HDD trouble.

[Fakepunk]

I have a 2 day old seagate7200.7 160gig SATA and when I run HDD inspector
it tells me that its probably gonna conk out by by the 11th of this month(Its got a logging feature)
The figures it gives me are as such
Raw read error rate : 57
Spin up time : 97
Seek error rate : 60
Hardware ECC covered : 58

Now I’m no HDD expert, but some of those look bad(if not very bad).
These figures are corroborated by Speedfan also, which shows the HDD fitness level at half a bar.

It also heats up like hell, right now its at 46 deg, but its the hottest component of my computer to touch .

[NitnayLion]

I would contack Seagate about it, and see what they say.

[astrix]

I have the same HDD

My figures. 42 degrees.

Seek Error Rate 61
Raw Read Error Rate 56
Spin up time 96
Hardware ECC covered 56

If you look at the threshold figures in HD Inspector under each it doesn’t seem so bad…

[astrix]

What should HDD temps be like, BTW?

[Eazy]

@astrix

What should HDD temps be like, BTW?

I had 4 drives die on me in the last year. Never had a drive die before this. I dont think it is the fault of my Antec True 480 PSU or heat - I have had HDD temp in the region of 35C - 43C. But these 4 drives death made me absolutely paranoid about HDD temps and I have my drives sandwitched between 2 120mm fans and now I get drive temps around 31 - 37C

I have spent a lot of time in various forums for an answer to your exact question and here are some I found from the “experts” on this topic…

50C is about as hot as I’d like to get. Manufacturer specs say up to 55C, so that’s probably safe.

I do know that relatively short run-times at more than 55C can and will cause drives to drop like flies.

While most drives can operate at temps up to around 50C, anything over 40 will dramatically reduce the life of the drive. Ideally, you would keep them around the normal body temp of 37C/98F, or less if possible.

as a very broad rule of thumb
Each 10°C (18°F) temperature rise reduces component life by 50%
Conversely, each 10°C (18°F) temperature reduction increases component life by 100%.
thats the jist of the Arrhenius Equation and applies to mechanical devices as well a semiconductors, of course there is a minimum temperature mechanical devices need inorder to function too low and its contracted so much clearences are too tight.

there are of course other variables involved, thermal stress is one that comes to mind with HARD drives, ideally the smaller the rate of change from being up and running to being down and “cold”

thats also one of the reasons SCSI HDDs have a reputation for higher reliability
they are better made (generally and certainly in the past) but they where also typically always spun up and had a very consistent thermal environment

so basically avoid extremes as well as “peak” temperatures if you can

And this is from Fujitsu…

The service life is depending on the environment temperature.
Therefore, the user must design the system cabinet so that the average DE surface temperature is as possible as low.
• DE surface temperature: 40°C or less 5 years
• DE surface temperature: 41°C to 45°C 4.5 years
• DE surface temperature: 46°C to 50°C 4 years
• DE surface temperature: 51°C to 55°C 3.5 years
• DE surface temperature: 56°C to 60°C 3 years
• DE surface temperature: 61°C and more Strengthen cooling power so that DE surface temperature is 60°C or less.

I think DE here refers to Drive Electronics - the PCB on the drive.

[Eazy]

@Fakepunk

I have a 2 day old seagate7200.7 160gig SATA and when I run HDD inspector
it tells me that its probably gonna conk out by by the 11th of this month

I tried out Hard Drive Inspector last month and it told me every one of my 5 drives are going to die shortly - you know what I did ? DELETED that software !! HDI died from my system before my HDDs !!

Every drive has to die some time or the other and I do daily backups so I dont care when my drives die - I use Maxtor drives and their replacement policy is pretty good. I have 5 Drives 2 of which I use for backups in external USB2 cases.

I use Acronis True Image for backup images and this software is very good. I run it off a bootable CDR to make backups and restores.

[Aces170]

My secondary HDD is too hot to touch !!! But its doing OK sometimes thogh I do get the Windows Transfer errors, but till the HDD completely conks out cant replace it…

[Rockyme2002]

K here is a pic of drive temps of my 2 HDD’c connected rite now…one of them is a 20GB which has almost nil fitness level in Speedfan …but working like a pro..
nd since warranty is left i dont care if it conks out …ofcourse backup is totally a diff prob

So i dont think u shud hav a prob unless its really hot to touch i guess

[undertaker]

Well my 80GB Samsung died in Dec. but it was diagnosed by the HUTIL prgram of Samsung as bad b4 that.The replacement disk is doing fine,I have installed it near to the front case fan for added measure.

[Aces170]

Frankly speaking I am not too worried about HDD’s as they have 3-5 yrs warranty and both Samsung as well as Seagate have awesome after sales support. Heated or not if they are dead will get replaced…