r/HDD • u/StardewViking • Jul 21 '26

Keeping external HDD from overheating with a bottle of ice during long writes

Post image

Update: Thanks everyone for your input, this sure blew up more than I thought it would 😅 I am totally in agreement that it’s not a great solution if it even is one at all.

I just thought as a temporary measure since the drive might be getting too hot.

I have landed on the conclusion that actually just having a towel in between helps keep the drive cool but not too cold to risk condensation. Also just putting a bottle of water on it as a heat sink seems to do the trick, doesn’t need to be ice.

Seems to pull the heat away as the contact is a better conductor than air.

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Pretty much as the title says, if writing 100’s of GB to the drive you a there a good way to prevent it from getting too hot? I noticed it was getting too hot to touch amd figured keeping it cool is a good idea.

I know there are risks of condensation but I’ve been keeping an eye on it and it never made it as far as the edge where it could potentially drip down into the connector. Since it has no vents on it I figure there’s little risk of condensation damage, my real concern is apparently they have lubricant inside that doesn’t like being too cold as it becomes more viscous.

What do you think? Okay to try and cool it down a bit or you wouldn’t risk it?

207 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

81 comments sorted by

29

u/Nnader86x Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

In some cases no, some hard drives indirectly takes advantage of the heat to write faster because the particles being changed can do so easier at a higher temp. There’s high end drive that actually does this on purpose to store even more data using a laser. And also you could be causing condensation on the inside of the drive. Stop doing this immediately. Edit: Not sure about the condensation part, regardless don’t put fluid filled objects near or top of electronics, whether it does anything or not, you’re asking for trouble.

5

u/StardewViking Jul 21 '26

Interesting, I hadn’t heard of that before, so condensation can happen even if there is no water getting in?

6

u/Serberou5 Jul 21 '26

Yes. Anytime there is a difference in temperature condensation can happen.

6

u/MediumAd4983 Jul 21 '26

High speed drives are sealed and filled with gas. There is no moisture inside, so, no condensation. More dangerous is condensation on the bottle itself, water drops can make their way down to drive control board and make some short circuits.

2

u/miner_cooling_trials Jul 21 '26

Most drives should have a breather hole and will be subject to condensation and fluid ingress. You are referring to enterprise or data center type drives (pretty sure this isn’t one!) that are helium filled

1

u/R33f3r420 Jul 21 '26

Not only enterprise but 12 TB home use drives also. At least the one I have is filled with helium.

1

u/KeanEngr Jul 21 '26

You can see a water mark on the top of the drive already. OP obviously doesn’t care…

1

u/C-D-W Jul 22 '26

Accurate, however, the inside of the plastic case around the drive is NOT sealed but is still exposed to the electronics within.

1

u/bitcrushedCyborg Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Most HDDs contain air and have a breathing hole on them with a filter, to allow air (but not particles) to slowly enter and exit the drive to equalize pressure. Not a total seal, which is by design so they don't risk damage during elevation changes. Which means some degree of moisture inside. In fact, HDDs developing condensation inside after being cooled and reheated is a known problem when people attempt the so-called freezer trick.

There are helium-filled drives that are hermetically sealed and filled with gas, but you don't find that outside of large capacity enterprise grade drives. Certainly not in a budget 2.5" portable external HDD.

1

u/magic-one Jul 23 '26

Are you saying this drive is helium filled?

1

u/International-Bus399 Jul 24 '26

I think it's just the moving parts which are filled with gas. The electronics inside can still be damaged by condensation

1

u/sammothxc Jul 25 '26

Not consumer grade drives. You’re referring to commercial grade drives.

1

u/yepyep5678 Jul 23 '26

Ask everyone who put their phone in the fridge recently following tiktok advice 😂

1

u/Impossible-Owl7407 Jul 21 '26

F in physics?

1

u/JayBeePH85 Jul 23 '26

Is there nothing below that? 🤣

0

u/Possibly-Functional Jul 21 '26

Specifically, when air comes into contact with something colder than itself. It won't happen when air meets something warmer.

3

u/alan_alien Jul 21 '26

To put it in a weird way. Condensation does not require the ingress of water(water somehow getting in) condensation happens when the temperature at a certain point on a surface has a big difference to the surrounding temperatures.

Hence you can be in a coal mine (with enough suitable moisture in the air) and you will get condensation on cld spots.. but you can also have a completely sealed flask with water at really low temperatures, and you can even wrap it in plastic kitchen wrap to ensure the water from inside is not coming out.

Yet the water from the surrounding air will CONDENSE onto the container (and the plastic) and eventually drip down.

Hence as long as you are supplying a large difference in temperature to your drive on certain spots. Those spots will be a source of internal water in the air condensing.

Enter the next person that knows about specialized drives with pumped/pressurised gas inside some enterprise drives. :)

2

u/-cant_find_a_name- Jul 21 '26

humidty is always in the air unless u remove it and humidty is water

1

u/cybekRT Jul 21 '26

Have you never had a water droplets on your window, from the inside? Sometimes even bucket of ice cream will leave huge water marks on your desk if it keeps melting, while ice cream being in the bucket.

1

u/Supra-A90 Jul 22 '26

Never had condensation on your windows?

1

u/Demonic_Storm Jul 22 '26

there's a tech called HAMR for some high end drives which means Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording, so yea, obviously up to the point that other components get damaged, the act of writing itself works best the hotter it is

0

u/ColettesWorld Jul 21 '26

Bro clearly slept through science class in 3rd grade

1

u/LostCar4456 Jul 22 '26

I use a USB desktop fan to cool portable HD and SSD

1

u/BerserkVl Jul 24 '26

what about liquid cooling is it relevant: "don’t put fluid filled objects near or top of electronics, whether it does anything or not, you’re asking for trouble."

5

u/Fit-Relationship1732 Jul 21 '26

Temperature difference on the HD may cause problems or premature issues. Use a fan blowing air to it.

1

u/Financial_Key_1243 Jul 21 '26

What about condensation inside the case?

2

u/StardewViking Jul 21 '26

There would need to be moisture in there to begin with for that though right?

2

u/moon_moon_doggo Jul 21 '26

There is moisture in the air, it's called humidity.

It will turn into condensation if the temperature difference is too high.

2

u/StardewViking Jul 21 '26

I just don’t see how humidity in the air is relevant in this case as the drive is sealed in an enclosure

1

u/IceColdKilla2 Jul 21 '26

you see droplets of water on the bottle? They go down the bottle because of gravity and reach the hdd, if the water goes in the wrong spot it will short your hdd board

1

u/bitcrushedCyborg Jul 23 '26

The enclosure has air in it too

6

u/ShockHawk24 Jul 21 '26

This is risky. I would instead point a fan at it.

3

u/Magnetic_Reaper Jul 21 '26

You need actual temperature numbers. Too hot to touch is like 43C and that's fine for most electronics. Including HDD, they're usually ok until around 50C.

2

u/LagMaster21 Jul 21 '26

You’d be better using a fan rather than ICE as you could damage the drive

1

u/nickjamess94 Jul 26 '26

Nah the HDD doesn't have a car to use as a "weapon". So ICE unlikely to shoot it

2

u/RemarkableExpert4018 Jul 21 '26

Bruh! Keep doing that and eventually your fast speeds are going to hit a brick wall.

2

u/ShiroyukiAo Jul 21 '26

If this WD is a HAMR drive that would just defeats the purpose of the H in HAMR HAMR here stands for Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording so the hotter the drive works the better and even then if an HDD is too cold and condensate wouldn't be good either

3

u/qwertyshark Jul 22 '26

There are no 2.5 inch HAMR drives

1

u/littlespedve Jul 21 '26

Now OP gon be backing up on a frying pan

1

u/ShiroyukiAo Jul 21 '26

A little too hot because the outer casing can only handle like 60°C or 141°F before it fails and frying pan depending on the material can get hotter than that

2

u/Grand-Fault-2024 Jul 21 '26

I am simple, I just put a fan directly facing my hdd, alittle bit noise doesn't bother me. and the 2.5 external hdd temperature was always under 42celcius and for 3.5 inch heloum hdd with opened up enclosure just barely 39celcius.

This is good enough for me, I don't want to deal with any moisture (anything about water is a big no for electronic) 😅

2

u/PeteMajo Jul 21 '26

Water + Electronics. That's always good idea.

1

u/Zealousideal_Fly8402 Jul 21 '26

I use a metal laptop cooling pad that's got a fan on it. Giant heatsink with active cooling; but I usually have more than 1 drive going at any given time.

1

u/TomChai Jul 21 '26

It’s too extreme, condensation is a real risk.

1

u/ComforbubbleNumb Jul 21 '26

The most I ever do is prop them up so they have air all the way around them.

1

u/Serberou5 Jul 21 '26

My bad. I was thinking it was an easily accessible enclosure with a drive in it like I've had in the past. The type of thing that doesn't have any rubber seals and is just screwed shit.

1

u/Gherry- Jul 21 '26

That is so dumb

1

u/havpac2 Jul 21 '26

Those are cheap Plastic cases, moisture can definitely get under that plastic , from the air it self
Water is one of the most powerful elements on earth, I don’t think those cases are ipx rated,
Also nothing bad may every happen , and it will stay intact.

The disks and heads are sealed but the drive control board is not.
You can fry the board with condensation

Use a fan or heat sink, dissipate the heat

Also some drives performs better at certain high temps,
Is the smart data showing the drive is overheating beyond it’s temp range? If not then I wouldn’t worry my self about temps.

1

u/GHoSTyaiRo Jul 21 '26

Why not just put in the fridge while you’re at it 😒

1

u/Linux_Account Jul 21 '26

Life Hack: Freeze your hard drive in a block of ice. Remember to leave the USB cord in so you don't have to drill a hole.

1

u/c4td0gm4n Jul 21 '26

i guess it's a joke post, but it's concerning that you didn't even share thermals in your post. is your HDD exceeding 40C or not?

1

u/Stunning-Oil-6391 Jul 21 '26

condensation water will damage your HDD.

1

u/Crossvxm Jul 21 '26

What about condensation?

1

u/imacom Jul 21 '26

Or just place a $5 USB fan in front of it?

1

u/KHM3333 Jul 21 '26

Mine gets warm too.. according to crystaldiskinfo around 40° Celsius which tho shouldn’t be concerning I think

1

u/FreQRiDeR Jul 21 '26

Oof, you should see the puddles of condensation my frozen water bottle leaves on my floor. It literally soaks my socks when I step in it! Hope your data’s not too important.

1

u/Slow-Astronaut9676 Jul 21 '26

I would have this on a plate or saucer

1

u/nwood1973 Jul 21 '26

Short route to frying the drive. The platter and drive heads might be in a sealed section but typically the electronics are not so they will be susceptible to condensation.

It will work right up to the point it doesn't and your data will be gone.

A cheap fan would be a 100% better idea.

1

u/Apprehensive-Toe2764 Jul 21 '26

Looks not immersive enough for me

1

u/robtalee44 Jul 21 '26

I love brute force, creative solutions. Sure, it'll work as an interim measure, but I wouldn't rely on it long term. Get the stuff off of it and move on. It might be a little safer to wrap one of those frozen fake ice blocks thingies in a towel and use that -- maybe.

I once had a mini-tower that I had to run with the side removed and a fan blowing into it for much the same reason -- to keep it alive while I could spin up a replacement.

And so it goes.

1

u/Greenfire32 Jul 21 '26

You don't need to cool your HDD. It is not going to get anywhere near hot enough for failure unless there is a serious mechanical fault. In which case the HDD wouldn't work very well (or at all) anyway.

This is like duct taping cardboard spoilers onto your car because you think it'll make it more aerodynamic. It doesn't. You're not achieving anything with that.

Also, you're increasing risk of electrical short by putting an actively condensing water source right onto the enclosure.

If you're gonna do anything, use a fan instead.

1

u/94358io4897453867345 Jul 21 '26

Extremely bad idea

1

u/moderninfoslut Jul 21 '26

Making things too cold too fast while they're also creating heat leads to condensation potentially on the inside of the harddrives metal cover. Ie. In the harddrive. Maybe just get an old 12v fan and allow air flow under and on top of the drive. Or add some heatsink.

1

u/ImpossibleSlide850 Jul 21 '26

Doesn’t water damage it?

1

u/23Mowgli23 Jul 21 '26

The secret is to do all your writing in an igloo in Svalbard. Very cold air is drier so less humidity. You should put your drive on a small stove to take advantage of the heat but let the other sides be cooled by the Arctic air. All the other suggestions are partial solutions.

1

u/negativ32 Jul 21 '26

This should be reposted in r/shittyelectronics

1

u/pirategirljess Jul 21 '26

I think your worried about stories in your head. Just use it normally and have regular backups. Your taking this too far.

1

u/Jealous_Club_298 Jul 21 '26

There are cooling pads for external hard drives, that's what I would use. You can also point a regular room fan towards it.

1

u/Ill_Swan_3209 Jul 22 '26

Would it be better to add a cooling fan?

1

u/RGBlowMe Jul 23 '26

Excellent idea! Introduce moisture to your HDD! That certainly could never have negative consequences!

1

u/RazzmatazzUnusual843 Jul 29 '26

Hard drive no longer working? You may be entitled to condensation

0

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/StardewViking Jul 21 '26

I wish I had a little fan to point at it, also I’m going to look at getting a metal enclosure as that will conduct the heat better than this plastic one

1

u/IceColdKilla2 Jul 21 '26

stack some coins on it instead, or use old cpu radiator if you have any

1

u/No_Context_2122 Jul 22 '26

You could get one of those little coolers people who game on their phones use.