I am currently using a Seagate Barracuda ST3250310AS 7200 SATA II 250GB HDD that was harvested out of an dead FreeAgent enclosure as a external storage device using a NewerTech USB 3.0 Universal Drive Adapter. The bare drive is enclosed by a silicone HDD caddy similar to this one http://cdn-images.sewelldirect.com/products/SW-21006/SW-21006.jpg . This morning I removed the drive from the caddy and notice what looked like scorching on the PCB. The drive functions perfectly (in fact better than the HDD in my laptop), but I was wondering if the discoloration on the circuit board is indicative of some sort of malfunction or coming hardware failure. I mentioned the drive caddy because my home A/C is s*** and I have to keep both the drive and my laptop near a box fan at all times. Would I be better off taking off the silicone caddy and setting the bare drive on some flat non-conductive surface of some sort? Pictures posted below.