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

Hard disk temperature monitoring software

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 the computer components.

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

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

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

With the help of the CrystalDiskInfo program, you can find out not only the temperature of the hard disk, but also its other parameters. Let's consider the main features of the CrystalDiskInfo program:

• View technical characteristics of hard drives;
• Viewing information about the temperature of hard drives;
• Viewing information about the technical condition of hard drives;
• View information about the temperature of hard drives from the notification panel;
• Working with external hard drives, RAID arrays, SSD drives;

You can download the CrystalDiskInfo program on the official website.

Temperature of hard drives

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 in the 0 to 60 degrees Celsius range. Moreover, tests show that the hard drive will work at higher temperatures. But, if you want your hard drive to last as long as possible, then it is better to keep its temperature in a narrower range. The optimal temperature range for a hard drive is 20 to 45 degrees Celsius.

If the temperature of your hard drive is currently outside this range, then you can try to lower it, for example:

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

Hello everyone. Let's talk about a hard drive, or rather about what its normal temperature should be. So what is a hard drive? This is the device you need to store files on it. Well, something like this. And this is the only device that in general has not developed so much for many years, as it was the slowest, and has remained, although there is nothing to be surprised, because it is a mechanic ..

So the whole trick is that there are plates inside the hard disk and they spin at a breakneck speed, while everyone there is still writing and reading data, in short, a very delicate and complex work, so to speak. Therefore, the high temperature of the hard disk will only shorten its life, if you just bought a computer or laptop, then it is better to observe the temperature.

This means that the maximum temperature of the hard disk can be 50 degrees, all that is higher is already harsh operating conditions for the disk and there is a risk that some glitches will appear in the disk's operation. The ideal hard drive temperature is up to 40 degrees, one might even say up to 38 degrees. This is my opinion guys, many users plow disks at 45 degrees and at 50, and everything is fine. But how long will it be okay? Here is the question ...

Once again, if the temperature of the disk is 30-35 degrees, this is super cool, if 35-40, this is normal, if 40-45 is undesirable, and anything higher is already abnormal. I advise you to regularly check the temperature of your hard drive. If you have an SSD, then they can withstand temperatures even higher, but again, this is undesirable, 40-48 degrees is the norm for an SSD. The lower the temperature, the better for any device, but of course within reasonable limits

So guys, how can you check the temperature? I recently got acquainted with one program, it turned out to be good enough, because there is no nonsense in it and the interface is pleasant, in short, the program is called Speccy. This program was created by Piriform, she also created the famous CCleaner cleaner, so you should pay attention to Speccy (if anything, you can download it from this site: piriform.com/speccy). Only when you put the program, or rather if you will, then do not forget to select Russian there, otherwise English is the default. So guys, here you run this program and immediately you will see general information about your computer, including the temperature of the hard drive, see:

Once again, I will say that the Speccy program is not buggy, there are no jambs, it is free and there is no nonsense in it, so if you need a simple program to measure the temperature of your hard drive, then pay attention to Speccy There is generally a lot of information about your devices, the temperature shows including the processor, motherboard, in short, the program is excellent

But you can also see the temperature in such a program as AIDA64, it is more advanced and heaped up, which is just not there. AIDA64, in contrast to Speccy, shows the temperature of everything that is possible, see for yourself (I indicated the temperature of the hard disk with the arrow):

As you can see, there is no difficulty, the temperature is easy to find out. Now all you have to do is follow her. If your disc has a temperature of 50 degrees, then this already needs to sound the alarm, most likely where it stands, it is hot there, and you need to make sure that it is not hot. Usually there are two reasons why it is hot: there is simply a lot of dust and all kinds of debris like cat hair, secondly, this is the case of the computer such that heat accumulates inside and is not blown out, here you need to screw an additional fan somewhere. And my advice to you, here is personally from myself, if files on a disk are dear to you, well, and you want the hard itself to work for a long time, then see that it does not work at high temperatures!

Temperature of hard drives - HDD

Winchester is structurally divided into two parts: electronics and HDA with disks and heads. The electronic part contains several specialized microcircuits: the DSP itself (Digital Signal Processor), the motor control controller, the power section and the cache memory microcircuit. Some components, especially the DSP, generate a significant amount of heat during operation. For any of the microcircuits, overheating is very dangerous - the hard drive controller can generate "incorrect" commands, changes in the physical parameters of the engine control system can lead to the fact that pulses are often supplied to the spindle to equalize the speed. Well, the unstable work of the cache does not add reliability to the hard drive either ...

In a HDA, the main heat sources are high-speed disks and a read / write head drive. Alas, the mechanical part also does not like high temperatures. First, due to the thermal expansion of the metal, the load on the bearings increases. Secondly, due to heating, the profile of the plate changes and the tracks end up in a different place than where the heads are aimed. Winchester will be forced to do thermal calibration (to clarify the position of the servo, taking into account the temperature change and the accompanying thermal expansion). Frequent significant changes in the temperature of the plate can negatively affect the state of the magnetic layer, which can lead to the appearance of bad sectors. Plus, a "hot" hard drive (especially if there are several of them) can significantly increase the temperature in the case, which will definitely not "please" other components - they are not cold anyway.

What are the maximum temperature conditions for a modern hard drive? Judging by the manufacturers' datasheets, all hard drives can function at ambient temperatures from 0 to 60 degrees Celsius, wherein in the center of the top cover of the HDA, the temperature should not exceed 60 degrees... The maximum heating gradient is also regulated - storage temperature change should not exceed 20 degrees per hour... Naturally, with the operation of the device in a temperature regime close to the limits of the range, its reliability decreases.

Winchester warms up the hottest during operation. Moreover, in multitasking environments, several operations can be performed simultaneously, as a result of which the head drive microcircuit can heat up to a critical temperature. Developers of power microcircuits often lay down algorithms for protection against overheating - when the maximum temperatures are reached, the microcircuit turns off or slows down (in this case, the hard drive can park the head unit, pause the search, and set the "busy" signal on the interface, or, like some models Seagate, reduces the speed of movement of the heads).

S.M.A.R.T. allows you to control the current, minimum and maximum temperature of the HDD. But, quite often, touching the hard drive, you can feel a clear discrepancy with the data that it shows. The fact is that the self-diagnostic program reads the readings of the temperature sensor, and where it is located is not always known to "mere mortals" (for example, my hard drive Hitachi T7K500 the sensor is located on the electronics board (moreover, where exactly, even the manufacturer's representative on the forum does not know IXBT). Meanwhile, the maximum temperature is regulated on the bank. It is clear that it is very important to know the heating of microcircuits, but still a strange position. By the way, the temperature on the jar feels like the readings of the sensor).

It is the location of the temperature sensor that explains the generally accepted opinion about "cold" hard drives Samsung(to get the real temperature of the jar, you can safely add 8-10 degrees to the sensor readings). Also on some models Western digital incorrect operation of the sensor is noticed - it shows in the region of 70 degrees (it is treated by changing the firmware). The most literate thing is to measure the temperature in a specific place with a thermocouple(contact, infrared thermometers).

Often interested in is it possible through S.M.A.R.T. to see the temperature of hard drives working in RAID? I answer: if the RAID controller can issue S.M.A.R.T. separate HDD - then yes... But there are no such desktop motherboards on the market yet.

If your hard drive gets very hot, there may be the following reasons:

1. Several hard drives are located close to each other - "sandwich".

2. The case is heavily obstructed.

3. Small body.

4. Strong heating of other components of the system unit, leading to an increase in temperature in the case.

5. There are practically no air flows in the case or they are not properly organized.

6. Overvoltage on the 12V bus.

7. A layer of dust that retains heat.

8. The peculiarity of this instance.

To prevent the drive from malfunctioning due to high temperatures, you can take the following steps:

1. It is worth purchasing a high-quality, spacious case with thick walls, with the ability to install additional fans in front and behind (the larger the allowed fan size, the better), with a massive cage with plenty of storage space. In this case, firstly, it is easier to organize air circulation, secondly, the case will play the role of a heat sink to some extent, and thirdly, it is easier to place several hard drives without affecting their thermal regime.

2. Arrange the loops as follows. so that they do not interfere with the movement of air (due to the departure of floppy drives and the RATA interface from the system units, it is not relevant).

3. Install additional fans into the chassis. In the front, in the lower part of the body, for blowing, in the back, at the top, for blowing. Then, in accordance with the laws of physics, relatively cold air will be drawn in from below, heated, rising up and drawn out by the case fan and the fan of the power supply. A large fan has a lower rotational speed than a small one with the same air flow rate, therefore, less noise (true for fans of the same manufacturer). You can experiment with plugging different holes in the case.

With the installation of fans, the amount of dust entering the case increases. This is not a problem for a HDA (dust will not get inside - there is a special filter), but it can damage the cooling of microcircuits (and if the dust is also conductive ...).

I will share my experience. Temperature (by sensor) of the hard drive Hitachi 7K80 in the case ASUS TA250 without fans during idle time it was ~ 39 degrees. After installing a 92mm T&T fan at the rear for blowing, it dropped to ~ 31. Then I put 80 mm Glacialtech (DLA) on the front air blower - the temperature became ~ 29 degrees. (It is more appropriate to install the fan from inside the front panel is not easy for blowing, namely for blowing HDD itself)

4. Check the power supply. If the voltage on the 12V line is seriously overestimated, the disk may overheat perceptibly. According to the ATX standard, deviations on the 12V rail should not exceed 5%, i.e. the voltage must be within the range of 11.4-12.6 V. The voltage must be measured with a tester (multimeter), and not be guided by the readings of the programs.

5. You can purchase special fans that are attached directly to the hard drive and blow off the electronics board from below. However, they can cause vibration, dangerous for the hard drive, and over time they begin to emit a loud noise. (these are the so-called Fan for HDD... A good cooling system doesn't have any negative consequences!)

6. Reduce the speed of movement of the heads using AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management) and use the power saving modes of the hard disk. In theory, this will lower the temperature slightly.

7. You can come up with your own cooling methods. Most of them are based on two principles: applying (gluing) metal heatsinks with good thermal conductivity to the surface of the HDA or microcircuits for more efficient heat dissipation, or blowing air around the drive. There are both combinations of these methods and very extreme ones. A discussion of ways to cool hard drives is in this conference thread.

8. Measure the temperature with a thermocouple - maybe the sensor is lying.

Temperature monitoring programs:

Look at the developers' sites for more recent versions of programs, including those with a Russian interface!

I myself use the Hard Drive Inspector (it shows temperatures in the tray plus a lot of useful information).

Good afternoon.

A hard drive is one of the most valuable pieces of hardware in any computer and laptop. The reliability of all files and folders directly depends on its reliability! The life of a hard disk is of great importance to the temperature to which it heats up during operation.

That is why, it is necessary to control the temperature from time to time (especially in hot summer) and, if necessary, take measures to reduce it. By the way, the temperature of the hard drive is influenced by many factors: the temperature in the room in which the PC or laptop is running; the presence of coolers (fans) in the case of the system unit; the amount of dust; the degree of load (for example, with an active torrent, the load on the disk increases), etc.

In this article I want to talk about the most common questions (which I am constantly answering ...) related to HDD temperature. So, let's begin…

1. How to find out the temperature of the hard drive

In general, there are many ways and programs in order to find out the temperature of the hard drive. Personally, I recommend using some of the best utilities in your sector - Everest Ultimate (although it is paid) and Speccy(free) .

Speccy

Great utility! First, it supports the Russian language. Secondly, on the manufacturer's website, you can even find a portable version (a version that does not need to be installed). Thirdly, after starting, within 10-15 seconds, you will be presented with all information about the computer or laptop: including the temperature of the processor and hard drive. Fourth, the capabilities of even the free version of the program are more than enough!

Everest Ultimate

Everest is a great utility that is highly desirable to have on every computer. In addition to temperature, you can find out information on almost any device or program. There is access to many sections that an ordinary ordinary user will never get into by means of the Windows operating system itself.

And so, to measure the temperature, run the program and go to the "computer" section, then select the "sensor" tab.

EVEREST: you need to go to the "Sensor" section to determine the temperature of the components.

In a few seconds you will see a plate with the temperature of the disk and the processor, which will change in real time. This option is often used by those who want to overclock the processor and are looking for a balance between frequency and temperature.

EVEREST - hard disk temperature 41 degrees. Celsius, processor - 72 gr.

1.1. Continuous monitoring of HDD temperature

It is even better if a separate utility will monitor the temperature and the state of the hard drive as a whole. Those. not a one-time launch and check as Everest or Speccy allows you to do it, but constant control.

I talked about such utilities in the last article:

For example, in my opinion one of the best utilities of this kind is HDD LIFE.

HDD LIFE

First, the utility controls not only the temperature, but also the S.M.A.R.T. (you will be warned in time if the condition of the hard disk becomes bad and there is a risk of data loss). Secondly, the utility will notify you in time if the HDD temperature rises above optimal values. Thirdly, if everything is fine, then the utility hangs in the tray next to the clock and does not distract users (and the PC practically does not load). Conveniently!

HDD Life - control over the "life" of the hard disk.

2. Normal and critical temperatures of HDD

Before talking about lowering the temperature, it is necessary to say a few words about the normal and critical temperature of hard drives.

The fact is that as the temperature rises, materials expand, which in turn is very undesirable for such a high-precision device as a hard disk.

In general, different manufacturers indicate slightly different operating temperature ranges. In general, a range can be distinguished in 30-45 gr. Celsius is the most normal operating temperature for a hard drive.

Temperature at 45 - 52 gr. Celsius - undesirable. In general, there is no reason for panic, but it’s worth considering. Usually, if in winter the temperature of your hard disk is 40-45 degrees, then in summer heat it can rise somewhat, for example, up to 50 degrees. It is worth, of course, to think about cooling, but you can get by with simpler options: just open the system unit and direct a fan into it (when the heat subsides, put everything as it was). A cooling pad can be used for a laptop.

If the temperature of the HDD becomes more than 55 gr. Celsius - this is a reason to worry, the so-called critical temperature! The life of a hard disk is reduced by an order of magnitude at this temperature! Those. it will work 2-3 times less than at normal (optimal) temperature.

Temperature below 25 gr. Celsius - also undesirable for a hard drive (although many believe that the lower the better, but this is not so. When cooled, the material shrinks, which is not good for the disk to work). Although, if you do not resort to powerful cooling systems and do not put the PC in unheated rooms, then the operating temperature of the HDD, as a rule, never drops below this bar.

3. How to lower the temperature of the hard drive

1) First of all, I recommend looking inside the system unit (or laptop) and cleaning it from dust. As a rule, in most cases, the increase in temperature is associated with poor ventilation: Coolers and vents are clogged with thick layers of dust (laptops are often placed on a sofa, which also closes the vents and prevents hot air from leaving the device).

How to clean the system unit from dust:

How to clean your laptop from dust:

2) If you have 2 HDDs, I recommend placing them in the system unit further from each other! The fact is that one disk will heat up the other if there is not enough distance between them. By the way, the system unit usually has several compartments for mounting HDDs (see the screenshot below).

From experience, I can say that if you spread the disks away from each other (and before they stood close to each other), the temperature of each will drop by 5-10 grams. Celsius (maybe even an additional cooler is not needed).

System unit. Green arrows: dust; red - a place for installing a second hard drive is not desirable; blue - recommended space for another HDD.

3) By the way, different hard drives are heated in different ways. So, say, drives with a rotation speed of 5400 are practically not subject to overheating, like those with this figure of 7200 (and even more so 10,000). Therefore, if you are going to replace the disk, I recommend that you pay attention to this.

4) In the summer heat, when the temperature of not only the hard drive rises, you can do it easier: open the side cover of the system unit and put a regular fan in front of it. It helps a lot.

5) Installing an additional cooler for cooling the HDD. The method is effective and not very expensive.

6) For a laptop, you can buy a special cooling pad: although the temperature drops, but not by much (3-6 degrees Celsius on average). It is also important to note that the laptop must be operated on a clean, hard, level and dry surface.

7) If the problem of heating the HDD has not yet been resolved, I recommend that you do not defragment at this time, do not actively use torrents and do not start other processes that heavily load the hard drive.

That's all for me, but how did you lower the temperature of the HDD?

All the best!

It has done its job for the main components of a personal computer: now even a schoolchild knows that the chip of a powerful video card heats up during operation.

Basic knowledge of electrical engineering is sufficient to understand the relationship between frequency, current and heat dissipation. The more transistors in a microcircuit, the, as a rule, the higher the level of its heating. Therefore, active cooling is indispensable. So, "cunning" designs of coolers' radiators appear, the developers bend fan blades intricately, change their location and quantity, and heat pipes are not used only by a lazy manufacturer.

But if there are no questions with this, then why does the temperature of the hard drive rise? Indeed, there are no millions of transistors in its microcircuits. There are completely different processes taking place: the high speed of rotation of the magnetic disks, the heat-generating motor, the sealed structure and the frame of the readheads, which affects the air flow - these are the main reasons for which the temperature of the hard disk rises. It is important to point out here that its increase does not always indicate any malfunctions.

The temperature of the hard disk in a running computer cannot but rise - this is normal, even inevitable. The exception is the practically cold models with solid-state memory, but they have not yet received mass distribution due to the unreasonably high cost of each gigabyte of available volume.

To find out what the operating temperature of the hard drive is, you need a program that can read data from the built-in thermal sensor of the hard drive. There are quite a few such applications: AIDA64, HD Sentinel, Crystal Disk-Info, etc. For example, to determine the temperature of the hard disk using Aida, after starting the program, you must follow the path “Computer - Sensors”. The temperature list will show the readings of the hard drive.

Now a few features:

Measurement must be performed after half an hour after turning on the computer - during this time the device will enter a steady state;

Obviously, in the hot season, the heating will be higher;

The more intensively the disk is used, the more heat it generates, therefore, in order to find out the peak value, you should run a defragmentation or scan of files with an antivirus for 15-20 minutes.

Thus, to determine the heating level, it is necessary to load the disk with work for a while and use the selected program to read the temperature sensor data.

The next question is natural: "What should be a hard disk?" It is recommended not to reinvent the wheel, but to go to the manufacturer's website (for example, Seagate, WD), choose your model and read the specifications. As a rule, the permissible heating level is indicated there. Accordingly, it is not recommended to exceed it.

In most cases, heating up to 40-45 degrees is acceptable. If growth continues above 50, then additional airflow should be installed on the device. Note that sometimes excessive heat is indicative of a malfunction of the disc mechanics.