Do hard drives need cooling?

booksurr

Following the death of my motherboard I was able to salvage a perfectly functional 1TB hard drive from my old PC and am now able to use it via relevant cabling as an external hard drive.

However, as it was obviously originally inside my old PC, it has an exposed PCB so I would like to enclose it in some sort of box (made of metal ideally.)

- Would such an enclosure need vents and/or a fan?
- Is there a top and bottom or doesn't it matter which way up I have it ?

NiftyDigits

It's fine as it is. You can buy a caddy or design your own simple enclosure...even a cardboard box will do.

Caddy example Not recommending that model, as it only supports up to 500 GB. Just to give you an idea.

d0nkeyk0ng

I have that caddy. It's not that particular link or source but I bought from elsewhere and looks exactly the same (although it came with a UK plug). It works fine, though the box does get hot. I use mine intermittently to access certain files. If I were to use it more frequently, I'd either stick it on something capable of acting as a heatsink or get one with a cooling fan.

bluesnake

all electronic components are sensitive to too much heat.

Usually drives are ok, but you do get drive coolers that have fans in them like these internal drive ones https://www.newegg.com/Hard-Drive-Cooling/SubCategory/ID-577

You can check temps with https://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

Sometimes the external metal case is designed to be a heat sink.

kwikbreaks

I just use a USB dock with bare drives. I have a number of them and none have come to any harm but I do store and handle them carefully. Even so the drives would no doubt be safer in caddies. They get quite hot in PCs anyway.

If you wanted to use it regularly the best place would probably be in a spare bay in your desktop PC assuming you still have one and it has a spare bay.

Head_The_Ball

booksurr wrote: »

Following the death of my motherboard I was able to salvage a perfectly functional 1TB hard drive from my old PC and am now able to use it via relevant cabling as an external hard drive.

However, as it was obviously originally inside my old PC, it has an exposed PCB so I would like to enclose it in some sort of box (made of metal ideally.)

- Would such an enclosure need vents and/or a fan?
- Is there a top and bottom or doesn't it matter which way up I have it ?

Putting it on a metal heat sink would probably be enough.

About five years ago I replaced the hard disk in my Sky+ box with a 2TB disk. In order to make future disk swaps easier I didn't put it in the original place inside the Sky+ box. I took the power and data cables out the rear of the Sky box.

My disk now sits at the rear of the Sky box on a glass shelf. There is no metal heat sink. The glass does that job. The exposed PCB is facing upwards, mostly protected by the glass shelf above. I occasionally blow any accumulated dust from it.

It never gets more than vaguely warm to the touch. Nor does the Sky box and I never hear the cooling fan kick in.

It has given no trouble for 5 years.

I occasionally disconnect the disk in order to copy some programmes to my laptop. (using pH-Mb software) That is so much easier not having to open up the Sky box itself every time.

In theory something could short the PCB but that has never happened.

We don't have children or pets. If you do then make sure they cannot get at the disk.

In the picture you can see the disk and the red data cable. The red power cable is mostly obscured by the yellow cable.

wess_lawson

If your processor is cool then you can think everything is cool. And good airflow inside the casing is very much important.

grumpycrab

booksurr wrote: »

I was able to salvage a perfectly functional 1TB hard drive from my old PC

The only question is whether its a 3.5inch (big) disk or small one? If its a big one this would do
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CiT-3-5-inch-SATA-Enclosure/dp/B00647A4KY/

booksurr

thanks everyone

my metal work is up to designing my own box so I'll save myself the £13 Amazon one thanks all the same.

head the ball, a picture paints a 1,000 words so thanks for that, totally reassured now that what I'm doing is OK but can be improved upon by something a little more resistant to spilled drinks - that being what did for the motherboard so a cardboard box can likewise be improved upon me thinks :cool:

the case is 4 inch wide so I guess a 3.5" disc? Won't fit in new PC's case - I tried !

googler

If you're using it as an external drive in partnership with a desktop, why not consider installing it in that desktop as a secondary?

All your issues then disappear.

esuhl

I've never had a problem using bare drives outside a PC.

However, many years ago, I bought a drive caddy (HDD enclosure) on eBay -- a moderately expensive random (Chinese) brand, supposedly aluminium, with big heat sinks, and a fan. I used it once to format a drive, and it failed. I tried removing the drive from the caddy and burn myself! The temperature was incredible!

If you're going to get a drive caddy, I'd suggest going for a decent brand... Or just getting a cheapo set of cables to connect the drive externally without a caddyl.