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| Let your hard drive cool - Part 2. |
The Head Actuator.
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The head actuator is a device attached to the heads, and is responsible for their moving around the platters. All modern drives have a voice coil actuator, which controls the position of the head over the correct cylinder. Since overheating is a cause of damage of any parts of the drive, the actuator is not an exception. Therefore, the head actuator failure directly affects the hard drive performance.
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PCB.
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The circuit board(s) attached to the outside of the HDA (Head Drive Assembly) provides control of the movement of internal parts. Modern models have SM and VCM (Spindle Motor and Voice Coil Motor) controller chip soldered into the board. It is obvious that even a small temperature jump, for example, in the summer time, can lead to the burning of SM and VCM controller chip. Taking into account the importance of your data, you can imagine how unpleasant would be the consequences of such.
We explored the problems that can occur from an overheating hard drive.
What is the optimum temperature that will prolong the drive's life (and that of your data!) and how to maintain this temperature?
Most used 7200 rpm hard drives generate more heat than 5400 rpm drives. Ideally, a hard drive should run under 40 oC. If it runs under 50 oC it is probably still acceptable. If it keeps working at 60C you will have a problem and if it still keeps working at 70 oC you will have a REAL PROBLEM.
The graph below gives you some idea of the effect of temperature on a disk life. It shows how an increase in temperature from 40C to 50C to 60C to 70C results in an increase of number of disk failures.
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As we can see, the excessive heat is not tolerated by a hard drive.
What can we do to maximize the hard drive's life?
It is essential that the drive must be properly cooled and ventilated.
Even if your system has embedded coolers and fans, additional coolers installed in a way of cooling the hard drive directly, will improve the drive's reliability. Just invest a small amount ($5-$35) in a cooling solution for your hard drive, and you will prevent the computer data recovery issue. There is a bunch of coolers that you can find at the computer stores.
By keeping your drive cool, you do not only increase the hard drive's stability, but also eliminate drive's crashes.
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