Is it normal for the hard drive to be the warmest component in a computer? I have a computer that I picked up from a yard sale. I've had it for about a month. When I got it, the hard drive was burnt. I replaced the hard drive and then the motor of that hard drive went out. I replaced the hard drive again. The hard drive is warmer than the socket 370 CPU, heatsink, and fan upgrade I put in it. The hard drive is real warm, but not hot. Every other component feels hardly warm at all. Is this normal? Should I be concerned? Thanks.

WinSimple Software

Hard drives can get pretty warm if they are stuck in a tight area where there is little air flow. A hard drive cooler can help a quite a bit.

I find that even optical drives that are stuck up in the top front corner of a tower can get pretty warm and have problems, if they are used a lot.

Thanks aegis for the reply. The drive is located in a bay made especially for the hard drive. It's positioned towards the middle of the case in the front. It's bothering me because I'm afraid this drive could go out too. The last one was killed by heat, and probably the one before that and the one before that.
Would it help if I install another fan nearby the hard drive somewhere? If so, where? Thanks.

WinSimple Software

You might consider a hard drive cooler. You can find some examples here;

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...

Ok I'll think about it. Thanks!

WinSimple Software

My pleasure to try and help!

What are the system temperatures? Do you have a rear case fan?

Hi OtheHill, thanks for the reply. I'll get those temps to you in my next reply. I did install a rear case fan last week, but I have it blowing air out of the case. I'm not sure if it should be blowing out or in.

WinSimple Software

Should be blowing out the rear.

Ok sorry for taking so long getting those temps. I thought the motherboard (WS440BX) had a temperature sensor because MBM5 obviously supports it, but it doesn't work. The Hard Drive must not have a temperature sensor either because HDDHealth reported the temperature as being -1 C.

I've already put a lot of money in this system getting it upgraded. Is a hard drive cooler my only choice or is there something else I can try? I moved the hard drive to just right under the floppy drive but that didn't help a bit. Thanks guys.

WinSimple Software

Do you only have 256MB of RAM in that system? If that is the case then Vista is going to the swap file on the HDrive too much. You may need more RAM.

I've nLited alot of features from it. It's not too bad at all. I've let it sit at the desktop for 20 minutes and the hard drive hardly does anything during that time but it still gets real warm. The other hard drive before the currently installed one did the same thing when XP was installed on it.

WinSimple Software

Boy I sure do feel stupid but that hard drive is no warmer than the hard drive of my other system. I guess I was a little paranoid after all those other drives dying. I'll definitely keep those HD coolers in mind though because they sound like a good investment. Didn't know such things existed. Thanks all for your replies.

WinSimple Software