How Cold can HDD's cope with ?

Randall8686 · 22 Nov 2015 at 21:18

So i recently moved my servers into my loft, Today i went up into the loft and it was cold lol, it was 7c up there.

Im guessing its unlikely to drop into minus figures up there but it could well do i suppose. how cold is too cold for a HDD ? the drives them selves when the room was 7c are at 15c. i never let the drives spool down so i would assume they will always be a good few degrees above ambient. They have a fan gently blowing over them i could also turn this off in the winter months if needed. However what is the coldest i should let the drives get ?

rtho782 · 22 Nov 2015 at 21:52

Operating temps of most drives are around ~5-60 degrees as an example. (from WD Red Pro datasheet)

Be a bit careful as the temp could get below that, which could cause issues.

Perhaps you need an insulated box for your servers?

Quartz · 22 Nov 2015 at 23:31

Randall8686 said:
So i recently moved my servers into my loft,

This is really not a good idea. What would happen if you had a fire start there? Perhaps a wasp flies into a PSU and causes a short... Will your insurance cover it? At least if the servers are in the house you have a chance of getting there with the extinguisher.

Randall8686 · 23 Nov 2015 at 07:05

Quartz said:
This is really not a good idea. What would happen if you had a fire start there? Perhaps a wasp flies into a PSU and causes a short... Will your insurance cover it? At least if the servers are in the house you have a chance of getting there with the extinguisher.

The servers run 24/7 so could catch fire in the house the same as my tv on standby of my fridge running all the time. There is no difference it being in the house or loft. However the chances of a pc catching fire is slim to none due to components used these days such as PCB's being make from a UL 97/V0 material that is self extinguishing. There is more chance of a rat or squirrel getting into your loft and chewing on your ring main causing a fire.

HEADRAT · 23 Nov 2015 at 07:13

I'd be more worried about condensation

matthab · 23 Nov 2015 at 14:50

If its anything like my loft, summer will bake the servers.

rtho782 · 23 Nov 2015 at 15:56

Fire I wouldn't worry about, but condensation, animals, temperature lows and highs, I would.

Perhaps use something like Hard Drive Sentinel to send you email alerts if the HDDs go outside of whatever temperature range you set. Then you can shut it down or something.

ttaskmaster · 23 Nov 2015 at 16:13

rtho782 said:
Operating temps of most drives are around ~5-60 degrees as an example.

OK, now I'm worried... My gaming room is a mere 9ºC, as the Mrs is stingy and keeps turning the storage heaters off!!

Spec sheet says my Seagate will operate at 0ºC, but maybe I can throw the WD one at her to make her shut up and leave the thermostat alone!! :rolleyes:

Randall8686 · 23 Nov 2015 at 16:29

animals cannot get up there thankfully. However condensation i guess could well happen. I access the loft fairly often (once a week i guess) and there is a lot of stuff up there. My other option i guess is right below the servers is the airing cupboard i could put a 120mm fan in the ceiling of that so if the temp drops below say 7c it blows the warm air from the airing cupboard over it. I really dont want to have the servers "in the house" i want them in the loft out of sight. My other option is to fit them into a enclosure again fed with warm air from the airing cupboard. However i would imagine they would keep them selves warm if in a smaller enclosure that i can leave the door open on in the summer. I have

A Synology 2 bay unit
A N54L
and a Lenovo thinkserver with a quad core Xeon in it.

only the Lenovo kicks out heat to speak of.

C.R.A.Z.Y · 23 Nov 2015 at 18:42

Quartz said:
This is really not a good idea. What would happen if you had a fire start there? Perhaps a wasp flies into a PSU and causes a short... Will your insurance cover it? At least if the servers are in the house you have a chance of getting there with the extinguisher.

My server has been in the loft for over a decade without issues. However I have decided on a few occasions to shut them down during heatwaves as it can get ridiculously hot up there. As for the cold, never had an issue, that said I wouldn't want to have them powered down during -0+ weather, as my server is running 24-7 this is never an issue and the heat generated by the hard-drives helps keep them above any dangerously low temps.

bledd · 24 Nov 2015 at 01:22

I'm considering moving mine up there. The summer heat does worry me, I only go up there at Christmas time to get the tree

rtho782 · 24 Nov 2015 at 09:32

This is why all houses should have a cellar.

Mine makes an excellent server room

bledd · 24 Nov 2015 at 12:46

Time to get the shovel out I guess

malcolm · 24 Nov 2015 at 13:00

I carry a laptop around for work, just like many do, and after some late nights getting home, it stayed in the car overnight. The following morning in winter my bag of tools were too cold to touch, even when carried into the Customer's site, but the laptop never refuse to boot as soon as I opened it.

These days it comes in every night, but it made me respect just how robust the laptop drives were.

Randall8686 · 24 Nov 2015 at 17:03

thats a good point i have often left my laptop in the boot over night and opene the lid in the morning to condensation on the screen of the laptop after bringing it into the office, I guess that will also be on the internals of the laptop too. Its never caused a problem either. So i guess a drive staying warm due to 24/7 running should be fine.

visibleman · 24 Nov 2015 at 17:12

Due to restricted space elsewhere on the property, i had to install a clients server (all drives are WD Reds) in his attic space and, touch wood, it has been rock solid for the last year and a half.
It is in a ventilated (temp controlled) and filtered cabinet, and so far i haven't seen temperatures go lower than 9c in winter (the attic is reasonably well insulated and the constant stream of data to them seems to keep it ticking over) nor higher than 41c in summer (well within operating temperatures).

It certainly isn't ideal having a server in the attic but it can work. Just make sure there's monitoring in place (email alerts etc) and keep a close eye on it.

KIA · 24 Nov 2015 at 17:48

rtho782 said:
Perhaps use something like Hard Drive Sentinel to send you email alerts if the HDDs go outside of whatever temperature range you set. Then you can shut it down or something.

This.

bainbridge · 24 Nov 2015 at 22:51

I don't think condensation will be an issue at all because most lofts are tinder dry and the condensation only occurs when moving the object from the cold into the warm.

Even in summer when things get toasty up there for a human (it must have been mid 40s when I went up there in the summer to fetch suitcases) the drives would handle that.

Quick changes of temperature are bad but the gradual warm/cold daily cycle wont bother the drives at all IMO.

Randall8686 · 25 Nov 2015 at 17:04

cheers guys, I will leave them up there (the silence is golden lol) it was the heat pumped into the spare room i did not like. Used to come home in the summer and the room was not usable if the Xeon server had been running hard all day. I will setup email alerts and monitor it.