 48, but it's speced for 65 so,
again, I'm
not worried.

Has anyone ever actually done a study showing hot drive fail sooner?

Not read any studies myself, but there is logic behind this. The tolerance
of any electronic and mechanical device isn't infinite. Pushing that
tolerance envelope will eventually have an impact on performance. I for one
would not wish to risk the data on a HD to find out what isn't tolerable
when simple common-sense techniques can prevent temperature extremes.
Speaking of which, 70 degrees for a CPU is hot. Are you using CPU intensive
applications? Even gamers and silent PC modders worry about 70 degrees! What
tool is giving that measurement? What CPU and what cooling are you using?

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On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 00:46:40 -0000
Jim H wrote:

I'm relying on the drive mesuring itself, which is well known to be
inacurate, but IIRC the manufacturers build allowances for the
probe into their max temperature specs.

Indeed, however the sensor is only in one place, and airflow can dramatically alter how hot things get - its entirely possible to have a drive 40 degrees at one end and 60 at the other...

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

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On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 01:53:12 -0000
"just me" wrote:

Speaking of which, 70 degrees for a CPU is hot.

Agreed, its too hot. I found that athlons and durons willrn at this temperature, but their lifespans are greatly reduced (I have had 2 failures inside 3 years).

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.