Cold Hard Drive

[dragflameson]

My new HDD came in the mail today, its about 35 degrees out.

I unpacked it and put it in my computer, but have not turned it on yet. The HDD itself was really cold to the touch, I'm afraid of condensation if I turn it on and it warms up quickly.

How long should I wait before I start it up?? Do I have to wait at all?

Thanks.

[BuildItYourself]

Wait until it reaches room temperature. Don't attempt to turn it on until it does so.

Cheers,
--BuildItYourself

[RockNRoll]

I waited a day for mine. Had to cuz my vid card hadn't come until the next day lol.

[dragflameson]

Alrighty. Thats what I figured. It was room temp after about 35-40 minutes.

I'm up and running again now, finally

[ukulele]

Harddrives are sealed up air tight in a humidity controlled environment so internal condensation is not possible. The minimum low operating temperature for most drives is 41F or around 4C. Drives that got colder are affected not by condensation, but thermal expansion rates.

[Johnny Fist]

That air tight thing holds true for the platters, but the rest of the drive, including the molex connector is subject to condensation. You were wise to wait.

[Rabbitrunner51]

DFS.... legitimate problem.... although I laugh at this as I have never received anything cold to the touch as you say.

Of course with the global weather patterns shifting dramatically this past year.... ( West Coast warmer than usual and the east a bit colder with more snow..) it can happen I gander.

You didn't find a piece of Dry Ice in the package anywhere did you ??? Haaa!

If somethingis cold..it is good to think about condensation and electrical HW .
Better safe than sorry...

Haven't heard from you lately DFS ..hows it going for ya?

Its funny you mentioned a HD as I already need another one.....
If I knew I was going to fill them up so quickly I might have gotten a bigger one.. but like computer stuff goes ....waiting can sometimes mean a later version of one or newer developements.

I have thought about putting a third one in ..probably a Sata drive and that would make three for me,but then i would need a little bigger PSU ( I have a 420 watt right now ) and its too close in total power comsumption to just stick one in there.

[dragflameson]

Hey, whats up R.R.

The package was waiting for me on my door step when I got home. It was probably out there in the 30 degree weather for at least a couple hours before I got to it. That is why it was cold to the touch

Whatever you do, stay away from them **** 120gig Maxtors!

[BuildItYourself]

Why stay away from the Maxtors?

[Rabbitrunner51]

Nothing against Maxtor personally,but its probably due to the fact that they are third or fourth in line for the best quality HD's...

I myself have never tries one..so it is hard to tell,like anything else until you buy one,use one and see how it works and how long it lasts....

MJC... that would do it.... being outside and all.

I live inside a tenent building..and our mail is always delivered
indoors...
They should have had you go to the PO or whatever to pick it up.

[dragflameson]

Originally posted by BuildItYourself
Why stay away from the Maxtors?

I've had a total of 5 go in the past year or so

Kept buying them from Staples...

[BuildItYourself]

So what would be 1st in line fopr quality HDDs? I personally like Seagate. Nice, quiet and reliable.

[ukulele]

They all change with the seasons and product runs. There was a time when IBM was the cat's meow, but they had a falling out. They are now probable as good as the rest. Personally I stay away from state of the art anything. There is plenty of time tested stuff around to make a better choice and I don't need bragging rights. That's for gamers.

[Comage]

Originally posted by BuildItYourself
So what would be 1st in line fopr quality HDDs? I personally like Seagate. Nice, quiet and reliable.

The first time I used a Seagate, it was a 2.1GB Medalist. It whined so loudly whenever something was loading, and my desk vibrated when this happened. So I stayed away from it. When people around here said they (Seagate) were quiet, I thought maybe I should give it a second chance. After all, it's been many generations since the 2.1GB Medalist era.

So I got myself a SATA 160GB Seagate. Whined again like my old 2.1GB, and my desk still vibrated whenever the disk started reading a large file.

Of course, this is in comparison to Hitachi drives, which I used in between the 2.1GB and the 160GB drive.

Now, I wouldn't recommend Hitachi drives. Talk about 5 giving up on you in a year; I had 3 give up on me within a short span of 3 months.

Maybe something else...

[BuildItYourself]

Weird. I've had 3 seagates and they have all been the quietest hard drives I have heard. Right now I'm on an 80GB 7200RPM 8MB cache Seagate and it's extremely quiet. At least, way quieter than the Maxtor 60GB I have in another PC *Shudder*. Really fast/good hard drive and all, but that thing sounds like a 747 waiting to take off.