WD My Book 8TB Desktop Runs Very Hot

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
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I just bought a WD My Book 8TB Desktop Drive to replace my Seagate Backup Plus 4TB drive which I’ve been using since 2014, and is starting to fail.

I placed the My Book in my cabinet in the same place where the previous Seagate Backup drive has been running for several years. There isn’t a ton of airflow, but there’s plenty of space around it, none of its vents are blocked, and it does get some ventilation. I have it standing vertically, as it is designed, and the plastic protective wrapping is removed from it.

While doing the initial copy of all my data to the drive, Argus Monitor informed me that the drive has reached its warning temperature of 65C. In fact, it’s been sitting at 65C for the duration of the data transfer so far. That seems way too hot, so I opened the cabinet door and it equalized at 60C after about 30 minutes - still seems way too hot, even while writing a lot of data, no? So, I stopped the data transfer, and after another 30 minutes, the temperature only dropped to 59C.

For reference, the Seagate backup drive in the exact same environment never exceeds 43C while doing sustained writes.

So, my questions are…

Is 60-65C a normal operating temperature for this drive? I know its air filled (WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0 is the reported model of my disk) and not helium filled so it should run a little hotter than I’m used to, but this seems REALLY hot.

If this temperature is too high, can this be RMA’d for a replacement by WD? Is that replacement likely to run just as hot? If so, I should maybe just refund it back to the retailer and get a different brand of external drive.

If I decide its not worth the hassle, and just keep the drive and allow it run hot, should I expect that it is going to have a reduced lifespan? If so, how reduced?

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@mikes2 I’m guessing you work for stellar or something, since you seem to exclusively post links to there across this forum. I appreciate the link, but I’m already well aware of the ideal operating conditions for a hard drive, and know that what I’ve shared is too hot.

I posted on the WD forum, because I’d like to hear an answer from WD about if these temperatures are expected for this particular drive, or if there is maybe something wrong with the particular one I received.

I will note that I’ve placed a small fan on top of the enclosure, and the drive now operates at a more reasonable 42C. But this isn’t particularly satisfying to me - I shouldn’t need to add a fan - the drive should run at an acceptable temperature without it. So, I’ll pose the question again to WD - is this temperature “normal” for this particular drive, and if not, should I return it?

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For future folks who stumble upon this question, and are looking for a solution:

I decided to just design a simple cooler for this drive. If you have access to a 3D printer, you can print the base that I’ve designed, and insert two 40mm 12V fans. I tapped into the 12V power supply to the drive the power them. This brought my under-load temps down from 65C to 40C.

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Which is a violation of the WD Forum Guidelines … which i’ve reported to admin on numerous occasions.

No Spamming/Advertising.

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https://community.wd.com/faq