Firewire drives a fire hazard?

[sigamy]

I recently moved my firewire hard drives to my AV closet in the basement. I have 3 FW drives connected to a G4 cube down there. I then access these via my network.

I typically leave the drives on 24/7 and I'm attached to them 24.7. They are sitting on top of a wooden frame that was made for my TV. These things tend to get hot. Should I be worried about fire hazards?

I guess the smart thing to do is to go down and shut them off when I know I won't be using them. What do you all think?

 

[adk]

A hard drive is not going to get hot enough to start a fire under normal circumstances. The only thing you'd have to worry about would be a short circuit or something.

 

[trogdor!]

I dont think it would be too much of an issue. Do the enclosures have their own fans?

 

[cairo]

should be fine... is your room ventalated at all?

 

[mojohanna]

hahah the title looks funny. a FIRE wire hard drive causing fires.

Sorry, just got a chuckle out of it.

 

[Timepass]

well wood needs to be around 400 degrees or so to catch a fire. The hard drive I want to say is going to fail at around 140-150 degrees when running. Either way it is a safe bet that hte hardware will fail before it can get hot enough to cause a fire. And chances are there is some type of hard wire fuse that will blow before it can get hot enough. if that doesnt blow you will blow you breaker before it got hot enough.

For the most part I am pretty sure you are safe to keep doing what you are doing

 

[ibilly]

I'd sat that they are definately not a fire hazard, but to be certian, you might want to get some 'corner bumbers' that would raise up the enclosure so air soulc flow underneath it. That would eliminate the contact with wood and allow the drives to run cooler. Also there are energy saver preferences–have them spin down after 15 min (or so) of inactivity.

 

[RedTomato]

For peace of mind (priceless!) I would reccomend removing all inflammable materials from your A/V closet. Replace the wood with a metal frame. You're not going to be looking at it, so get something cheap that does the job.

It's very rare, but things DO go on fire, especially with mains electricity. Your transformer or power bricks might be from a defective batch.

There is also a well-known problem with dodgy capactitors from shady factories circulating into the mainstream computer manufacturing tiers.

If you live alone in your own house, fine. If you have a wife / children / live with others, I recommend taking all precautions and following the fire code.

At the least, put a metal sheet under them and make sure nothing inflammable is above / nearby. This aplies to most stuff that is supposed to run unattended really.

cheers

..RedTomato The Sensible..