How to Fix an Overheating Hard Drive and Recover Data [Symptoms, Causes, Solutions]

If you notice that your desktop computer or laptop feels unusually warm, you may be dealing with an overheating hard drive.

As the statistics show, most hard drives, like Seagate and Western Digital, have a maximum temperature threshold of around 140°F (140°F), or 60°C (60°C), beyond which the electronic components begin to degrade. The ideal ambient temperature for a hard drive is considered to be between 25°C to 40°C, with temperatures up to 41°C to 50°C also considered acceptable.

Quickly navigate to fixing a overheating hard drive.

请提供需要翻译成中文的英文文本。

"Hard drive overheating symptoms"

• The drive feels unusually hot to the touch.
• The running fan is louder than usual.
• Files won't open, and they might be corrupted.
• Your computer's hard drive usage is high (100%).
• The hard drive suddenly slows down, with sluggish performance when accessing or opening files.
• Your computer/laptop randomly shuts down, displaying a blue screen.
• You frequently get bad sector error messages when trying to access the drive.
• The hard drive makes unusual noises, often a clicking sound, and sometimes it buzzing.

Thus, when you notice any of these symptoms, especially when accompanied by a heating sensation, a hard drive failure might be impending, which can cause your PC or laptop to shut down abruptly due to overheating. As a result, the hard drive fails to boot, and data becomes inaccessible.

Reasons for Hard Drive Overheating

Block the airflow

Remove any objects that block air flow from the fan.

Failed Fan

A clean fan produces a stronger breeze. Do you clean your fan every 3-6 months? If not, start now.

thick dust

Dust impedes airflow, which prevents the rapid cooling that the drives require, and it insulates components that need to be cooled by fans. The less ambient dust, the better a hard drive will perform.

Solving the Problem of Hard Drive Overheating

There are four simple diagnostic steps to identify an overheating, failing, or failed hard drive.

Reduce load stress

Try to minimize the number of large applications that are consuming a lot of CPU cycles and disk memory in the Task Manager.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the Windows Task Manager. Click on the "Processes" tab, select the program that is using the most CPU resources, and then click "End Process."

Read more: How to Fix 100% Disk Usage in Task Manager on Windows 10

2. Check and remove malware and viruses

Sometimes, the Task Manager will show 100% disk usage but not show you what's using the CPU. Be wary; this could be a computer virus that's eating up your RAM.

Go to Remove Shortcut Virus from Computer/Laptop right away.

Scan for bad sectors and hope for the best.

Too many bad sectors can cause a hard drive to become dysfunctional, making it work harder and thus generate more heat than usual to load your computer's files.

This is how to use the chkdsk command to check for bad sectors.

1. Hold down ⊞ Win+X and click on Command Prompt (Admin). 2. Right-click Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator.” 3. In the Command Prompt window, type `chkdsk f: /f /r` and press ↵ Enter. Replace "f" with the correct drive letter for your hard drive.

If you're not comfortable with the command prompt, try the alternative CleanGenius. It's a one-click tool to fix file system errors on your hard drive.

Step 1: Download CleanGenius for free on your computer.

Step 2: Run the program. Click "Optimize" in the left panel, then choose "File Display".

Step 3: Click on "Select Drive," and then choose the drive with the file system error. Check the box for "Check and fix file system errors" and click "Perform."

Step 4: Wait for CleanGenius to finish the repair process. When it's done, click Here to view the results.

If chkdsk can't fix the bad sectors, you may refer to how to repair bad sectors with software.

Regularly clean up your hard drive

If used in the same spot for a long time, dust and grime can accumulate and cause the hard drive to overheat. For simple cleaning, you can wipe it down with a small swab of alcohol. Use a cotton swab for the inner parts. For a more thorough cleaning, it's recommended that you take it to a professional repair center.

Overheated? Take care of the data!

In any case, when a hard drive overheats and starts deleting files or corrupting internal data, data recovery should be your first concern. Before the overheating issue with your hard drive gets too severe, you can simply copy the contents of the undamaged disk and paste it to a backup drive.

Option 1: Tool - Data Recovery Wizard Professional Edition

Early signs of data loss due to a hot hard drive may manifest as unresponsiveness, slow file opening, or files not opening at all. In such cases, you'll need a data recovery tool to retrieve files from an inaccessible, unreadable, or unresponsive HDD. In terms of features, speed, safety, and efficiency, Data Recovery Wizard is top-notch.

Option 2: Use the Data Recovery Wizard with bootable media

However, if you have a hard drive that won't boot due to overheating, your only resort is a last-ditch effort with a bootable USB drive. Download the tool – Data Recovery Wizard Professional with bootable media, and you can export your inaccessible data from a bootable data recovery disk without spending a fortune on sending the HDD for repair.

Option 3: Advanced Manual Data Recovery Service

If the heat issue is not addressed in time, you will start getting bad sectors on your hard drive and eventually it will fail. When a drive is about to fail, data recovery goes beyond the capabilities of software. With a severely damaged drive, you will encounter many other errors that we haven't mentioned here. In this case, do not hesitate to seek out professional data recovery service.