New WD Black HDD getting super hot

J

johnnyscience

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
190
So I just got a couple of new WD Black 10TB HDD

I've already transferred all of my data to them a couple of days ago & noticed they were super hot, so I unplugged them as I had to wipe an old HDD anyways.

But I plugged them in yesterday and was monitoring them the last 24 hours, and for some reason they are still getting super hot, like I can barely put my hand on them they're so hot.

My previous HDDs never got hot like this. While I don't have the best cooling setup for them, this is for sure abnormal.

So I'm worried about my data with these prolonged temps.

What would be causing these things to be overheating like this?

These are my Media HDDs, so they should be sitting idle 98% of the time, or at least I thought they should be.
 
johnnyscience said:
So I just got a couple of new WD Black 10TB HDD

I've already transferred all of my data to them a couple of days ago & noticed they were super hot, so I unplugged them as I had to wipe an old HDD anyways.

But I plugged them in yesterday and was monitoring them the last 24 hours, and for some reason they are still getting super hot, like I can barely put my hand on them they're so hot.

My previous HDDs never got hot like this. While I don't have the best cooling setup for them, this is for sure abnormal.

So I'm worried about my data with these prolonged temps.

What would be causing these things to be overheating like this?

These are my Media HDDs, so they should be sitting idle 98% of the time, or at least I thought they should be.
Click to expand...
Were they super hot after doing substantial work or just sitting idle in the system? Are you going to be using them actively or only to transfer stored data for back-up?
If you aren't using them continuously then they should shut down and create zero heat.
 
No I was not doing any work using any files on them, they were just sitting idle, continuing to increase in heat to the point that I shut the computer down and unplugged them and put them in front of an air conditioner - they were literally too hot for me to keep my fingers on

Is there a way to see why they aren't sitting idle?
 
johnnyscience said:
No I was not doing any work using any files on them, they were just sitting idle, continuing to increase in heat to the point that I shut the computer down and unplugged them and put them in front of an air conditioner - they were literally too hot for me to keep my fingers on

Is there a way to see why they aren't sitting idle?
Click to expand...
What temperature are the drives' sensors reporting? Do you have an IR thermometer to verify the readings? Did the drives have adequate airflow for their location/use case?
 
HD Sentinel is an amazing program. I use it on all my computers to monitor drive health and temperature, and it's well worth the $20 (with a promo code) for the pro version. There is a free trial as well.

And FWIW, my old WD Black 5TB drives ran hot as hell as well. That's likely why two of them (from an 8 drive RAID 6 array) kicked the bucket after four years.

https://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php
 
Crystaldisk info is free, has been around decades and would report the temp as well as the smart info. I’d start there and let us know the temps.
 
arestavo said:
HD Sentinel is an amazing program. I use it on all my computers to monitor drive health and temperature, and it's well worth the $20 (with a promo code) for the pro version. There is a free trial as well.

And FWIW, my old WD Black 5TB drives ran hot as hell as well. That's likely why two of them (from an 8 drive RAID 6 array) kicked the bucket after four years.

https://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php
Click to expand...
My really old 1TB black drives ran at like ~50C iirc. Pre SSD days so no going to standby. Both of those I ran 24/7 and when I sold them they still were in excellent shape.
 
Ok so I downloaded Sentinel freebie and running it now

It seems the HDD saved the previous temps, the 1st HDD Max Temp was 136* & the 2nd HDD is showing 129* F

It just reached 110* again after 45 minutes and the temp was continuing to increase, so I just shut the computer down and unplugged both drives for now until I can get this figured out.

Something is wrong because these should be idle HDD, I'm literally not even using a single file on either drive.

Is it possible to see why these HDDs are not running idle or can I force them to?

These temps will destroy the data with this continuous heat.

Untitled.png

Untitled2.png
 
Last edited:
johnnyscience said:
Ok so I downloaded Sentinel freebie and running it now

It seems the HDD saved the previous temps, the 1st HDD Max Temp was 136* & the 2nd HDD is showing 129* F

It just reached 110* again after 45 minutes and the temp was continuing to increase, so I just shut the computer down and unplugged both drives for now until I can get this figured out.

Something is wrong because these should be idle HDD, I'm literally not even using a single file on either drive.

Is it possible to see why these HDDs are not running idle or can I force them to?

These temps will destroy the data with this continuous heat.

View attachment 663272
View attachment 663274
Click to expand...
136 degrees f is about 57c, which is considered writhing operating temps by western digital (roughly under 60c in general) for 7200 rpm black drives. Nothing there looks suspicious to me if these are 7200 rpm drives. I’d increase airflow.

Can you monitor the disk usage in task manager and tell us how much it’s being used?
 
First off, change to setting to display C not F for temps. Also, what kind of airflow is going over these drives? Usually 3.5" drives are located right in the path of a fan or something. Are these set up in RAID1 or RAID0 mode or just 2 individual drives? In your Task Manager under the Performance tab, what kind of activity is showing for these drives?
 
yup, looks aboot normal to me. maybe try and give them a little air flow to bring it down a bit but its within spec. 50c+ should be "too hot to touch".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top