Laptop HDD Overheating and Cooling Pads

[Quick Draw McGraw]

I have a 2002 IBM A30 Thinkpad 1.13Ghz P3. The hard drive LED was flashing continuously (as if the hard drive was working) even when the system was idle and it took longer than normal to access data (disk did not need defragging). I ran the IBM disk checks and all passed but reformatted and reinstalled everything anyway; to no avail then I decided to replace the original 30GB 4200rpm hard drive.

I bought a pair of Toshiba 40GB 5400 rpm units, one for the main and one for the Ultrabay 2000 slot.

The A30 has an internal fan probably for the CPU but I don’t know if it cools the Ultrabay hard drive or the main hard drive but it does pump out hot air! Web surfing I’ve come upon a plethora of Laptop Pad Coolers (a fan platform the laptop rests on).

Do Laptop hard drives have heat issues? The A30 comes with PC Doctor but I don’t see anyplace where I can monitor the HDD temperature. I keep my data on the Ultrabay HDD, so I’d like to somehow monitor it’s temperature.

Anyone have any good/bad experience using the laptop Tray/Pad fans?

 

[Quick Draw McGraw]

Looks like I posted too soon as I did find a way to monitor HDD temp.

Don't know much about this program but it seems to work plus it ID'ed the HDD model MK4032GAX. ( and it's freeware)

http://hdd-thermometer.rsd-software.qarchive.org/

After about 15 minutes the main HDD is 37c and the Ultrabay HDD is 41c
After about an hour the main HDD is 39c (but is under some load) and the Ultrabay is 42c.

Toshiba lists ambient operating temp as 5-55c