Storage Solutions How to take care of portable hdd?

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zhopudey

zhopudey

Galvanizer
I was wondering about how to take care of my new hdd. Is there any utility to view its temperature? Is it ok to leave it connected to the PC for a long time?
Sometimes, "Safely Remove" doesn't work. So, is it ok to just yank out the usb cable?
 
It is OK to pull out the usb when no disk write/read is in progree...but .. in case u feel uncomfortable doing that...install a utility called unlocker..

& on the host system..copy it & unlock all the files being used & then safely remove it..:D ..

(disclaimer:this is only a idea..not tried this before)
 
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^ Speedfan should work.. if the drive is SMART enabled, but I'm not too sure if SMART is supported on USB HDD's..
 
zhopudey said:
1>Is there any utility to view its temperature?
2>Is it ok to leave it connected to the PC for a long time?
3>Sometimes, "Safely Remove" doesn't work. So, is it ok to just yank out the usb cable?
Click to expand...

Simple answers
1> NO
2> NO
3> NO

I have looked often for a utility to see the temps of HDDs in external USB cases and never found one. Ony my eSATA case has ever shown me an external HDDs temperature.

HDD in external cases run at high temperatures - a HDD I connected to my computer case formatted at around 43C and the same HDD in a Vantec eSATA case formatted at 63C. The idle temps were 36C in computer and 48C in external case. :( Needless to say I never have my HDD in an external case powered for more than is necessary to transfer files.

You can probably get away with a USB cable yank from an external HDD 9 times out of 10 - but the day some data has not been commited to the HDD and the drive is disconnected... INSTANT CORRUPTION of data !!! The thing to do is make sure there is nothing accessing the HDD like Windows Explorer and then try again. If the HDD does not get released I restart XP and during the period that the screen is blank I YANK away !! :)
 
Well, that Unlocker utility solved problem 3, and in turn problem 2 as well. Which leaves only temp monitoring. Now I've noticed the casing doesn't even get warm. Is that a good sign or a bad sign??
 
zhopudey said:
Well, that Unlocker utility solved problem 3, and in turn problem 2 as well. Which leaves only temp monitoring. Now I've noticed the casing doesn't even get warm. Is that a good sign or a bad sign??
Click to expand...

GREAT I must try unlocker. But how does that solve problem 2 ? I thought that as long as the HDD is connected it would be powered up even when disabled with a utility like unlocker. When you run unlocker to disconnect HDD check if can hear the HDD powering down.

OK about the case not getting warm ( it does take a while to heat up ) people in forums say that this maybe a bad sign as the case is supposed to conduct the HDD heat away like a heat sink does for a CPU. So if case not warm than that can be because of bad case design or possibly because the HDD is a very cool running one .... if case too hot USE AS5 between case and HDD ..... NO MAN .... DONT DO THAT J/K :)
 
err.....main reason of problem #2 was problem #3 :P.

As for the heating thing, where can I find more info about this hitachi disk?
 
zhopudey said:
As for the heating thing, where can I find more info about this hitachi disk?
Click to expand...

I doubt you will get a pucca answer as the temp will depend on the external case and room temperatures. The Hitachi new generation of HDDs are supposed to be the coolest running HDDs. I read somewhere that the new Hitachi 2.5" HDDs have perpendicular recording ... does yours have this feature ?
 
^but the heat here is because of the limited structure of the casing ...

any harddisk in such small are without any ventilation is bound to have heat issues....ive seen 3.5" cases with integrated 80mm fans..:o & designed to provide min temp..but never seen such things with 2.5" cause that would mean addaing another adapter...& the fun is gone..;)
 
I read somewhere that the new Hitachi 2.5" HDDs have perpendicular recording ... does yours have this feature ?
Click to expand...

ohhhhhhh...........I'll check the model number in the evening. :D I am loving it :hap2:
 
i m using the same case with a seagate hdd and it gets very warm after about 5-10 mins of copying stuff onto it !
 
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