You could move the hard disk from the current bay to a new bay. It could be too close to some other stuff and this can cause overheating. e.g., It may be pushed up against the cd rom.

It could also be a hard disk problem, so you may want to swap the hard disk.

It could also be a hard disk problem, so you may want to swap the hard disk.

Yikes. Can I tell? If I do, I should make a current back-up, right? Because that's where all the good stuff is, on the HD?

I'd be pretty terrified to unplug the hard drive. I think I know which piece it is in there though. Nothing bad will happen if I just unplug it?

What's the ventilation like? Is there dust or ribbon cables obstructing the path for air to travel through your computer?

Do you have the hard drive jutted up against other components, keeping it from cooling down?

What's the SMART status of the disk?

You could buy another fan if you have a power connector on the motherboard available to supply power to what you're plugging in.

What's the SMART status of the disk?

Lost me there.

Oh I forgot one crucial piece of info - we've got the unit in a computer armoire, and when opened up the box sits right over a vent, so in the chillier times of the year it's got heat blowing right on it (AC in the summer, but now that it's getting cold this is becoming a bigger problem).

I think ventilation is pretty good; there's not much in the box, but I will have to look at how the HD is situated. If that's the problem though, wouldn't I have noticed this from the onset?

If the computer is switched off, you should be able to unplug it.

The Hard Disk looks like this, and will probably be mounted underneath your cd rom / floppy disk.

Swapping hard drives (whilst retaining the contents) is easy, but requires an intermediate level of expertise. If you don't know, get someone else to do it for you. It's usually not an expensive job.

Even though your data isn't damaged yet, any excess heat will reduce the part life of the disk. Get it sorted as soon as possible.

One final question. How exactly do you know it's overheating? Could it be HDD Thermometer which is incorrectly calibrated?

The SMART status is one indicator that can sometimes help you know whether your hard drive is okay or not. There are software monitors out there that you can find via Google, but I couldn't find one that was free for Windows. There are free ones for other platforms.

I think ventilation is pretty good; there's not much in the box, but I will have to look at how the HD is situated. If that's the problem though, wouldn't I have noticed this from the onset?

Not if you've opened up the box recently to install things or move them around, which you mentioned in your first post.

The great thing about AskMeCha is that I can provide ignorant, off-topic, and jokey answers without fear of erasure.

I recommend ice cubes!

Could it be HDD Thermometer which is incorrectly calibrated?

Well, that could be . . . but I dunno how I'd diagnose that issue.

LOL Hugh. I'll immerse the box in some dry ice. THAT should do it!

but I dunno how I'd diagnose that issue
Did you start getting these shut down problems immediately after installing HDD Thermometer?
Does the HDD thermometer show a gradual increase in the log?
If so, what's the starting temp and what's the final temp?
If you reboot immediately, does the temperature drop right down, or does it make a difference how long you leave the PC switched off for?
What's the start temparature? Is it near your rooms ambient temp?

Good questions seanyboy. I'll do some reserach when I run home for lunch!

Thanks so much, all of you. I heart MetaChat!

Your hard drive is not very hot. Mine is currently running at 149 F, which is well within factory spec (this is an iMac G5, which runs a little hot, and it's currently working hard crunching numbers).

Perhaps your drive is in trouble at that temperature, but I doubt.

I think your problem is with the monitoring software you are using. Indeed, with such software, it is usually entirely up to you to set reasonable PANIC temperatures. PC hardware is wildly varied, and the makers of such software can not tell you if a particular temperature is too hot, even if they wanted to, in general.

You will also find TONS of uninformed crap on the net about temparatures. I have processors that are spec'd to operate fine up to 75 C by the damn engineers, yet there are geniuses out there on the net that will tell you anything above 50 C "will fry your CPU!" They thus buy 10 amp fans with solid gold heat sinks a quarter of an acre in area and water cooling, etc. just because "they know." I trust the engineers that made the chip, thanks.

If I were you, I'd just uninstall the monitor and forget about it. Your hard drive is fine in all likelihood. The folks at gateway thought about cooling when they built your case, and unless the drive is just dying or some fans have kicked the bucket (or you have an insane amount of dust), it is doing fine in all likelihood.

That said, it is easy to find hard-drive coolers on the net. They will generally work with any drive, as except for laptops, hard drives all tend to conform the same set of physical specs.

All of the above, plus:

Consider running your computer with the case open, and realize those nice, enclosed "computer hutch" thingys often enclose and trap heat. Also consider putting an extra fan inside the case. I recently double-sided-foam-taped one in the empty space under my HD cage that just sort of blows the air around inside the case some more.

It has fancy blue LEDs in the fan shroud. I think that makes it cooler. I mean, it's blue, right?

But seriously, the hutch/enclosure thing can really overheat a computer or electronic device.

There's someone I know that keeps their cable modem and Wireless AP/home network hub in a cabinet. They both overheat pretty regularly, especially the cable modem. The inside of the cabinet often heated up to near toaster-oven temps.

I told them that this is probably why their broadband kept "going out" several times a day, but apparently they don't like the sight of wires, so it's still in the cabinet.

If you have not re-arranged the contents of the box, it is almost certainly the monitoring software that is at fault (but if your HDD fries tommorow, don't blame me). Generally, pre-built boxes that are made in large numbers don't have problems with overheating, as the configurations are pretty well tested. The fact that it is in an enclosed space will definitely not help, though and this may be the root cause of your problem (in fact, I would be surprised if it wasn't). If you decide to add a fan, make sure that it is bringing in fresh air, not just blowing the air in the case around, as it won't lower the temprature at all (but, it has neon lights, that doesn't really matter, does it?).

Generally, the air flows from the front of the case to the back so, if you put a fan in the front, make sure it blows into the case and, if in the back, make sure it blows out of the case. You should also check the air intakes to make sure they are big enough to move any more air - all the fans in the world won't help if the air can't get in and out. Ideally (this will depend on your case set-up), you should put a fan in the front of the case located so that it blows over the HDD, which should significantly lower the temp of your HDD.

Don't be afraid to experiment a little.