Is my disk hot or not?

I am trying to figure out the temperature of my dedicated server's harddisk. For this purpose, I've downloaded HDTune to monitor the S.M.A.R.T. Status.

The problem is that the current temperature for "C2 Temperature" is 73 degrees celsius, but the little thermometer on top of the window shows 27 degrees celsius. See this screenshot:

http://screencast.com/t/OGJhZGIxND

Another monitoring software (Anfibia Reactor) shows similar behavior: Disk temperature is around 30 degrees, but it says that the disk is too hot.

So, is my disk hot or not? Since this is a dedicated server, I can't just open the case and put a thumb on it.

Adrian Grigore

Posted 2010-03-20T12:45:09.767

Reputation: 1 773

On linux, it's "sensors"...why does Windows have to hide this type of thing? – marcusw – 2010-03-20T12:49:06.147

Hey, no thread hijacking! ;-) – Adrian Grigore – 2010-03-20T12:54:36.393

I know, I was just kidding. – Adrian Grigore – 2010-03-20T13:23:01.303

It sure looks like somebody is confusing celsius and that other thing :) – Dan Rosenstark – 2010-03-20T13:58:26.040

Answers

That "73" is not the temperature. It it the attribute value. Lower values are worse, and if the value gets below the "threshold", SMART believes the disk will fail soon.

The real temperature is in the "raw data" for the value (probably at the "Data" column in your screenshot). Its interpretation depends on the manufacturer and model; I would guess the program you are using knows how to interpret it for your particular HD model.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. for more information.