Overheating issue in WD My Cloud 4TB

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

Hi guys,

I have a WD My Cloud 4TB drive. Its been a month old and I seem to have overheating issues. Manual says that operating temperatures are from 5C to 35C. But mine is always in the 50C range and above. Nonetheless, when I ran a system scan and a quick scan (Settings → Utilities ), drive says that its normal and healthy.

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Is my drive really normal? And moreover can I keep using it without any worries in this temperature? Will the drive’s life expectancy become less?

Thanks.

2

‘Operating temperatures’ are the ambient temperatures between which the device should be operated. NOT the temperature of the running device, which, due to power consumption, will be higher than ambient.

An internal over-temperature condition is indicated by a red front panel LED.

Your drive is running normally.

3

Oh cool. Thanks a lot. :slight_smile:

4

I dont agree, that a drive temperature of 50 degree is "normal". Normal would be around 40 degree in action and around 30 to 35 degree in idle, when ambient temperature is around 20 degree. That are the values in my other NASes.If temperatures are above, the fan (control software) isnt working correctly. I have the same problem with my Mycloud Mirror Gen2 with the newest firmware,

BR
Jan

5

The single bay My Cloud units (currently) do not have a fan. Cooling is entirely passive through vent holes, top, bottom and back on the enclosure.

Currently, if one’s My Cloud is using a WD Red hard drive as most if not all first gen V4.x My Clouds do, then the WD Red specifications (http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800002.pdf) indicate the hard drive operating temperature is 0C to 65C (On the base casting), and non-operating temperature from -40C to 70C.

The WD Blue and Green drives have somewhat similar temperature specs (0C to 60C/-40C to 70C)

6

You might have a valid point, if it weren’t for the fact that there is no fan in the single-bay MyCloud, which is the subject of this forum.

50 degrees is not desperately hot. It would be nice if it were cooler, but it’s well within commercial device temperature range. Since i have no idea what operating duty cycle the OP’s device is running, my comment was really to address his misunderstanding of ambient operating range and device operating temperature.

You will note that the device diagnostics say ‘System Temperature: Normal’, and ‘Drive Status: Healthy’. If you know otherwise, you’d better argue with WD…

7

I know, that the specs say that operation temperature for red drives are between 0 and 65 degrees C - and i know, that temperatures around 50 degrees are too hot for normal operation, if you want a your drives live long. WD wants to sell HDDs - thats why they specify such high temperatures as “normal” and “healthy” although it is easy and more economic for customers to cool them down to good values, when you have a fan in the case.

BR
Jan

8

Check my nom-de-net…

Even I’m not that paranoid…

Again; there is no fan.

V04.04.03-113 doesn’t even give the actual temperature in its diagnostic report any more…

9

Actually I was very surprised when WD quoted 50C as normal (According to the pic above). I am sure it may be healthy now. But I’m just a little worried about the long run. I’m worried if the life of the drive comes down due to constant 45-50C.

BTW the drive is located in AC room and degree today is 24C. Moreover I have about 4 drives(not NAS) + 1 (NAS). All the other 4 drives in extreme case will go to 40 or 45 if it is pressurized.

But this being NAS, even though I’m not using it (say for about 3 hours for so), the drive still shows 48-49C. It has not gone below 48C. Standby mode is enabled but I’m not sure if the drive is really in standby mode. When I feel the outer part of the drive and it really does not feel hot to be honest. I’m not sure as to what is happening. But as of now the drive works great.

This leads to my question if all NAS are made to work in this temperature range(48-50C)

10

I got you and the fact, that there is no fan in the single drive boxes (as an owner of a MyCloud Mirror i was searching for temperature issues, and found this thread…).
I just want to say, that independent of the specs and definitions (that follow the manufacturers interests) or the abilties of the different boxes (build in fan or none) temperatures above 40 degrees C in idle or standby are actually unhealthy for HDDs and significantly shorten their expectable MTBF. Google as one of if not the worlds biggest consumer of HDDs made a study to find “ideal” working conditions, that confirms my assumption (just as well as that it`s better for the durabilty not to let them sleep/spin down when not accessed).

It`s absolutely consequent not to inform any more about the actual temperature, when there is no possibility to lower it with build in options ;-).

I suggest to cool harddrives down to operating temperatures around 40 degrees C with a fan (that must be upgraded or - when already build in - correctly controlled).

BR
Jan

11

@JanN I live in Central Texas and it has started getting very hot here. I have had my WD My Cloud for a little over two years now. My house is air conditioned, my My Cloud has plenty of open space around it and as long as I can look at QuickView and see this, see image below, I am satisfied.

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Note: WD “Red” series designed for home NAS. So - up to 70c is normal for that HDD (~80-90 critical)
For CPU - Up to 80c - normal (~100c - max/critical).

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FYI if you missed my post above it has the temperatures for the Red drives along with Green’s and Blues from the WD specification PDF’s for each drive class. Currently, per that PDF, the operating temperature is 0C to 65C (On the base casting), and non-operating temperature from -40C to 70C for the WD Red drives.

https://community.wd.com/t/overheating-issue-in-wd-my-cloud-4tb/167654/5

14

I have a Mycloud mirror 6 TB and having the same problem. even the red HD can withstand a 65 deg. Cel. but for sure it will affect the life time of this drive in addition to a huge impact on the other circuits and algorithm. unfortunately, till now I am not sure if it has a fan or not, however, I am strongly recommend to use an external small fan or cooling pad till WD advise how to solve this matter which most likely will be a software setting point.