External hard drive over heating problems

[mark454]

I bought an external hard drive and went about copy and paste a lot of files, photo's anything and everything from my PC to the external hard drive as a back up. I found that the hard drive case got awfully hot or probably warm to hot and the drive just stopped and wouldn't work again. It was a Maxtor 3.5 hard drive maybe not the best brand but I had to start somewhere.
I sent it back to the manufacturers and received another one but it too got rather warm to touch and I was wondering if I could make a case with a fan itside to keep it cool or what? Or can you buy one? And why don't the hard drives in the desktop cases over heat? I do know that some cases have no fans on the hard drives at all so why do they keep on going?
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Mark

[pam123]

This is the rule, you have to trust the back up device. If you don't it goes back where it came from.

What hard drive/enclosure were (are) you using?

You can put together your own in 10 minutes, or less, and have it run cool for years.

Hard drives did over-heat in cases which is why there were hard drive fans a few years back.
When I built my first computer in 2000 I put the hard drive in an exterior bay and put a fan on it but it was over-kill for my home computer by then (On the other hand the 30 GB drive still runs in a Bytecc Enclosure).

Now, unless you're running the latest Raptors in a gaming rig or a really hard working server, it isn't necessary.

So tell us what you're using, see above, but if it's back up and making you nervous out it goes.

[glc]

This is why I only recommend that you build your own external hard drives using Apricorn enclosures. They have an internal fan.

Guide: Building your own External Hard Drive

[mark454]

Hi Pam123
I'm using a Noontec Sunlite enclosure and I must say it is a pretty firm fit no fans and no vents as for the Maxtor hard drive 300GB Pata 133 I think I'll replace it with either a Gigabyte or Samsung HDD
Thanks
Mark454