computers and cold temperatures[OT]

[Bill Stanley]

> Actually, it is GOOGLE who did a study on computer failure rates in
> warmer temperatures, and they found that hard disks, in particular, tend
> to faire better around 35-45°C, which is well above the normally
> prescribed datacenter temperature of 20°C. Have a look at :
> http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/labs.google.com/en//papers/disk_failures.pdf,
> in particular section 3.4 (temperature).
>
> My guess is that at colder temperatures, lubricants tend to become less
> fluid, and more viscous, thus requireing more energy to move parts
> (rotate disks, move arms/heads) and that results in higher failure rates.
>
> The rest of the machine, if properly cooled, can operate just as
> reliably at 40°C as it does at 20°C (provided individual component
> temperatures don't reach too high temps).
>
> So operating a properly ventilated machine in warm summer weather is
> probably much safer than in cold winter temperatures.

I am just being a devils advocate here and not implying that you are 
wrong about the cold temperature.  Why is it that a technique for 
recovering data from a bad hard drive is to put it into a freezer?
This seems to imply that cold temperatures are not so bad for hard drives.

Bill Stanley