SMART Temp Reading

[howy61]

Just installed a 1TB Caviar Black. 

The current temp is read in C, but the detailed Temp is either displaying F or there is an issue.    The Maxtor HDD it replaced clearly displayed temp in the details using  C.

So what am I actually seeing?  Has this brand new drive from Best Buy had been cooked at over the boiling point?

[oxter]

Run the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic, it will report any failure on this drive:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=940&p_created=1049813869&p_sid=ElFN6Ekk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=3885&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTUsMTUmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9ZGxn&p_li=&p_topview=1

[fzabkar]

The actual temperature is reported by the raw value of the attribute, ie 0x23. This value is in hexadecimal. You can use Google’s calculator to convert it to decimal (35C), ie …

http://www.google.com/search?q=0x23+in+decimal

The Current, Worst, and Threshold numbers are normalised values. They can be thought of as a kind of health percentage.

A value of 100 equates to 50C. Lower temperatures get a higher score, while higher temperatures get a lower score.

The relationship appears to be …

Normalised Temp = 150 - actual temp in degC

Therefore the worst case value of 110 equates to 40C.

[howy61]

Data Lifeguard does not answer the question about peak temperatures and why both of my Caviar Blacks are reading oddly in Crystal Info.

The original drive is reading 104F in the status bar and 107F in the CURRENT column. The brand new drive installed yesterday is reading 104F and 110F respectfully.

Neither the Maxtor (pre buy out) nor the Seagate drives I replaced with these Caviar Blacks had this temperature difference.

[howy61]

fzabkar

Interesting.  Seems a bit misleading.   I just put a nother  Caviar Black in yesterday.  they are both reading 104F in the menu status which matches the Hex = 40C converts 104F, but the CURRENT column read  110 and 107.

The Maxtor and Seagate drives these replace did not show this difference. 

[fzabkar]

The “status bar” appears to be displaying the current temperature, in either Celsius or Fahrenheit, according to your selection.

The “current” column displays a normalised attribute value – it is not a temperature reading. A current value of 110 corresponds to 40C, whereas a value of 107 would normally correspond to 43C. That said, the meaning of the SMART attributes can change between models and between firmware versions. What are the firmware versions and full model numbers of each of your drives?