Raid Drives getting hot

[cbmudd]

I have two maxtor ata 133 drives on a highpoint onboard raid controller. Striped for video, one of the drives failed and I lost all data. I relaced the drive. Now I have noticed that the two drives are getting really hot.

Nothing else in the case is this hot or causing a problem. The case is open and there is no other reason for the heat.

I am not accesing or useing the drives at all and they are both very very hot. What is going on.... Anyone heard of this or know why?????

 

[rvnguy]

What Is Hot...drives spin fast and consume approx 10-15 watts and will heat up to about 50C. This is a temperature that is a bit uncomfortable to the touch but normal.

So unless you are exceeding the design temperatures(see your drive specs) what you might think is hot, might be normal.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[cdogg]

Also, don't place the drives right next to each other, if possible. Space them out with a slot or two in between them if there's enough room in your case.

Leaving the case cover off can also cause problems in the long run. Without the cover on, you are essentially making the case fans useless. A typical design has air being sucked in from the front/side, and then blown out the top or back. With the side of the case off, there is hardly any air flow, if any. Heat doesn't get pulled away from its source nearly as fast.

And finally, there are fans you can by to mount on top of or below each hard drive to blow hot air away (much like a CPU fan).

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[cbmudd]

Ok. let me re state the case. Every thing in the case is cool. I opend it up to make sure that nothing else was hot.

My cpu is running fine. I have three other drives, all warm to the touch and being used a lot. The raid striped set is idle for hours. No use at all. and they are like cooking hot. Do you think something can cause this. I have removed them for now.........

 

[G0AOZ]

I agree with the previous posters about temperatures. However, I think problems are more likely to occur with electronic components when the devices in which they are contained are switched off and then powered back up again on a regular basis. Components which go through a regular wide temperature variation are more likely to suffer heat fatigue than those kept at a more even, regulated temperature. Maybe there's a case for not switching off these drives...

Given the option, I'd fit drives of this type into something like a Hermannator heat sink drive tray. That will help to keep the temperature down.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[cdogg]

cbmudd,
I think you should read this:

Maxtor KB Article 1927

Go out and buy a temperature probe at RadioShack - they're cheap. You should position the probe inside the case (with the cover on) and see how hot the air near your hard drives gets. It should not exceed 35°C (95°F) like the article says if you can help it. Otherwise, you risk the chance of approaching 50°C or higher on the hard drive, which should be running in optimal conditions of 35°C - 40°C.

You may "think" everything's cool, but there is no other logical reason why both of your drives are running hot. It's the environment they're in...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[ceh4702]

What kind of drives are we talking about? If these are high-speed drives maybe they are designed to run hotter.

Is there room for air to flow over the top and bottom of each drive?

If you have 5 drives in a case, that is an awful lot of drives. They all make heat including any optical drives.

Ideally you would want an air intake directly in front of the drives and then have airflow around the drives to cool them off. Maybe the main issue is a case design that is not good for your configuration and the number of hard drives you are using. On my case my one and only hard drive is directly behind the Air Intake and a 120mm exhaust fan sucks the air out of the back of the case.

Another issue for hard drive ware is the supply of power which should be constant and steady. Any power fluctuation can cause problems.

There are probably some drives that are just cooler than others also.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[TomCologne]

One of the HDDs in my RAID 0 array also failed because of heat issues.
With the manufacturer's utility I was able to fix the drive.

I've not been using the drive in RAID config again but it has been running for 2 years now without any problems.

TomCologne

 

[CiscoGuy33]

cbmudd,

I had heat issues in my old Gateway case and I moved everything into a Lian Li case.

Harddrives have 2 fans mounted on them (as cdogg said) and in the Lian Li case they sit right at the bottom of the case behind the 2 case fans blowing into the case right accross the 2 HDs.

The case has 1 fan blowing air out the back and a chimney fan sucking hot air out the top. The power supply has 2 fans also.

All my heat issues are gone with a GREAT case and good fan design.

Just a thought!


E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +