Can overheating cause low hard drive performance?

Question

I have been suffering from really bad and inconsistent I/O performance for a couple of weeks. Shortly after booting, the speed reported by HD Tune was perfectly fine. I forgot to close HD Tune again. Now it displays a notification that my hard disk temperature is critical. I did another speed test, the transfer rate was in the single digits for most of the disk.

It looks like the performance issue is caused by overheating. Is this plausible?

(Of course I know that even if this is not the case, I need to do something about the overheating.)

Answer 1

Heat is never a friend inside "The Box". Overheat impedes the performance and ability of the the hard drive.

So, plausible? Yes.

To confirm, shut down system, allow to cool, power on and perform HD tune. Old performance BM numbers will be good again. Allow to heat, and test again, poor performance.

Get a fan on it and as you noted you need to manage the overheat issue.

Answer 2

Heat is indeed never a friend inside the desktop. It is also something which you can monitor using common programs.

Another item which you can monitor are the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of a drive. If these show an increasing number of errors then it is a good idea to make sure you have backups.

Note that heat also affects other parts of your computer. A cable plug might expand when it gets hot, possibly resulting in poor contact. Not the most likely scenario, but the poor performance is not necessary caused by the drive itself.