Hello everybody!
In today’s video, I’m going to tell you about monitoring temperature of your HDD and
SSD drives.
How to find out their current temperature, what is the normal range of temps to use them
in, what values are critical and how to cool the drives down.
A hard disk is one of the most important components in any desktop computer or laptop.
Its reliability determines the integrity of your data.
As any other component, it is supposed to have a certain lifespan.
The length of this period is seriously affected by the temperature which the hard disk reaches
as it operates.
That is why it is important to monitor its temperature from time to time, especially
when the weather is hot, and do something to help your disk exist in a cooler environment,
if necessary.
There are a multitude of factors that affect the disk temperature: first of all, the temperature
in the room where the computer works; number and type of cooling fans in the computer case;
the amount of dust; intensity of work and more.
In today’s video, you will find answers to most popular questions related to monitoring
temperature of your HDD and SSD drives.
For starters, let’s see how you can tell if the disk is too hot or too cold.
There are many ways and specialized programs to help you.
Visit our channel for a detailed video tutorial on learning the temperature of a hard disk,
central processor and other components - just check the link below.
To monitor temperature, I use the well-known tool, AIDA64.
Go to the tab Computer - Sensor.
In the Temperature section you will find everything you need.
Temperature readings are shown in real-time mode.
Talking of SSDs, you may or may not see the temperature data depending on whether your
device has built-in sensors or not.
AIDA 64 is an excellent tool which is a must-have for every PC user.
In addition to temperature, you can get tons of information on almost every device or program
you are using.
It provides access to so many things which you will never see even if you use integrated
Windows tools.
It’s even better if there is a dedicated utility to monitor the disk temperature and
overall health.
I mean real-time permanent monitoring instead of the one-time check as provided by AIDA64.
For this purpose, the best choice is specialized utilities for hard disk diagnostics.
Previously, I’ve already covered this topic in one of my videos, so I will leave the link
in the description below.
One of the tools I can recommend is HDD LIFE.
This utility monitors both temperature and S.M.A.R.T.
values, and it will warn you immediately as soon as the disk condition deteriorates to
the point where data loss becomes probable.
Also, it will inform you if the disk temperature gets higher than normal.
It’s very convenient because you don’t need to think about having to check temperatures
now and then - the utility will do it for you and let you know if something goes wrong.
If you decided to monitor temperature on your own you must be wondering which figure is
normal temperature, and which is critical.
Actually, recommendations vary depending on the manufacturer.
Most of them agree that 30 to 45 degrees Centigrade Is the optimal temperature range for a hard
disk.
Temperatures from 45 to 52 degrees Centigrade are undesirable.
Nothing to worry about, but you’d better consider your cooling options.
If your hard disk operates within the 40 to 45 degrees range in winter, summer heat can
easily raise it to 50 degrees.
The point is that the rise in temperature causes all materials to expand, and that is
very harmful for the hard disk.
Talking of SSDs, their critical temperature is much higher, up to 70 or 80 degrees Centigrade.
If your HDD gets hotter than 55 degrees – this the critical temperature you should avoid
at all costs.
It can reduce the disk lifespan considerably, it may work two or three times less than it
would, if the temperature was within the normal range.
Any temperature below 25 degrees Centigrade Is as bad for the hard disk as that (although
many people tend to believe that the colder the hard disk, the better).
With low temperature, materials tend to shrink which is not good for any hard disk.
However, except for cases of using excessively powerful cooling systems or condemning a PC
to working in an unheated premise, the disk temperature should never go lower than that.
So how can we bring down the hard disk temperature?
First of all, have a look inside your computer or laptop and clean it from dust.
Most of the time, rising temperature stands in direct connection with poor ventilation,
as air holes and cooling fans get clogged with a thick layer of dust.
Talking of laptops, users often place them on sofas and other soft surfaces that cover
air holes effectively and the hot air can’t get out.
In our channel, there’s a good video about cleaning computer from dust, and I will leave
the link below.
If your computer has several HDDs, make sure that they are installed at a distance from
each other.
If they are packed too close, rearrange the disks to create more space between them.
This will prevent them from heating up each other.
Usually, every computer case has several slots for hard disks, so I recommend putting hard
disks into, say, the first and the third slots.
If you place the two disks as far from each other as possible, their temperature will
certainly drop by 5 or even 10 degrees.
If this step doesn’t help, add an extra cooling fan to blow some air on the hard disk
and reduce its temperature.
For laptops, there are special cooling pads in every shop, but it could be much cheaper
to just Remember that a laptop should be used on a
clean, firm, level and dry surface.
Before the overheating problem is solved, don’t run disk defragmentation, use torrent-type
applications or start processes that load the disk considerably, because it can harm
your storage device.
I have already told you how high temperatures affect the hard disk.
What is more, how hot a disk can become also depends on the disk type and model.
For example, disks designed to operate at 5400 rpm are almost immune to overheating,
while those doing 7200 rpm or more are at risk.
To learn the normal temperature range for your specific hard disk, the best way is to
visit the manufacturer’s website.
That is all for now!
Hopefully, this video was useful.
Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel.
Hit the bell button to receive notifications and never miss new videos.
Leave comments to ask questions.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.