I ordered a Western Digital 320GB external hard drive. It was delivered around11:00CST and I won't be home from work to get it until 4:00CST. UPS left it on the doorstep. Will the hard drive be okay after sitting in the cold for several hours?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Hard drive left in 40F temps?
- Thread starter jshelton
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I will say yes.
I drove from CA to NC the beginning of January with all my hard drives from my MacPro in antistatic bags, then wrapped (over the bag) in bubble wrap, put into a cardboard box and left in the cab of my pickup truck where I drove through snow and rain with temps reaching down into the single digits.
When you get home though you need to leave them in your house for a day. Let the temp regulate. While this may not do any good, it's a good rule of thumb when something is left out in the cold. I had an ACD delivered and did the exact same thing but I left it for two days just to be safe. LCDs don't like cold.
Just be certain to leave it for a bit and let it get back to a more normal temp and you should be fine.
I drove from CA to NC the beginning of January with all my hard drives from my MacPro in antistatic bags, then wrapped (over the bag) in bubble wrap, put into a cardboard box and left in the cab of my pickup truck where I drove through snow and rain with temps reaching down into the single digits.
When you get home though you need to leave them in your house for a day. Let the temp regulate. While this may not do any good, it's a good rule of thumb when something is left out in the cold. I had an ACD delivered and did the exact same thing but I left it for two days just to be safe. LCDs don't like cold.
Just be certain to leave it for a bit and let it get back to a more normal temp and you should be fine.
You're fine. From WD's website
I'm not sure of your model but I'd imagine most are similar to this.
It will probably be in a vacuum sealed antistatic bag with a mosture indicator, you might want to give the whole drive a chance to get to room temperature lest the cold condense moisture on the drive/indicator, but there will be no lasting damage since you are well within the allowed range for operation, and even further padded by the non-operating range.
I'm not sure of your model but I'd imagine most are similar to this.
It will probably be in a vacuum sealed antistatic bag with a mosture indicator, you might want to give the whole drive a chance to get to room temperature lest the cold condense moisture on the drive/indicator, but there will be no lasting damage since you are well within the allowed range for operation, and even further padded by the non-operating range.
I had a WD 1TB delivered earlier this month that sat on my doorstep for about 8hrs in single digits temperature. The hard drive itself was extremely cold, but I let it sit for a day since I didn't need to use it right away and it has been fine. I think it's safe to say it will be fine.