Question new seagate one touch hub hdd 6TB. Is HDDScan correct? is it too hot at 49C? any better drives?

[GeorgeKTO]

I have just bought a new external hdd (amazon delivery arrived a about 5 days ago) seagate one touch hub hdd 6TB (model: STLC6000400. regulatory model: SRD0LF2). This is my first external/portable hdd. I ran SeaTools and did a long generic test and both short tests. Everything came up okay (healthy green dots).

[Note: On the first day I got the drive I did an long generic test (took 3 days to complete). During that test it did not go over 47C. ambient temperature in the room was regular room temp. 20-23C]


When I uploaded a write to my pc of 65.4 GB today, it went from roughly 42C (idling temperature when first turned on) to 47C for the most part and then going on to 49C for the remaining 20 mins of the 1 hour long write.



The avg speed was about 18-20 MB/s. too slow? (its a 5400 rpm according to seagate staff I spoke to. Amazon.ca had wrongly listed it as 7200 rpm).

Anyway seatools and crystaldiskcinfo and speccy rate the 49C temp as 'ok' (speccy writes: "ok - less than 50C " beside my 49C but HDDscan rates it as a yellow (caution icon and everything else as green-ok). The heat threshold according to seatools and crystaldiscinfo is 40 (ie 60C) so Seatools rate it as okay too. Seagate on its website says the ideal is 0-50 but adds a note that their new devices are okay for unto 60C temp. According to the bottom of my seagate it says made: DOM on Sept 2023 in Thailand. So have they improved the lubricants or something.

Somebody told me that HDDScan flags anything over 45C while seatools and crystaldisckinfo flags over 60C. So who is correct? Some people on various forums say that even though it works fine over 50 or 60 C it will mean early hdd death if you ever go over 50. Mine has not gone over 49C during its 1 hour of transferring data but I am nervous about keeping it. Should I be? Im hoping some of you can give me an expert opinion. I have 30 days to return it if needed. Also, others on various forums said that the ideal hard drive temp is 25-40C. This new drive is 29C for a few minutes before it goes to its 42C idling temperature. But I have not encountered an external drive online that is like that.

questions 1): is working writing/working temperature ok for this device or should I believe HDDScan?
2) what is the common working temp and idling temp for 6TB external hard drive that I should be ok with as a buyer?
3) are there any single external drives 6-8TB that work cooler?
4 ) it the transfer speed of 18-20 MB/s of the specified data acceptable?

I dont want it for games of any kind. I just wanted to store several TB of amassed data (films, podcasts, research pdfs, books, old radio shows OTR) for the next 4-5 years.

Im trying to decide if I should keep this or return it to Amazon.ca (Im in Canada).
Thank you for any help.

 

[fzabkar]

It appears that your drive is operating at USB 2.0 transfer rates. You should be seeing speeds in excess of 100 MB/s.

Can you perform a read benchmark using HD Tune? If the graph flatlines at 20 MB/s, then this would confirm that the drive is being throttled by USB 2.0.

As for temperatures, Seagate's and WD's external enclosures are plastic hotboxes with no active cooling, so the drives would run hotter than their internal desktop equivalents.

 

[GeorgeKTO]

ok my mistake. apparently my pc has usb 2 on front and to my shock I have usb 3 ports on the back (which Ive never used -out of sight...) I used HDTUNE and it started at 150 MB/s and slowly went to 84.4 MB/s with an average of 139.1 MB/s over the entire read. thanks for that. As you can see Im not very tech savvy!

I couldn't get the forum image upload to insert the image but here is a link:

https://imgur.com/a/AR4Ta3k

View: https://imgur.com/a/AR4Ta3k

 

[GeorgeKTO]

according to a post on buildcomputers forum. Aging hard drives (over 3 years) were "much more prone to failure when their average temperatures were 40C or higher". Now this seagate is new but I want to have it at least 4-5 years. If its 42C on idle from day one that doesn't seem like a good sign!

plastic hotboxes. --yeah I see what you mean. My friend says to just return it and then spend the next several months of evenings transferring all my saved data from my old blue rays and dvds to M-discs. I was planning to do that eventually as a long term back up but meanwhile I wanted a drive of some kind where I can access what I want from one unit daily.

Are there any drives out there that aren't hotboxes?

 

[fzabkar]

The only sure way to keep the temperature down is to buy a separate aluminium enclosure with built-in fan. Then purchase an internal HDD and install it in the enclosure. Seagate and WD 2.5" drives are too flimsy and unreliable (from what the data recovery pros tell me), so I would opt for a 3.5" solution.

 

[GeorgeKTO]

The only sure way to keep the temperature down is to buy a separate aluminium enclosure with built-in fan. Then purchase an internal HDD and install it in the enclosure. Seagate and WD 2.5" drives are too flimsy and unreliable (from what the data recovery pros tell me), so I would opt for a 3.5" solution.

I had no idea about this. Thank you. Looked it up and there are enclosures with fans for internal hdd on amazon and other online stores.

btw, I tried my 64.5 GB transfer again but this time it was plugged into the usb 3 port and the speed not only went up but the heat was down. The highest it reached this time was 39 C. Is it possible that usb 2 throttling would have increased the heat inside the hdd? no other factors changed: same room, temperature etc.

Anyway your advice about the enclosure still stands because the idea of a good fan in the case will get the hdd temp down easily.

 

[fzabkar]

A temperature of 39C wouldn't bother me. I can't see how USB 2.0 could account for higher temps, though.

 

[GeorgeKTO]

A temperature of 39C wouldn't bother me. I can't see how USB 2.0 could account for higher temps, though.

Yes I agree and Im not going to waste time trying to figure it out. You gave me the answer enclosure/internal drive. Im not a tech person so it would never have occurred to me. I had no idea you could do that. lol. Thank you kindly.

 

[Sandywich999]

Just wanna add that it's advisable to go for 3.5" drives that use external power adapter over the small 2.5" ones. They could also come with vented enclosures so you wouldn't need to mess around buying parts separate and assembling it yourself.

 

[GeorgeKTO]

Just wanna add that it's advisable to go for 3.5" drives that use external power adapter over the small 2.5" ones. They could also come with vented enclosures so you wouldn't need to mess around buying parts separate and assembling it yourself.

any brands of 3.5" drives you recommend?

 

[fzabkar]

any brands of 3.5" drives you recommend?

At the present time, I prefer native HGST (not rebranded WD), or any WD drive that is actually a rebranded HGST model.

You can tell these apart by the part number on the PCB. Native WD PCBs have part numbers in the format 2060-nnnnnn. Native HGST PCBs have part numbers beginning with 0A or 0B (on the PCB artwork).

The WWN on the label can also be used to differentiate them. A WWN that begins with 5000CCA denotes HGST, whereas 50014EE is Western Digital.

Avoid SMR models. Choose CMR instead.

What WD and HGST hard drives are SMR?
https://hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html

 

[GeorgeKTO]

At the present time, I prefer native HGST (not rebranded WD), or any WD drive that is actually a rebranded HGST model.

You can tell these apart by the part number on the PCB. Native WD PCBs have part numbers in the format 2060-nnnnnn. Native HGST PCBs have part numbers beginning with 0A or 0B (on the PCB artwork).

The WWN on the label can also be used to differentiate them. A WWN that begins with 5000CCA denotes HGST, whereas 50014EE is Western Digital.

Avoid SMR models. Choose CMR instead.

What WD and HGST hard drives are SMR?
https://hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html

thanks for the detailed response. Im on it. And I returned the external back to Amazon.