My hard drive seems to be overheating... what should I do?
- by George Edison
After a cold boot, the hard drive in my notebook jumps to 56? within an hour or so of idling. Is 56? a cause for alarm?
Notes:
The notebook is on a flat desk and none of the vents are obstructed.
The video card is currently at 55? and the CPU at 50?.
It's a Western Digital 250GB hard drive.
SMART reports the drive healthy but does warn that:
Edit: this problem had a very surprise ending. I inverted the notebook and unscrewed some of the panels on the back (there was one covering the hard drive, and one that provided access to the memory). I couldn't see any dust, so I simply screwed everything back together and powered it on... and it worked!
The temperature is now staying at 46?, and it feels notable cooler to the touch. So I can only assume that some internal fan was malfunctioning or something. Whatever the case, it's working now so I won't complain.
Edit: I have an SSD now, so temperature isn't as big an issue as it was when I had a mechanical drive.