My HD space fluctuates between 5gb available to 0.1gb available and i don't know why

[mikehalloran]

your general statement "no way an OE drive in a 2011 is still good" is certainly not true either.

I've changed hundreds in 2011 iMacs and I test them all. 2010 is just as bad. The ones Apple used in Time Machines were even worse as they often ran so hot that they cooked the power supply capacitors as well.

I'll let you know if I ever find one still good after 5 years. Hasn't happened yet. The culprit is the intense heat. Most failed after 3 years, BTW.

I do have a 500G WD Caviar on my desk from an early 2009 24" iMac Core 2 Duo that passes with flying colors. Build date Jan 16, 2009. These machines run a lot cooler.

I have no problem making such a sweeping statement when backed up by my experience.

In 2014, Apple went to a cooler running HDD which solved this problem for the most part.

 

[mbosse]

I've changed hundreds in 2011 iMacs and I test them all. 2010 is just as bad. The ones Apple used in Time Machines were even worse as they often ran so hot that they cooked the power supply capacitors as well.

I'll let you know if I ever find one still good after 5 years. Hasn't happened yet. The culprit is the intense heat. Most failed after 3 years, BTW.

I do have a 500G WD Caviar on my desk from an early 2009 24" iMac Core 2 Duo that passes with flying colors. Build date Jan 16, 2009. These machines run a lot cooler.

I have no problem making such a sweeping statement when backed up by my experience.

In 2014, Apple went to a cooler running HDD which solved this problem for the most part.

The problem with the TimeCapsule hard drives is not related to the drives, but to the improper thermal design of the TimeCapsule itself: the fan is mounted in the wrong direction, instead of cooling the power supply (where most TC failures happen), it blows to the hard drives (mostly extremely cool running WD Greens) which has little effect in terms of cooling where it matters (there are ample examples of modders who modified their TCs accordingly (reseating the fan such that it cools the power supply, thermal imaging suggest that solves the overheating problems)).

I do not know what you refer to with '2014' - TimeCapsule or iMac? The 2013 version of the TC was a complete revision with proper thermal design, and as far as iMacs are concerned, Apple switched in the 21.5" Version to slow 5400 rpm 2.5" drives - but already in 2012. Obviously, they are much cooler than 7200 rpm 3.5" drives...

Magnus

 

[mikehalloran]

The problem with the TimeCapsule hard drives is not related to the drives

You are only half-wrong on this. The design is terrible but those Seagate drives Apple used were red-hot. When WD released the Green HDD, it solved most of the problems in the flat TC and Apple went to them about a year later. Those of us who paid attention were pulling those apart, installing Greens and lowering the temperatures dramatically. Later when the Red came out, it was even better.

There are over 50 of the flat TCs that are still in service after I replaced the drives—not one has suffered thermal failure after I did so. The tower replaced these 5 1/2 years ago.

I took this photo a couple of minutes ago. These two are in my office and each has a 6T WD Red. One is about 7 years old and the other is nearly 10. WiFi is disabled on these and ethernet is fine.

My son-in-law was one of the engineers working on the tower version. The reason for the tower was so that the antennae would work better. They tower may keep the power supplies cooler but Apple had solved that problem years earlier when they went to Green drives.

Again, I have a bucketload of experience with these issues.

 

[mbosse]

You are only half-wrong on this. The design is terrible but those Seagate drives Apple used were red-hot. When WD released the Green HDD, it solved most of the problems in the flat TC and Apple went to them about a year later. Those of us who paid attention were pulling those apart, installing Greens and lowering the temperatures dramatically. Later when the Red came out, it was even better.

There are over 50 of the flat TCs that are still in service after I replaced the drives—not one has suffered thermal failure after I did so. The tower replaced these 5 1/2 years ago.

I took this photo a couple of minutes ago. These two are in my office and each has a 6T WD Red. One is about 7 years old and the other is nearly 10. WiFi is disabled on these and ethernet is fine.

My son-in-law was one of the engineers working on the tower version. The reason for the tower was so that the antennae would work better. They tower may keep the power supplies cooler but Apple had solved that problem years earlier when they went to Green drives.

Again, I have a bucketload of experience with these issues.

The following image shows infra-red imaging of two TCs, during 33GB with of file transfers. On the left with ex factory fan setup and a WD Green drive, the right one with a Seagate drive and modified fan setup:

There has been indeed some testing done with temperature examination on the old TC design (e.g. by Chris Fackrell), using different types of hard drives. Basically, the temperature difference is essentially negligible between e.g. an original 500GB Seagate and a 1TB WD Green drive - during above file transfer scenario it is about just 1°C difference (Seagate 45°C to WD Green 44°C, which is actually quite hot for a WD Green).
The main source of the heat in a classical TC is the power supply temperature which is about 10°C higher than at the hard drives (about 54°C, red area in above image).

Thus, while a Seagate overall runs marginally hotter in an old TC (please note emphasis) than a WD Green, the main source of heat comes from the power supply. As this is not in the fan air path in that old TC, the massive heat emission of the power supply warms up also the drives, considerably so.

Modifying the fans reduces temperature at the power supply by more than 10°, and concomitantly also at the hard drives to healthy regions well below 40°C.

This is why I personally think that the technical temperature difference between a Seagate and a WD Green is actually higher than just 1°C measured by Frackrell, but it is masked by the heat coming from the power supply.

Best,
Magnus

 

[mikehalloran]

Absolute sheer, utter nonsense.

With the original Seagate drive, the TC has hot to the touch and would burn your hand if you left it on too long. Replacing it with the Green lowered the temperature so that it was just warm.

When Apple went to the Green drive, they stopped having warranty problems with the Time Capsule power supplies.

This is why I personally think that the technical temperature difference between a Seagate and a WD Green is actually higher than just 1°C measured by Frackrell, but it is masked by the heat coming from the power supply.

And that's why I think you don't know what you are talking about.

I have over 50 of these in public schools that got Greens 5–10 years ago. All those drives have since been replaced with larger Reds but none have failed power supplies—not one.