Western Digital WD1600JS overheating

Hello ppl,

I've got a problem with my relatively new (2 months ago) 160gigs HD model WD1600JS, running my winxp sp2 machine.
In the past few days my computer freezes, i get BSOD, syslog says there's a "page operation error writing to hard drive".
what i did:
1. performed normal windows "checkdisk" - found nothing.
2. Installed WD's DataLifeGuard diagnostics. I ran the quick (SMART) scan and found nothing.
3. Installed ActiveSmart - which says there is a problem with SMART attribute BE (190) which is an Airflow issue. according to this program the temp. was 66 deg. celsius.
4. Opened the Case and put a big fan on top, directed to the HD, which didn't help very much when doing extensive disk activity.

Now i've noticed there's something like a breather hole (pretty large) on the side of the HD covered with a Patch. Didn't find anything on the net about it.

Do you think I should remove that patch for better Airflow, but risking extra dust and humidity, or maybe the drive is just messed up and i should replace it?...

Thanks.

Evil_Nookie said:

Hello ppl,
Now i've noticed there's something like a breather hole (pretty large) on the side of the HD covered with a Patch. Didn't find anything on the net about it.

Do you think I should remove that patch for better Airflow, but risking extra dust and humidity, or maybe the drive is just messed up and i should replace it?...

Thanks.

Click to expand...

NO DO NOT REMOVE THAT PATCH!!! IF YOU OPEN THE HD UP IT WILL GET DUST INSIDE AND CAUSE MASS READ ERRORS!

I tried to apply a clear cover to one of my hd and I did it with the lowest amount of dust possible... steamy bathroom ect.. still failed the drive... was cool to watch it load with errors thoe

My recommendation is that your ntfs filesystem is screwing up beyound what the disk checkers can see. If you can do a low level format on the drive and reload it. If that dosnt fix it... then I'm not sure, may be ur controller.

Drives really cant fail from getting to hot.. or I should say lock up the system.. they wear faster being hot all the time but that wont kill it directly... hd arnt as fragile as you think.

Evil_Nookie said:

Now i've noticed there's something like a breather hole (pretty large) on the side of the HD covered with a Patch. Didn't find anything on the net about it.

Do you think I should remove that patch for better Airflow, but risking extra dust and humidity, or maybe the drive is just messed up and i should replace it?...

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Do not remove it.

Its not a breather hole. When air inside geats heated up and expands that patch will bow outward providing space for the expanding air. And when it gets cold it will bow in. If the dive did not have it it the expanding air would find its way out though the cracks, and when it would cool it would suck in air thouugh the cracks and possibly get contaminated. Thats why the patch is there, to keep the outside air from getting in. Do no remove it.

flamerail said:

Drives really cant fail from getting to hot.. or I should say lock up the system.. they wear faster being hot all the time but that wont kill it directly... hd arnt as fragile as you think.

Click to expand...

Actually heat is alot worce for drive then most poeple think. The materials expand and contract, that changes the torarances and there are maving parts inside that do not take kindly to that. Thats what I understand increases the wear. And maybe inderectly but it does damage the drive in time. Also magnetic properties of materials change with temperature, now I dont know how they get effected at higher temperatures but at temperatures around 0C and lower things change quite a bit.

i have the same hard drive... and it is giving me similar problems
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=487036
I just cant get a break... I'd just like to have a stable pc for once in my life.

Gabkicks said:

is there a program that records data right before a crash to help determine what the cause could be?

after a few minutes or a few hours of gaming or listening to music and browsing the internet, my pc will freeze up. the sound will freeze and the screen and everything. I just got a new motherboard,stick of ram, and hard drive. I tried doing some troubleshooting...

i ran memtest and no problems were found. so then i unplugged the ram and i still get freezing after a few minutes or a few hours of gaming. I clocked the cpu down to 2.1 and that didnt do anything.... i undeclocked my gpu and that doesnt do anything either... i have my case open and my hard drive sitting almost outside of the case.

i had HDD health running when my pc crashed. and when i booted up again, it had this info.

Click to expand...

Have either of you tried mounting a fan blowing across it??

"Patch" on the side of the drive (WD) is not relates to temrature of the drive at all.
When drives manufactured. Manufactures such as WD, Maxtors, Hitachi use this hole in clean room enviroment to write special track on the media named - servo. Usally it is very precise process and require external control arm with laser guidance. That arm is inserted through that hole to push Head Stack Assembly, while servo is written.

Do not remove that patch, or attempt to disassemble the drive. It will be a brick after all. Any dust particles will cause media damage. Eventuly destroying heads and making big "rings" of wiped out media on the disk surface.

All drives has breather holes. They are much smaller then that patch is. WD has them on top, Seagate at the bottom. All this whole inside covered with filters. The reason they in place is because of the air density and expansion which help it to work on the altitude drive is at.

Drive do have operating tempreture. It is monitored by S.M.A.R.T. algorithms. If threshold is outside of normal operating tempreture it will display warning through rasing a value in SMART tables.

Tempreture attribute is not 190 but 192. 190 is vendor specific I belive. I sugest you to download WD Diagnostic software (WD Diag) it should be able to tell if SMART attributes are of any concern.

If you felt that drive is overheating put a fan which blow air across of it. That will help.

And, yeah... Hard Drive are VERY fragile. They are more fragile than any components you have in the computer. It is very easy to kill them... and they have most important things on you compuer - your data. So backup and look after your drive! ;-)

I, from experience, know that hard drives are not fragile. proof: seagate 80gb hdd+6 foot shelf at school+elbow=still works perfectly

freakdiablo said:

I, from experience, know that hard drives are not fragile. proof: seagate 80gb hdd+6 foot shelf at school+elbow=still works perfectly

Click to expand...

You're right. Might as well throw it in the fire for a few hours and run important stuff off of it while you're at it.

freakdiablo said:

I, from experience, know that hard drives are not fragile. proof: seagate 80gb hdd+6 foot shelf at school+elbow=still works perfectly

Click to expand...

I'm glad that this drive is still ok for you. I would be curious to find out if you benchmark that drive and seen SMART information from that.

Most modern drive has sensors on them which will detect exessive shock. Worst thing can be done is to have drive powered on and drop it on the side from 6 foot shelf....

As of fragile.. Working for data recovery company and drive manufacture and knowing what is going on inside of the drive as well as seen hundereds of damged dives eveyr month.... makes me very cautios in handling the drive and respectul to the way HDD are designed now.
You might be lucky.... unfortunaly all of our customers are not.....