Did you know that hard drives have a recommended operating temperature range? Most people do not think about what happens when they turn on their computer or server and the hard drives begin to whirl around inside. Even if you have the newer solid-state drives (SDDs), you still need to know the recommended hard drives operating temperature.
Hard drives store your files, data, operating system, and numerous apps. If your hard drives crash, you could potentially lose the vital information you need for your business operations. Ideally, you want to have a backup process in place that is run daily as a precaution.
In addition, you need to make sure your hard drivers are not operating outside of normal temperature ranges. Excessive heat is not good for hard drives. The heat can lead to premature failure of the drives due to added “wear and tear” from operating at higher temperatures than recommended.
Why Do the Temperatures of Hard Drives Matter?
Hard drives temperatures matter because they are not designed to withstand high heat. While your graphics cards and processors can handle higher temperatures, your hard drives will be affected when the temperature exceeds threshold levels.
If graphics cards and processors fail due to excessive heat, it is much easier to replace those than hard drives. On the other hand, it will cost you much more to replace hard drives that overheat and fail. All your important data and files stored on the hard drives are lost and cannot easily be replaced if you do not have the most recent data backup.
What Is the Ideal Hard Drives Operating Temperature?
You want to make sure your hard drives are operating within the range of 77- to 133-degrees Fahrenheit (25- to 45-degrees Celsius). This is the normal operating temperature range that will ensure you get the maximum life out of your hard drives.
Is There a Difference Between Safe and Recommended Operating Temperatures?
Yes, there is a slight difference between the two. Safe operating temperatures are not always the same as the recommended ranges. This is partly due to the brand of drives and the type of drives you use. As such, they will operate at different temperature ranges that can be outside the recommended ranges.
For example, new hard drives have a safe operating range of 32- to 140-degrees Fahrenheit (0- to 60-degrees Celsius). Older drives can have safe operating ranges of about 41- to 122-degrees Fahrenheit (5- to 50-degrees Celsius). As you can see, the safe operating ranges are outside the recommended temperature ranges.
What Is Needed to Monitor Hard Drives Operating Temperature?
You will need various temperature sensors placed in key locations inside the computer or server. These sensors will need to be connected to a monitoring device, as well as configured using an active network monitoring application like PA Server Monitor.
With PA Server Monitor, you can monitor the temperatures of the CPU, chassis, GPU, and hard drives inside your computers and servers. All you need to use is the free SpeedFan utility. You will also use the same utility to configure the monitoring thresholds and what types of alerts you want to be sent.
With PA Server Monitor, you can have alerts sent via email and text messaging. PA Server Monitor alerts also work with the appropriate iPhone app, Android App, or PagerDuty app. PA Server Monitor is more than just a temperature monitoring solution. The app provides many other features and options for 24/7 active network monitoring.
To learn more about these features and options, our other types of server monitoring apps, or to request your free 30-day full-access trial to PA Server Monitor, please feel free to contact Power Admin at 1-800-401-2339 today!
