[Yukon Trooper]

Trying to figure out why my WD7500AAKS is so hot. During error check and format it hovers around 56C and up to 59C! This is reported both by HDTune and another third party HD temp program. I RMA'd the drive and received a replacement, but it's exactly the same. VERY hot to the touch. What gives? Comparably the Samsung HD753LJ only gets up to 45C on error check and format.

[Igor C]

I have a simlar issue with Maxtor - 49C all the time : (( There is no load on the drive. It's 500GB SATA Maxtor Basics drive. Anyone have an idea?

For HD monitoring, you may want to use some freeware tools linked here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Yukon Trooper, on May 5 2008, 06:02 PM, said:

Trying to figure out why my WD7500AAKS is so hot. During error check and format it hovers around 56C and up to 59C! This is reported both by HDTune and another third party HD temp program. I RMA'd the drive and received a replacement, but it's exactly the same. VERY hot to the touch. What gives? Comparably the Samsung HD753LJ only gets up to 45C on error check and format.

[meteordnf1]

Yukon Trooper, on May 6 2008, 03:02 AM, said:

Trying to figure out why my WD7500AAKS is so hot. During error check and format it hovers around 56C and up to 59C! This is reported both by HDTune and another third party HD temp program. I RMA'd the drive and received a replacement, but it's exactly the same. VERY hot to the touch. What gives? Comparably the Samsung HD753LJ only gets up to 45C on error check and format.

It's true that Samsung drives usually run cooler than most others. I have the HD753LJ myself and according to HD Tune it runs at 36C idle (39C heavy load). I have a well cooled case with a 120mm front intake and a 120mm rear outtake (both slow running 800 RPM Scythe SFlex). But the fans only cool my passive 8600GT and remove heated air from the also passive cpu cooler. My hdd is not inside the airflow.

Seems your drive is fine but simply needs more cool air. Create some "breathing space" for your drive inside the case. Make sure it has at least one free (that means also cable free!) slot above and below. The more space the better since the heated drive will generate some convection. If the case has some airflow and is cool enough that should already be enough to keep your WD drive between 45C and 50C (which is ok for a drive with load). The best solution is of course active cooling, any slow turning fan (80mm or bigger) should be fine.