Hard drive at 44C idle... good or bad temp?

could you lower it in the case so if you got a front case fan it get more air on it ,use this to see all you temp http://www.hwinfo.com/ seam to me a little high since mine report at 33c only

Uh, my computer is Dell XPS 8300, it's a very bad case for airflow. I am not sure if it have a front case fan on my case.

A study at Google shows that it doesn't cause more failures. How do you know that the reported temperature is accurate? In an old server with 2 SATA drives (and a few SCSI drives), the WD2500KS-00MJB0 runs at 46°C while the WD2500YS-01SHB0 runs at 37°C. I doubt the temperature reading is really accurate.

you dont have front case fan but see if you drive in set to the outside slot or the internal changing from slot could help cool down the hdd

I used a software called crystaldiskinfo to detect the temp. Is it accurate?

I don't get you.

The best thing to do is to touch the housing for the hard drive. You don't need to touch the hard drive directly but if it feels fairly hot then you know it's pretty high. 45C isn't bad but 30-40'F is ideal. High heat won't cause premature failure and it mostly depends on the load, whether the drive is constantly stressed is what i think shortens the life. I don't really know as i never had a desktop hard drive failure, i have 2 that are still good on S.M.A.R.T but my OS drive tends to make some odd noises but still trucking along, the other has some seek problems but it works. (already got data backup)

My temps are around 45'F myself sometimes up to 52'F. Eventually i'd like to try to install a fan on the side or get a case with better airflow (more fans).

With your PC case it probably just has bad airflow, if you can move the drive further down (so it's not absorbing too much heat) and check for wires or anything that could be blocking airflow. Check to make sure the fans are clean and even the processor/heatsink could have a bad collection of dust. If you feel a bit adventurous with your PC you could clean that out. That should improve airflow!

see this video i will show you where the hdd are install verticaly in the case look at your where it is install so you could move it to get more air around it maybe you could also look inside the case if there is a way to install a front fan

Best answer selected by ipwn3r456.