WD Elements Overheating

cacooke · January 11, 2021, 11:53pm

I just purchased a brand new WD Elements 10TB (WDC WD101EDAZ-11Y7KA0 10000.8 GB) and it is running at 54c. I have 9 other drives (internal) that range from 31c to 41c. From my years of experience 54c is danger zone as far as hard drive temps go.

Is this standard for this model?

It also makes a slight thump sound about every 5 seconds. You can feel the thump also.
Some people may not even notice but to me it is annoying.

Is this standard for this model also?

Thanks in advance.

mikes2 · January 12, 2021, 6:54am

Overheating of any storage drive is more severe than we think. Every storage drive has a minimum and maximum operating temperature. Any change in the internal or external temperature significantly affects the drive performance and life.

Anything below or above the ideal temperature can have a bad impact on the drive and can lead to the following issues:

Data loss
File corruption
Drive corruption
Increase in bad sectors
System crash
Frequent system freeze
Unexpected system shutdown
Constant screeching, clicking or whirring sound
Drive failure

To know more about the issue & how you can fix this, I suggest you to check out the below blog: https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-fix-hard-drive-overheating-and-recover-data-in-windows-and-mac/

Hope it will help.

cacooke · January 19, 2021, 5:34am

Thanks for the info but I think this may be a bad unit. It is an external desktop model, brand new. About an hour into power up it is 54-55c.
Spec sheet shows normal at Operating temperature: 5°C to 35°C

zionlevy · August 6, 2021, 9:08am

same model. same problems.
I believe it is a defective model.
sorry, I bought it.

Jose2020 · August 17, 2021, 6:17am

Sometimes bad sectors in a drive also leads to overheating issue. One of the major cause of bad sectors in a hard drive is due to loss of magnetism, which occurs due to usage and time. If bad sectors are due to, loss of magnetization, then the damage to data is irreversible. If the problem is due to minor parity, then it is easy to fix a bad sector in hard drive. Below are some more causes of bad sectors:

Address Mark Corruption
Data Corruption
ECC Field Corruption
Overheating
Over-aging
Virus/Malware Attacks
Dust

Hope it will help.

Toad75 · May 27, 2022, 8:07pm

I use WD Element drives (2) since 2014 for some reason they all run at exactly at 54C since new but never failed

amelia1 · June 17, 2022, 5:07am

There are four easy troubleshooting ways to fix an overheated hard drive that is lingering on corruption, dying, and eventual failure.

1. Lighten the loading burden

Maximumly reduce the number of large-size applications that assume high CPU resources and disk memory in Task Manager.

Press Ctrl + Al + Del keys to open Windows Task Manager;
Click the Processes tab, select the targets which occupy the most CPU resource and click End Process.

Check and remove malware and virus

At times the task manager shows 100% disk usage but you will find nothing eating the CPU up. Be cautious then, the victim might be computer viruses that drain your computer memory up.

Check bad sectors and prepare for the worse

Too many bad sectors will largely cause hard drive malfunctioning, making it feel strenuous to load computer files so it generates more heat than ever.
Hope this methods help you.

dmitche3 · June 22, 2022, 6:37pm

Yes, this drive runs WAY above what Western Digital claims is the operating temperature. In fact, I don’t think that you could find ANY drive out today that runs at 35C or less. I just bought this drive and it is up to 43C within the first 10 minutes. And no, there are no “viruses”, bad sectors and the other silly answers given. It’s brand new. I reformatted it and just to be as silly as the virus answer switched data cables.
I sent off a question to WD asking them for the truth about the temperatures that these drives run at before I decide to dump it or not. But even my Seagate Expansion drives run above the temperatures. So, is it that the industry is just full of liars or are they full of incompentent marketeers?

Microknight · September 23, 2022, 2:49pm

Ye, I just bought an 8TB Elements to replace my 3TB because the 3TB has been solid. The 8TB is running at 52C constantly with the old 3TB at 36C right next to it. Neither is being specifically accessed as they are just used to backup occasionally. I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on it

mctalks · October 19, 2022, 2:28am

First of all, 50C is higher than mine ever ran. You might be right that there’s a problem with your drive. I have 2 8TB and 1 4TB My Book, and 1 8TB Elements which were all running in the mid to high 40’s. I purchased 2 AC Infinity USB fans and placed them on top of the drives to act as exhaust to pull the hot air out. Since I did that, all of my drives are operating between 33-36C, even during high volume data transfers. I’ve attached a photo of my set-up. You’ll notice that all 4 drives are sitting inside a 5 divider file folder. It’s the perfect height and width for the drives and it prevents any chance of one, or more tipping over. Plus, the stand is mesh on the bottom and sides and sits about 1/2 inch off the floor so there’s plenty of natural air flow on all sides and underneath in addition to the fans.

oleg777s · December 25, 2022, 5:37am

I have 16Tb one and it has 52C and I’m thinking about fans too.

Marks56 · February 22, 2023, 8:33pm

As owner of WD external drives for many years I have to point out the differences between My Book external and WD Elements external drives. Depending on the model and size of the drive, they’‘ll either be 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm. The "My Books’ operate much cooler than my larger and newer WD Elements externals. I’m pretty sure its the difference in speed the heads rotate and also the density or size of the drive. ** You want to make sure your hard drives are operating within the range of 77 to133 degrees Fahrenheit (25- to 45-degrees Celsius)** Someone else mentions fans to keep air constantly circulating over your external drives and I’ve been doing this since buying my first ‘My Book’ circa 2008. Overheated drives whether internal or external, drastically shorten the life of your hard drive. Monitoring your drive temperatures and ensuring a constant airflow over the drives enclosure will keep your drives running well for years. I have WD externals almost ten years old and still reporting good health. Another method I’ve found very useful is using a third party application for safe removal called USB Safely Remove. I never use the windows safely remove feature because it lacks all the features of this third party software. Most of the data on my externals are not needed all the time and I simply disconnect the drive when not need by using the third party application. Whenever I need to access one or more of my external drives I simply click on “Return Device” and I have access again in seconds. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the drive by not keeping it spinning at 5400 or 7200 RPM needlessly hour after hour. I believe this is why I have drives almost 10 years old still in use and reporting both good health and performance.