Keep Your Hard Drive Cool - Why and How
Written by admin on November 5th, 2007 in Information, Technology, Tips.
Today computers do far more than ever before. They are used in business and for families. They store important documents and photos as well. The most common and popular way to store this information is on a hard drive. Everyone depends on this to keep his or her data safe.
It is true that you hard drive will store your data, but at the same time it is not perfect. The event of hard drive failure is very common and there really isn’t a lot you can do to prevent this from happening. There are different reasons why a hard drive can fail, but one of the most common reasons is as a result of the hard drive overheating. Viruses as well as theft and accidental deletion are other reasons for loss of data.
The older style of hard drives had a low RPM, and as a result the hard drives would not overheat. The hard drives, which are in use today on the other hand, have speeds of 7,200 up to 10,000 RPM. As a result, they can get quit hot as they are working. Today computers are equipped with fans to cool them down. In addition, most hard drives have temperature sensors as well. As a result you can track the temperature of your hard drive.
The faster drives come with speeds of 10,000 RPM, which can easily make temperatures soar above 70 degrees. This heat also heats up things in the hard drive. Although the mechanics of the hard drive are built to withstand heat, there are times when it can become too hot which will cause problems. When a hard drive becomes too hot, data can be lost. When data is lost as a result of extreme temperatures, it is even difficult for a specialist to recover it.
One area of the hard drive, which suffers from excess heat, are the platters, which are magnetic media. These platters carry data throughout the hard drive. Platters are made of optical glass, aluminum, or ceramic, and are normally coated with a layer of magnetic material. When the hard drive heats up, the platters will start to expand which in return, will change their size. As a result, the platter’s magnetic surface will ultimately be destroyed. When this occurs, you will loose data.
There are other areas in the hard drive, which can be damaged by heat. These are the “read and write” head actuator, and the controller chip. As you can imagine, hard drives are very complicated and cannot handle overheating. The read and write heads are a good example as they can cause the hard drive to become useless if they are damaged. When they become too hot, they will not make contact with the media, which will result in the data not being transferred form the computer.
You should prevent your computer from overheating by making sure that it is always properly ventilated. There are additional fans and coolers available on the market to help with the improvement of ventilation and the flow of air to your computer. These fans and coolers are very inexpensive so they are a great investment in your computer to combat heat from building up in your hard drive.
There is also software available on the market, which is designed to monitor the temperature of your hard drive. This along with cooling fans, you should be able to keep your computer and hard drive cool enough to ensure damage will not result. This will not only increase the strength of your hard drive, it will also make you computer as a whole perform much better.
